Chapter XII: Part IV: Finale (1)

HERRMANN, With a bouquet of mystic novelties. “The closer you watch the less you see.” Concluding with Herrmann’s mystifying masterpiece, THE MYSTERIOUS SWING. HERE! THERE! NOWHERE!

{237}

A TWENTIETH CENTURY THAUMATURGIST.

“I have, since I was three years old, conversed with a magician, most profound in his art, and yet not damnable.”—SHAKESPEARE; _As You Like It_—V. 2, 68.

I.

The leading exponent of the magic art in the United States today is the famous Harry Kellar. He makes a specialty of pseudo-clairvoyance, second sight, feats of levitation, spirit cabinets, and mechanical illusions. Seizing upon the craze for Hindoo necromancy, mahatma miracles and the like, he presents many of his tricks and illusions as examples of Eastern thaumaturgy. Unlike Herrmann, who bubbled over with wit and humor and acted the comedian, Kellar assumes a Sphinx-like demeanor and envelopes himself in a mantle of mystery. Herrmann was the tricksy Mephistopheles of Goethe’s _Faust_. Kellar is the Arbaces of Bulwer’s _Last Days of Pompeii_—the Egyptian sorcerer and initiate into the rites of Isis and Osiris; or, better still, the Brahmin adept of Crawford’s _Mr. Isaacs_. Kellar’s entertainments appeal to the scholarly inclined. To see him at work, one is transported in imagination to a Hindoo temple where mahatmas exhibit their miracles. His patter is more or less based on Oriental ideas. For example, “The Yoge’s Lamp,” which is a very fine trick, invented by a German conjurer, Herr Conradi, of Berlin. The effect is as follows: On a pedestal stands a lighted lamp. Enveloping this lamp with a foulard, the magician carries it across the stage and places it upon a small gueridon with a glass top. A portion of the chimney of the lamp is in view all the time, and within the silken folds of the foulard the light may be seen shining through with subdued effect. Kellar now fires a pistol. The foulard drops upon {238} the table, and the big lamp vanishes with lightning rapidity. It seems to melt away. It is a seemingly impossible feat, because the glass-topped table has no possible place of concealment about it. The foulard is afterwards passed to the spectators for examination. I am not at liberty to reveal the secret of this surprising trick. I must preserve a discreet silence, in deference to the wishes of Mr. Kellar. As originally invented by Herr Conradi, the lamp reappears in a frame hanging in the center of the stage. But Kellar’s method I consider more artistic, and in better keeping with the _mise en scène_. Without patter this feat of magic would fall comparatively flat. In Kellar’s hands it is invested with a halo of supernaturalism which is very effective. The following is a brief résumé of the story of the lamp: “Ladies and gentlemen, I have here on this pedestal a copper lamp of antique pattern which was loaned to me by a celebrated Brahmin who presides over a shrine in the Holy City of Benares, India. I have his permission to use it in my thaumaturgic séances, but I must return it to him at a certain hour every evening, as it is needed in the ceremonial rites of the temple at Benares. That hour has now arrived. (_A bell strikes the hour, slowly and solemnly. He wraps the foulard about the lamp, which he places on the table._) I shall count three—the mystic number of Brahmin theosophy—and fire this pistol. Instantaneously the atoms composing the lamp will be disintegrated by the force of my will and fly through the fourth dimension of space to India, where they will reassemble and materialize in their former shape, and the lamp will appear upon the altar of the temple as of old.”

Of course no one credits this rhodomontade, but the conjurer’s purpose is accomplished. The trick is given a mystical setting and a certain kind of pseudo-scientific explanation. And all things are possible in nature, for have we not the x-rays, radio-activity, wireless telegraphy, and forces undreamed of a few years ago by the physicists?

II.

Kellar was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1849—the famous year of the California Argonauts. When quite a young lad he {240} was apprenticed to the drug business. In this respect he resembles the great Cagliostro. One day while experimenting on his own account, during the absence of his master, he charged a copper vessel with soda and sulphuric acid, the result being a terrific explosion which tore a hole in the office floor overhead. Thus he began life by making a great noise in the world, and has resolutely kept it up. After the fiasco with the chemicals, he was dismissed by his employer, whereupon he boarded a freight train and went to New York City, where he became a newsboy. His energy and winning manners attracted the attention of Rev. Robert Harcourt, an English clergyman, who adopted him, and gave him a good education. The reverend gentleman intended preparing young Kellar for the church, but such was not to be. Seeing an advertisement in a Buffalo paper that the renowned “Fakir of Ava” wanted a boy to travel with him and learn the trade of magician, Kellar determined to apply for the place. He set out for Buffalo and went to the Fakir’s bungalow, a quaint old house in the environs of the city. “When he entered the yard, the Fakir’s little black-and-tan dog jumped at him in a friendly way, and showed great delight at the meeting. The Fakir soon appeared, and after he had talked with the boy for a short time, said: ‘I have had about one hundred and fifty applications for the place, but that little dog has shown great animosity to every boy who entered the gate until you came. You are the first one he has made friends with. I will give you a trial.’ ”[27] The result was that Kellar became acolyte or familiar to the Fakir of Ava, and all because of a dog. This was reversing the old proverb, “Love me, love my dog” to that of “Whom my dog loves, I love.” The reader will remember that Mephistopheles first appears to Faust in the shape of a dog. Perhaps the Fakir’s canine was possessed with the Devil, and recognized a future master of the black art in Kellar.

[27] _A Magical Tour._ Chicago, 1886.

