WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 93, 14 January 1926, Page 6

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

The Germans are now trying to blame Admiral von. Tirpitz for the war, —Things are being worked out to such an extent that the Admiral may have to fall back on the cat.

The gentleman who, according to the news, has been riding a crocodile across the Mediterranean, has _ outrivalled the exploits of M. Louis de Rougement, who only went from one island to another on the backs of turtles duriug his sojourn in Northern Australia. However, M. de Rougement had the honour of being invited to address the Royal Geographical Society on his doings, or dreams,, .and this official recognition- has :P_Qt £9 ifar fallen on the crocodile-rider.

Strange things, of course, do ’liapp^t l . at sea, and the late Captain Jackson Barry, for many years well known in New Zealand, was understood once to have had an unusual experience in making a landfall on a small island after having been shipwrecked. The captain landed and proceeded to light a small fire to dry his clothes, using some bits of wood from his boat for this purpose. This fire was no sooner lit than the island became violently agitated and started to submerge, and the captain discovered that in reality he had landed on the back of a huge sleeping whale. Had he not pre-, maturely disturbed it, it is quite pos- > sible that he might have devised means ’ of inducing it to carry him into port. The case of Jonah, of course, provides a classic example of making use of natural means of transportation, but, like the lady who rode on the ■ tiger, he was an inside passenger.

A correspondent wants to know precisely what was meant by -the recent reference in this column, to the late Madame Blavatskv, the foundress of the Theosophical Society, as having been “somewhat fraudulent.” We don’t wish to become involved in arguments about this lady’s doings, but the allegations are that when she was to produce ' “physical phenomena” she did so by the means employed by ordinary conjurers ■ and not by any psychic process. The “Encyclopaedia Britannica,” which issupposed to stick strictly to facts, says that Madame “on three occasions was exposed' in the most conclusive manner.”

There is no doubt that Madame Blavatsky had an amazing career that embraced many things besides the contemplative calm of theosophy. Of her doings during ten years of her life she was always very reticent, and they were called bv the reverent “the veiled, period,”'and it was Madame who spoke" vaguely of a seven years’ sojourn, in Great and Little Tibet, and a "Himalayan retreat,”’ but those who have pieced her career together are of opinion that the ladv was elsewhere. Madams Blavatsky’s 'maiden name was Helen Petrovna Hahn. She was of German origin through her father, of Russian descent through her mother, and after the latter’s death was brought up by her cousins, the Wittes, at Tiflis. There she married as a quite young girl a subordinate official of the Russian Armenian province of Erivan of the name of Blavatskv. But she soon deserted him, and after eloping with the commander of a steamboat on one of the lines of the Black Sea she turned) up at Constantinople, . where she appeared as a bareback rider in a circus.

When next heard of by her Witte relatives at Tiflis, Madame .Blavatsky had married a vaudeville artist of -the name of Mitrovich. who possessed a fine bass voice, and travelled about with him, singing at various cafes chantants. She married him, without taking the trouble to divorce her first husband, and the next thing that was learned of her was that she had married an Englishman, who brought her to the United States on a sort of wedding trip. Then she returned to Europe and gave pianoforte concerts in London, in Paris, and also at tlie court of King Milan of Serbia. Eventuallv she returned to Tiflis, bringing with' her in her train the celebrated medium Home, and. engaged in all kinds of spiritualistic demonstrations, until she was ordered by the police to leave Tiflis.

Later in her career Madame Blavatsky fell in again with her former pseudo husband. Mitrovich; . spent some time with him at Constantinople, and embarking with him for Egypt, where he was to appear in the Khedivial Opera at Cairo, was shipwrecked off the Island of Cyprus, escaping in the most miraculous fashion, while he was drowned. ‘She arrived at Alexandria literallv without a penny, managed to borrow money there from friends and acquaintances to carry her to England, and there became acquainted with the late Colonel Henry S. Olcott, of New York, with whom she went to America, founding in 1875 the Theosophical Society, with which she was identified and by which she was maintained in a certain . degree