After traveling several seasons with the good old Fakir, Kellar started out on his own account. It was an uphill fight. He met the Davenport Brothers and Fay, alleged spirit mediums but in reality clever conjurers, and joined them, first as assistant, then as agent, and afterwards as business manager. He traveled {241} with them over the greater part of the United States (including California) and Canada, over the Continent of Europe, through Russia, via Riga, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nijni-Novgorod and Odessa; thence back again to the United States. In the summer of 1871 he piloted them through Texas. They traveled all over that State in wagons. There was no railroad beyond Hearne then, and their route was from Galveston to Houston, Columbus, San Antonio, Austin, Lampasas Springs, Dallas, and Shreveport, and thence by boat down the river to New Orleans.

In the spring of 1873, he left the Davenports, from whom he learned the secrets of rope-tying and the cabinet act, and formed a combination called Fay and Kellar. Eventually he went into partnership with two Chinese magicians. This company was known as the Royal Illusionists. After touring Australia, India and China, Kellar dissolved partnership and came to the United States. During his stay at Calcutta, India, the _Asian_ of Jan. 3, 1882, printed the following effusion, a paraphrase on Robert Heller’s verse about himself and Anderson:

“For many a day,
We have heard people say
That a wondrous magician was Heller;
Change the H into K,
And the E into A,
And you have his superior in Kellar.”

Kellar has written several monographs on his art—mainly contributions to magazines; all highly suggestive and entertaining. He says: “There are six qualifications which are the essence of the successful magician, prestidigitateur, necromancer—call him what you may. They are: The will, manual dexterity, physical strength, the capacity to perform things automatically, an accurate, perfectly ordered and practically automatic memory, and a knowledge of a number of languages, the more the better.”

Speaking of his experiences as stage helper, or _chela_, to the so-called Fakir of Ava, he says (_Independent_, May 28, 1903): “The ‘face’ of many a prestidigitateur has been saved and his defeat turned into a glorious victory by the merest chance. One of my first adventures with the Fakir of Ava affords a capital {242} illustration. We were doing the watch trick—taking a timepiece from some one in the audience, passing it upon the stage in a platter, destroying both platter and timepiece in plain view of the spectators, loading the fragments into a pistol, firing the weapon at a target and bringing the watch—whole and sound—to life again upon the face of the mark, in plain sight of the audience. But on that particular day the target concluded not to do its share of the performance. No watch would it produce; the machinery was out of order. We had to work hard to ‘save face.’

“Disguised as an usher of the house, I went down into the audience with the timepiece, hoping to be able to slip it unobserved into the pocket of the owner. He was sitting at a distance from the aisle; I found it impossible. I did the next best thing—slipped the watch into the waistcoat pocket of the man who sat next to the aisle on the same row with the owner. Then I returned to the stage.

“The Fakir in the meantime was discussing learnedly upon some other subject. When I returned, the question of the whereabouts of the watch was called up and a bell on the stage was summoned to answer questions; one ring for ‘yes,’ two for ‘no.’

“ ‘Is the watch on the stage?’

“ ‘No,’ replied the obedient bell.

“ ‘Is it in the audience?’

“ ‘Yes.’

“ ‘Is it on the first row?’

“ ‘No.’

“ ‘The second—the third, the fourth, the fifth?’

“To each question came a ‘no.’

“ ‘Is it on the sixth row?’

“ ‘Yes.’

“ ‘Is it the first man on the row?’

“ ‘Yes.’

“The eyes of the audience focused upon the unfortunate occupant of the seat.

“ ‘Look in your pocket, sir,’ said the Fakir of Ava, in his politest, most persuasive tones. {243}

“ ‘Go on with your show there and let me alone,’ shouted the enraged seat holder.

“ ‘But I pray you, look in your pocket,’ said the Fakir.

“The man obeyed and produced the watch. The trick, called in stage vernacular a ‘life saver,’ made a hit vastly more impressive than the one originally planned but spoiled by the perverseness of the target.”

Kellar’s greatest and most sensational illusion is his “levitation”—raising a person and leaving him suspended in mid-air without any apparent means of support, seemingly defying the law of gravitation. An explanation of this surprising feat is thus described by a writer in the _Strand Magazine_ (London):

“An assistant is introduced, laid upon an ottoman, and then sent off into a hypnotic trance (?). The performer takes an ordinary fan and fans the body while it rises slowly about four feet in the air, where it mysteriously remains for any length of time desired. A large solid steel hoop is given for examination, and after the audience is satisfied as to its genuineness it is passed over the body from head to feet, behind the body and over it again, at once dispelling the idea of wires or any other tangible support being used, the body, as it were, journeying through the hoop each time. The suspended assistant is now fanned from {244} above and gently descends to the ottoman as slowly and gracefully as he rose from it. He is then brought back to his normal state out of the trance, and walks off none the worse for his aerial pose.

“This seeming impossibility is performed by the aid of a cranked bar (Fig. 2 and A, Fig. 3) and a pulley to raise it, the bar being pushed through from the back at the moment when the performer is ‘hypnotizing’ the subject, and in the act of placing a light covering over him he guides a clamp (B, Fig. 3) and fixes it to the top of the ottoman upon which the subject rests, and which rises, unseen, with him, the edges being obscured by the covering. The bar being the same color as the back scene cannot be noticed, and resting upon a stand (C, Figs. 2 and 3) behind the scenes the same height as the ottoman it is kept firm by the aid of strong supports. Being also double the width (D, Fig. 3) at this part greater leverage is obtained to hold the board upon which the subject rests secure from tilting either way. By means of a pulley arrangement (E, Fig. 2) the assistant behind raises and lowers the body, looking through a small hole in the scene and timing the performer’s movements with exactness. Fig. 1 shows the illusion as it appears. Fig. 2—a side view—shows the {245} means of suspension and the pulley for raising the bar and telescopic stand. Fig. 3 almost explains itself. It shows the method of passing the ring over the body. By putting it on at (1) and passing it as far as the center of the bar (A) it can be brought around and off the body at (2), apparently having passed right over it, although not free from the crank; it is then passed behind the body as far as (3), when it can again be placed over the end (1) and drawn across once more, this time being, of course, quite free, having made an apparent circle right around and across the body. It seems evident to the audience that the subject is so raised and suspended by the performer’s magic power alone.

“The sleeping subject is now lowered, and in the act of being ‘dehypnotized’ the performer slips the crank off, which is immediately drawn in from behind, the subject and performer sharing the applause. It is almost needless to explain that the ‘hypnotism’ is mere sham to heighten the effect and admit of an excuse to stoop in order to fix the cranked bar.”

So far, so good. The above method was undoubtedly the one used in Mr. Kellar’s original presentation of the illusion. But he has since made numerous improvements in it which have puzzled not only the public but the conjurers as well.

III.

Kellar has been an extensive Oriental traveler. He has hob-nobbed with Hindoo Rajahs, smoked nargilehs with the {246} turbaned Turk, and penetrated into darkest Africa. In India he witnessed many exhibitions of thaumaturgy. Concerning the high-caste magic, such as hypnotic feats and experiments in apparent death, he speaks with respect, but the magic of the strolling Fakirs he characterizes as inferior to that of our Western conjurers, with, perhaps, the exception of the Hindoo Basket Trick, which is a clever illusion. When we contemplate the fact that this startling trick is always performed in the open air, amid a circle of spectators, we must give due credit to the histrionic ability of the native conjurers and their powers of misdirection. Robert-Houdin and Col. Stodare introduced this experiment to European theatre-goers, but they were aided by all the accessories of the modern stage and the audience sat at a respectable distance. Let us hear Kellar’s explanation of the feat (_A Magician’s Tour_, Chicago, 1886).

“At Allahabad I saw a juggler who made a specialty of this trick. Having explained to the spectators what he proposed to do, he allowed them to select a spot on the turf in the open air where the trick should be performed. Here he stationed himself with a basket with a hinged lid at his feet, a little boy at his side, and a sharp sword in one hand. He wore nothing but a breech clout. The company surrounded the conjurer in a circle so close that there was no possibility for any person to pass it without detection. The juggler placed the child in the basket, closed the lid, and began muttering a seeming incantation. While still praying he wound a large white cloth about his arm, and suddenly threw it over the basket, binding one end. He then drew the cloth towards him, brought it up around his waist and tucked the end in his clout, leaving a portion to hang down in front in graceful folds. This much done, he plunged the sword through the basket. As the child’s agonizing cries were heard, the man drew back the sword all dripping with blood. Again and again was the sword thrust into the basket, the child’s heart-rending screams growing fainter and fainter until they ceased altogether. The Fakir asked that the basket be examined. It was opened and found to be empty. A gleeful shout was heard. The spectators looked in the direction from whence it came, and there sat the child on the limb of a small {247} tree, waving his arms and seeming as happy as a bird. I paid the thaumaturgist two rupees (one dollar) and the secret of the trick was explained to me. I marveled at first that the man was willing to reveal the mystery for so small a sum, but I soon discovered that only those who wore the Indian juggler’s costume, the breech clout, could perform it. The trick is done in this way: When the cloth is spread the boy slips out of the basket under the friendly cover of the linen, and crawls under the Fakir. Grasping a strap about the man’s waist, he draws himself up between the juggler’s legs. The cloth when brought about the Fakir’s waist hides the little fellow, who, from his unexpected retreat, utters the piercing shrieks of the dying child. With a sponge saturated with a red liquid the conjurer produces the blood stains. When the people rush forward to look into the basket, the boy slips from his place of concealment and makes his presence manifest wherever he has been directed to go.”

{248}

Herr Willmann describes practically the same trick under the title “Spirit box,” designed to prove the permeability of matter. A medium is placed in the box, and after some hocus-pocus the manager reopens it and declares it to be empty; for the purpose of proving his assertion he turns it over toward the public, and when the lid is opened, the medium, who remains all the while in his place, has become invisible, because he is hidden by the interior part of the double wall, which now seems to be the bottom of the box. The box stands upon a podium, in order to show that the medium could not have escaped through the floor. The adjoined illustration reveals the secret of the trick, the explanation of which is as simple as the effect is surprising.

On stages which allow the prestidigitateur to use traps, a trunk is placed so as to allow the prisoner to escape through the floor. The movable wall of the trunk in such a case swings round an axis which lies parallel with the rope that is afterwards fastened around the trunk. The movable wall in the trunk connects with a trap in the floor, and while visitors from the audience closely watch the fastening, the enclosed person makes his escape with the greatest ease.

Kellar is an expert in the rope-tying business, which the notorious Davenport Brothers exploited under the guise of spiritism. When I first saw Kellar at Ford’s Opera House, Washington, D. C., in February, 1879, his cabinet act, a burlesque on the Davenport séance, was a feature of his entertainment. After playing a disastrous engagement in Philadelphia, he came to Washington, where his business proved no better, and being “flat broke,” as he expressed it, he advertised in sheer desperation a Sunday night lecture on Spiritualism, to be delivered at the old National Theatre. The theatre and advertising were furnished by Mr. Ford, who took half of the gross receipts. I was present on the occasion and recall the excitement. Everything passed off without special incident, until the magician came to the Davenport cabinet test. At this juncture a venerable gentleman arose in the audience and challenged Kellar to permit him to do the tying in the same manner that he had tied the Davenports years before. The gentleman was very much in earnest and remarked: “If you fail to get {249} loose when tied, you are a colossal humbug; if you do get loose, it will be by spirit agency.” Kellar joyfully accepted the challenge. The old gentleman came upon the stage and pinioned the magician’s hands behind his back with many intricate and subtle knots. So tightly did he draw the rope that sympathetic {250} people in the theatre cried, “Shame.” Having completed his job, he turned to the spectators with a self-satisfied look on his face, as much as to say, “I have trapped the fox.” But he reckoned without his host. No sooner was his back turned to the magician than the latter slipped one hand from its lashings and tapped the skeptic on the shoulder. “If you have two of my hands tied behind my back,” said Kellar, “I must have been royally endowed by Nature with a third hand.”

Thunders of applause greeted the scene. Even ladies rose from their seats and cheered. “Bravo, Kellar!” was heard on all sides. The old gentleman joined in the demonstration, and acknowledged himself beaten. This episode caused so great a sensation in Washington that two more Sunday evening lectures were given to crowded houses, and Kellar was enabled to pay his debts and get out of town.

It is now pretty well known to conjurers that the Davenports accomplished their feats by secretly taking up slack in the rope while it was being tied, thereby getting a loop hole in the bonds through which to work one hand loose. Frequently they cut the cords with knives secreted up their sleeves, and after the alleged spirit manifestations were gone through with, exchanged the cut ropes for genuine ones, and came out of the cabinet with these, making the spectators believe that some occult agency had freed them from the knots.

There is a conjurer named Joad Heteb who claims to have dropped from the eye of the Sphinx in the form of a tear, and was immediately metamorphosed into the Wizard of the Pyramids. According to his account the spirits of the sorcerers and soothsayers of the olden Pharaohs left their rock-cut tombs and painted mummy-cases to be present at the event. Joad Heteb has a clever press-agent. If Joad fell from the Sphinx’s eye in the shape of a tear, Kellar must have dropped from the fabled monster’s mouth in the form of a _word_, and that word “Mystery.” Kellar is ably assisted by Herr Valadon, an Anglo-German professor of legerdemain, formerly of Egyptian Hall, London. Valadon, upon his entrance on the stage, takes off his gloves, vanishes them, by apparently throwing {251} them in the air, whereupon a white dove flutters upwards. It is a very pretty effect.

(In Possession of Mr. Francis J. Martinka, New York.)]

{252}

I give one of Kellar’s programmes (Proctor’s Theatre, New York City, September, 1904):

KELLAR THE PEERLESS MAGICIAN.

Special Engagement of PAUL VALADON

From England’s Home of Mystery, the Egyptian Hall, London. Tour under the management of DUDLEY MCADOW.

FIRST PART.

KELLAR In a series of original experiments in pure sleight of hand, thoroughly up to date. A display of marvelous digital dexterity, surpassing anything heretofore achieved in the field of magic. Novel, unique, original, including:

OLD GLORY, THE DYEING ENIGMA, AND THE GREAT HYPNOTIC SCENE,

The Levitation of Princess Karnac

The most daring and bewildering illusion, and by far the most difficult achievement Mr. Kellar ever attempted. Absolutely new in principle. The dream in midair of the dainty Princess of Karnac surpasses the fabled feats of the ancient Egyptian sorcerers, nor can anything more magical be found in the pages of The Thousand and One Nights, and it lends a resemblance to the miraculous tales of levitation that come out of India. This {253} illusion is acknowledged by critics and historians of the goetic art to be the profoundest achievement in either ancient or modern magic. Its perfection represents fifteen years of patient research and abstruse study, and the expenditure of as many thousands of dollars. The result of these labors is a veritable masterpiece of magic, the sensational marvel of the twentieth century and the crowning achievement of Mr. Kellar’s long and brilliant career.

PART SECOND.

By Herr VALADON The most accomplished exponent of pure sleight of hand ever seen in this or any other age, introducing his entirely new and original mystery, entitled:

A Drum That Can’t Be Beaten —AND— Well I’m⸺⸺!!!

PART THIRD.

KELLAR

THE YOGE’S LAMP,
MIND POWER,
THE SIMLA SEANCE,
FLY TO, OR THE PRINCESS OF KARNAC,

An astonishing illusion, exploiting the theosophic theory of projection of astral bodies through the air. An original conception so startling in effect and so nearly approaching the supernatural as to seem miraculous. Affinity with an unseen power seems plausible, and scientific minds marvel at the production.

{254}

A GENTLEMAN OF THIBET.

“I could not remember any more than that the hero [Cagliostro] had spoken of heaven, of the stars, of the Great Secret, of Memphis, of the High Priest, of transcendental chemistry, of giants and monstrous beasts, of a city ten times as large as Paris, in the middle of Africa, where he had correspondents.”—COUNT BEUGNOT: _Memoirs_.

I.

When Madame Blavatsky, High Priestess of Isis, died, there followed a long interregnum during which magic languished. Finally there appeared in the East a star of great magnitude—the five-pointed star of the Gnostics and the Oriental Mahatmas, heralding the coming of another mystic. Madame Blavatsky had set the fashion for Thibetan adepts, and had turned the current of modern occultism towards the Land of the Lamas, so it was quite natural that the new thaumaturgist should hail from the Holy City of Llassa. His name was Monsieur le Docteur Albert de Sarak, Comte de Das, who claimed to be “the son of a Rajah of Thibet and a French Marchioness,” and to have been born in the land of marvels.

Monsieur le Comte, in his circulars, described himself as “General Inspector of the Supreme Council of Thibet.” He carried about with him a voluminous portfolio of papers containing “the numerous diplomas which he possessed as member of several orders of knighthood and of scientific and humanitarian associations.” He also exhibited a Masonic diploma of the Thirty-third degree, which bore the endorsement of all the Supreme Councils of the Rite to which he belonged in the countries through which he had traveled. But he was not a {255} Fellow of the Theosophical Society. On the contrary, he claimed to have been persecuted by the members of that Brotherhood; to have been frequently arrested and denounced by them as a pretender to the occult, as a false magician, etc., etc.

The Count made his début in Washington, D. C, in the year 1902, where he founded one of his esoteric centers, described as follows in the organ of his cult, _The Radiant Truth_, of which he was editor-in-chief:

“Oriental Esoteric Head Centre of the United States of America, under obedience to the Supreme Esoteric Council of the Initiates of Thibet. Social object: To form a chain of universal fraternity, based upon the purest Altruism, without hatred of sect, caste or color; in which reign tolerance, order, discipline, liberty, compassion and true love. To study the Occult Sciences of the Orient and to seek, by meditation, concentration and by a special line of conduct, to develop those psychic powers which are in man and his environment.”

The Count also gave private séances, as we see by his advertisement in the above-named journal:

“Science of Occultism, Double Vision, Telepathy, Astrology, Horoscopy, etc. Doctor Albert de Sarak, Count de Das, General Inspector of the Supreme Council of Thibet.

“Office hours: 3 to 5 p. m.

“Address, 1443 Corcoran Street, Washington, D. C.”

Dr. Sarak’s first public exhibition of his alleged psychic powers is thus described in the _Washington Post_ (March 16, 1902):

“Dr. A. de Sarak, occultist and adept, a professor of the mystic and the sixth sense, gave a demonstration last night before a Washington audience. Several hundred persons gathered in the beautiful assembly hall of the House of the Temple of the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction, 433 Third street, last evening, to witness his weird exhibition of occult powers. After three hours spent in the presence of the East Indian, the audience filed out with apparently something to think about and ponder.

“Professor Sarak, while master of fourteen languages, does not speak fluently the English language. Last evening he spoke {256} in French, and a very charming young woman, also an adept, but of English birth, acted as his interpreter. The Easterner, a man of medium height, was attired in a gorgeous gown of white silk, across the breast of which hung certain mystic emblems of gold and silver. A loose, pale-yellow robe covered this garment during most of the evening. He wore a white turban. The adept wears a pointed black beard, which, with large, languid brown eyes, gave fully the effect that one expects in a student of the mystic schools of Thibet.

“The interpreter stated that Professor de Sarak was born in Thibet and was descended from a noble French family. He had devoted his life, she said, to the study of the occult, first in the Thibetan schools and later with the ascetics hidden in the mountains. He had visited almost every country on the globe, spreading the occult science, which, she declared, some time would bring a rich harvest to all mankind.

“As the professor finished his rapidly spoken French sentences the young woman translated them to the hearers. Dr. de Sarak described the sixth sense in man, saying that it was second-sight, a latent and undeveloped force. He said he merely wished to present the facts of his religion. He explained the wonderful fluid force that existed. He said it is the force that raised the huge stones in building the pyramids and is the same force that brings the bird from the egg, the force which gives man the power of rising as if filled with a buoyant gas, a power which can be concentrated in a tube. He stated that occultism was absolutely nothing but the powers of the will.

“ ‘It is nothing supernatural,’ the doctor said, ‘but is merely the hastening of nature’s work.’

“A small table stood by a leather chair, and on this burned a tiny candle from the mouth of a brazen asp. The professor stood over the table and busied himself with a pungent incense in an odd burner. A glass plate, with a number of fish eggs, was shown and examined. A large glass bowl was filled with water, and one of the members of the audience was told to carefully brush the eggs into the water. In the meantime three men from the audience had with strong ropes securely bound {257} the hands of the adept behind his back as he sat in the chair. Broad, clean, white cloths were wrapped about the seated figure, leaving the head free, and the three men selected held the cloths in place. Music rolled from a deep organ, and the head of the adept sank back and a strange light appeared to cross his face. According to the directions of the interpreter the bowl of water containing the fish eggs was placed by one of the three beneath the cloths on the lap of the adept.

“After a period of straining and soft moaning from the white-wrapped figure, for perhaps ten minutes, the cloths were removed, and from the lap of the apparently insensible man was lifted the bowl of water, but instead of the eggs which it contained a few moments before there swam about a dozen of tiny, new-born fish.[28]

[28] This reminds one of the experiments of Prof. Jacques
Loeb, of the University of Chicago, with the unfertilized
eggs of the sea urchin. There was nothing occult, however,
in the professor’s researches.

“Dr. Sarak was then blindfolded with a half-dozen bandages pressing against absorbent cotton, which rested before the eyes. For a while he remained in his chair, while the vibrating tones of an organ filled the room. Then the adept suddenly arose and walked surely and steadily down the room, turning into narrow aisles through the audience as safely as a man might who had his sight. This experiment was to demonstrate double vision at a distance and through opaque bodies. A blank canvas stood on an easel near the adept. Apparently in a trance, he walked to the easel, mixed colors, and in ten minutes a finished picture was the result. A game of dominoes was played with a member of the audience, and previous to the beginning of the game the doctor wrote something on a bit of card and his assistant handed it to someone in the audience to keep. Blindfolded and standing, the adept played the game perfectly, and at the conclusion the card was found to contain the numbers of the last two dominoes played by both the adept and his opponent.

“Experiments were given at the close in the disintegration and restoration of matter, of psychic perception, in which he aroused the wondering admiration of the audience.” {258}

II.

Not many months after this exhibition the Esoteric Centre was founded, and the following extraordinary circular sent out to prominent people in Washington:

DIRECTING COMMISSION OF THE ORIENTAL ESOTERIC CENTRE OF WASHINGTON.

UNDER OBEDIENCE TO THE SUPREME ESOTERIC COUNCIL OF THE INITIATES OF THIBET.

We address ourselves to those who truly desire to read—to those who truly wish to understand!

For those whose time has not yet come, this page has little value—it will but be scorned and rejected.

But we and our work go onward, with few or with many—Forward, ever forward.

We will, then, be brief, but logical and clear!

THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE ADEPTS OR MAHATMAS RESIDES * * * WHERE IT DESIRES! * * * since it possesses powers still unknown in the West; but it has, in fact, its centre of action in a region _not yet_ (!) explored, in the North of Thibet.

This Council, composed of Masters who watch that the _Law of the Lotus be not revealed to the vulgar, has its General inspectors in the West as_ in the East, who, invested with the necessary powers to demonstrate the truth of that which they teach and propagate, have different missions, which they must fulfill strictly; and although misunderstood and insulted by those who do not understand them, yet they continue to work actively to serve worthily the Holy Cause of True, Veritable Fraternity, having ever before their eyes this device: “Forward, ever forward!”

They may suffer all manner of pain and torments, but none of these—no, nothing can touch them; for the Occult Hand sustains, saves and protects them!

The Supreme Council of the Mahatmas of Thibet has, then, given powers to its Representatives, that they may use them, not to enrich themselves, but to call the attention of every man or woman of high ideals who desires “To go forward, ever forward, and ever higher!”

We care little for their names or their nationality, for names and nations disappear—the Work alone remains!

We have seen some! * * * appear like a shooting star, light up space, and disappear * * * almost without being noticed.

We have _read_ and we have _seen_ many things! * * * calumnies, sufferings, noble deeds, etc.! * * *

We have _read_ that the wicked took them for speculators or sorcerers; and we have _seen_ them continue their good works and remain almost poor! * * *

We have _read_ that men tried to destroy them, casting the stones of calumny and vengeance; and we have _seen_ them, even though weeping inwardly, gather up the stones, asking pardon for those who threw them! {259}

We have, in short, _read_ lies, and we have _seen_ them present the Truth! * * *

Therefore, this Commission, animated by the most sincere and reasoned faith, strong in the Right which supports it, for Truth and for Justice, makes an appeal to all those who know that to _Think_ is to _Create_, to _Create_ is to _Love_, and that to _Love_ is to _Live_;—to unite themselves with us in a truly fraternal chain, not formed of links of iron which can be broken, but woven of flowers of the soul—a chain which knows neither hatred nor deceit!

From those who come to us we will ask no sacrifices but sincerity and good faith, which we will put to the test; we respect all creeds and customs, but we banish hypocrisy and slander!

_Strong in our Right, invested with the powers bequeathed to us by Him who had the power to give them_, we initiate here in the Capital of the United States, in the heat of the fire of our enemies, this movement of true progress, destined to perpetuate the work of the Adept who has just left us!

They, our enemies, have insulted him, calumniated him, have abandoned him, because he was an obstacle to them; for the Centres which radiate artificial light are afraid of the Radiant Centre of Truth!

“The Radiant Truth” shall be our device, and with it we will go, with our Venerated Master, “Forward, ever forward!”

Therefore let those who truly desire to learn and to elevate their spirit, without fear and without care, and they will find Brothers, true Brothers!

Let those who have betrayed and insulted our Master, whom we will now name,

OUR BROTHER, DR. SARAK,

know: that we have in our ranks persons who, having belonged to Theosophical Societies, have torn up their diplomas, not caring to appear in the list of those who, under pretext of justice and under the false name of Fraternity, defame, calumniate and insult those whose mission is sublime.

Let those, in short, who wish to know * * * many other things, come to us! * * * and we will prove to them both the Supreme Council and the Radiant Truth, and, lastly, also our powers!

We make, then, an appeal, in view of the preceding considerations, to all those who, even if belonging to other organizations, wish to unite with us frankly and sincerely, and we can assure them that later they will thank us with all their hearts.

This will afford them the most conclusive proof of the protection and aid of those Masters or Guides who direct us.

Our Order will publish an official Review, which will have so much success and be so well received that we shall be compelled to reprint it twice.

In this Review, whose propaganda name will be _The Radiant Truth_, will be found all that the most eager student of Occult Truth can desire, for, aside from the Esoteric work, which we have in reserve, we possess documents of inestimable value, which will be published.

Only the members of our Order will have the right to our studies and Esoteric demonstrations of a more advanced degree.

A Convention will be held at Washington at a convenient time, and a Commission of delegates and members of the Order will be sent to the {260} East to receive instructions and orders from those who direct the spiritual future of the Race of Evolution—this in spite of all Theosophical or sectarian societies and of those who do not desire the Light.

Those, then, who wish to make part of our Order, as Active or Militant Members, or as Correspondents or Delegates, should send in their applications to the General Secretary of the Commission, * * * * 1443 Corcoran Street, Washington, D. C.

All the Members of our Head Centre in the United States have the right to receive gratuitously all the publications and work of the Centre.

For further particulars write to the General Secretary at Washington and to the General Delegates abroad.

May Peace be with all Beings!

Viewed and found in conformity with Superior Orders.

The General Secretary of Gen. Inspection:

A. E. MARSLAND.

(M. E. S.)

Given at our Headquarters this 15th day of June, 1902.

The above circular was also signed by the President of the Directing Commission, the Secretary General and the seven Esoteric Members of the Council of the Order at Washington, the majority of them being women. I suppress their names. Possibly by this time they have repudiated Sarak and his absurd pretensions.

III.

I consulted with my friend, Mr. J. Elfreth Watkins, a clever journalist and interested inquirer into the methods of spiritists and occultists, and we decided to investigate Dr. Albert de Sarak, the Thibetan adept. Mr. Watkins was to go first and have an interview with him, with the idea of exploiting the Count in a newspaper article on modern magic and theosophy; eventually we were to attend one of the mystic’s séances together. I shall let Mr. Watkins tell the story in his own words:

“I addressed a letter to Dr. Sarak by post requesting an appointment. I received a prompt response in the form of a courteous note, headed ‘Oriental Esoteric Center of Washington,’ and which commenced: ‘Your letter, which I have received, reveals to me a man of noble sentiments.’ An hour was named and the letter bore the signature, ‘Dr. A. Count de Sarak,’ beneath which were inscribed several Oriental characters. {261}

“I found Monsieur le Comte’s house in Corcoran street, late in the appointed afternoon. It was a two-story cottage of yellow brick with English basement, and surmounting the door was an oval medallion repeating the inscription of Monsieur’s letterhead. A young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes responded to my ring. I was invited upstairs, she following. Before me was the mind picture of a Lama with yellowed and wrinkled visage, vested in folds of dingy red, with iron pencase at his side and counting the beads of a wooden rosary; a Yoge of the great hills; who should say to me, ‘Just is the wheel,’ or ‘Thou hast acquired merit.’

“I was directed to the door of the rear parlor on the main floor, and as I opened it there sat before me, at a modern roller-top desk, a man of slender build and medium height, but with one of the most striking physiognomies I have ever beheld.

“The face was that of a sheik of the desert. The hair was of the blackest and so was the beard, sparse at the side but rather full in front and not long. The eyes were huge, languid and dreamy; the forehead, bared by the training of the hair straight back, was high and bisected by a vein falling vertically between prominences over the brows. The nose was strongly aquiline, and the complexion was more that of the Oriental than of the Latin. The man wore a long, black frock-coat of the mode and faultless in fit; his trousers and waistcoat were of a rough gray cloth.

“Monsieur le Comte rose. The hand which grasped mine was small and soft. He bowed, pointed to a seat and apologized for his crude English, explaining that he preferred to talk to me through an interpreter. The young woman who had ushered me into the presence of Monsieur seated herself at his side and explained that, although ‘the doctor’ had mastered fourteen tongues, the English had been the most difficult of all for him to fathom. After a pause, Monsieur addressed me in French. The interpreter rolled her blue eyes slightly upward and assumed the gaze of one seeing far away into the sky, through the wall before her—an expression which she seldom changed during the entire interview. {262}

“ ‘Through my power of second sight was revealed to me your mission before you arrived,’ was the interpretation. ‘And now that you come, a good spirit seems to attend you, and I know that you come as a friend. I assure you also that I welcome you as a friend.’ The translations were made a sentence at a time.

“I assured Monsieur that this was deeply appreciated.

“I asked him if it might be my good fortune to witness some of his esoteric manifestations, such as I had heard of his performing.

“ ‘In the beginning,’ he continued, ‘I gave some public tests. But now I am engaged in the serious work of teaching, and my time is devoted entirely to the work. If Monsieur pleases, we would welcome his presence as an honorary member of our center. The diploma will cost him nothing. It is a rule of the center that none may attend except members. His diploma will entitle him to attend all our meetings as a spectator. We meet every Wednesday night.’

“ ‘All that we will require of Monsieur is that he endeavor to learn, and to describe what he sees with absolute truth.’

“ ‘I would ask M. le Docteur if he be a Buddhist,’ I said. The question was suggested by a picture of Buddha upon the wall before me.

“ ‘Yes, Monsieur, I am a Buddhist, as are my masters in Thibet. Understand, however, that this is not a religion which I am here to teach, but a science—the science of the soul—which does not conflict with any religion. I simply demonstrate to them the powers which I have learned from my masters.’

“ ‘What is your opinion of Mme. Blavatsky?’ was asked.

“ ‘She was a good person—what shall I say?—was good-hearted. She endeavored to enter Thibet, but was unsuccessful. None of the Theosophists have ever learned from my masters. While Mme. Blavatsky lived, however, the Theosophical Society seems to have worked in harmony. Now that she is dead, they are divided by hatred and ill-feeling.

“ ‘Once when I was in Paris, the Theosophists, hearing that I was from Thibet, asked me to become an honorary member of their society, just as I invite you, Monsieur. I accepted {263} their diploma, as courtesy demanded. I attended a congress in Paris. One speaker mounted the tribune and stated that there was a gentleman from Thibet present who could vouch for their connection with the masters. I was a young man then—let me see—it was about seventeen years ago, but now the weight of fifty years hangs on my shoulders. My young blood boiled and I rushed to the tribune and denounced the statement as false. The Theosophists expelled me from their society—which I had never sought to enter,’ and here he shrugged his shoulders, ‘and since then, they have waged against me a relentless campaign of calumny. In Europe, in South America—everywhere—follows me a trail of circulars and letters published by base calumniators. But still I have gone on with my work, founding centers over the world. I have founded many in South America, but this is the first in this country.’

“I ventured to console the count with words to the effect that all great causes had grown out of persecution. When the interpreter translated these sentiments, Monsieur, who sat at his desk, assumed an expression of extreme pain and half closing his eyes fixed his gaze upon a strange instrument reposing upon the window sill. It was a piece of colored glass with a pebbled surface held upright by a metal support. The interpretation of my words was repeated, but Monsieur raised one finger, continuing his stare of mixed concentration and suffering.

“ ‘He is now receiving an interpretation from his masters,’ the interpreter told me in a low voice. I did not notice it and interrupted him. The doctor maintained his weird stare for a few minutes, during which I heard from his corner of the room a vibrating sound such as is produced by a Faradic battery. Monsieur rose from his reverie with a sigh and hastily wrote something upon a sheet of paper upon his desk. Then he resumed the conversation.

“ ‘Fortunately I have preserved extracts from all of the journals which have been friendly to me,’ he said. I was shown a shelf full of scrap-books and the translations of numerous clippings from foreign journals. One of these, credited to the Paris _Figaro_, 1885, described experiments in ‘Magnetism and Fascination’ performed by Dr. de Sarak before a committee of {264} scientists and journalists, during which he hypnotized a cage full of live lions. There were many such accounts, including a description of demonstrations made before the Queen of Spain in 1888; another before the King of Portugal the same year. An article credited to _La Révue des Sciences de Paris_, November 7, 1885, stated that in the Grand Salle de la Sorbonne, Count Sarak de Das, in the presence of the Prince of Larignans and 1,400 people, caused his body to rise in the air about two meters and to be there suspended by levitation.

“It was agreed that my name should be presented to the council as suggested, and two days later I received a letter notifying me of my election as honorary member of the center, congratulating me thereupon and inviting me to be present at the next meeting. I was given the privilege of bringing a friend with me. I informed Mr. Evans, and we agreed to attend the next séance, and make careful mental notes of the events of the evening.”

IV.

Mr. Watkins and I went together on the appointed evening to the house of the Mage, located in quaint little Corcoran street. It was a stormy night, late in November; just the sort of evening for a gathering of modern witches and wizards, in an up-to-date _Walpurgis Nacht_. We were admitted by the interpreter and secretary, whom I afterwards learned was Miss Agnes E. Marsland, graduate of the University of Cambridge, England.

In the back parlor upstairs we were greeted by the Doctor, who wore a sort of Masonic collar of gold braid, upon which was embroidered a triangle. He presented us to his wife and child, who were conspicuously foreign in appearance, the latter about five years old. We were then introduced to an elderly woman, stout and with gray hair, who, we were told, was the president of the center. She wore a cordon similar to Dr. Sarak’s, and soon after our arrival she rapped with a small gavel upon a table, located in the bay window of the front drawing-room.

When she called the meeting to order the Doctor seated himself upon her right, and at her left—all behind the table—were {265} placed two other women, wearing large gold badges. The interpreter seated herself against the wall beside the Count. Shortly a fifth woman appeared. The Count’s wife and child sat quietly upon a sofa in the corner behind him. In the seats arranged along the walls for the audience sat only myself, Mr. Watkins, and a reporter for the _Washington Times_.

The _mise en scène_ was well calculated to impress the spectators with a sense of the occult and the mysterious. The table was draped with a yellow cloth, upon which were embroidered various cabalistic symbols. Upon it stood an antique brazier for burning incense, and a bronze candelabra with wax lights arranged to form a triangle. Against the wall, just back of the presiding Mistress of Ceremonies and the little French Mage, was a niche containing a large gilt image of the Buddha, who smiled placidly and benignly at the strange gathering. The walls of the drawing-room were draped with rich Oriental rugs and hung with allegorical paintings. The faint aroma of incense soon permeated the atmosphere; there was a moment of profound silence while the thaumaturgist meditatively consulted a big volume in front of him—a work on mysticism by either Papus or Baraduc, I forget which. I closed my eyes drowsily. In imagination I was transported back into that dead past of the Eighteenth century. I was in Paris, at a certain gloomy mansion in the Rue St. Claude. I saw before me a table covered with a black cloth, embroidered with Masonic and Rosicrucian symbols; upon it stood a vase of water; lights burned in silver sconces; incense rose from an antique brazier. And behold—Cagliostro, necromancer and Egyptian Freemason, at his incantations. The phantasmagoria fades away. I am back again in Washington, and Sarak is speaking rapidly in French. I shall quote as follows from Mr. Watkins’ note-book:

“The Doctor spoke of a membership of forty-two persons and his disappointment that only six were present. He then commenced in French a long discourse, citing the alleged experiments of Baraduc on the soul’s light, and mentioning the psychic researches of Flammarion. He stated that Marconi had made partial progress in the science of transmitting intelligence without wires, but that his masters had long known of a {266} more simple method. He described the failures of foreigners to penetrate into Thibet, stating that his masters there were able to place a fluidic wall before any man or beast.[29] The women watched their hierophant with intense fascination, save the interpreter, who maintained her saintly gaze up into space, and the wife, who sat by in sublime nonchalance.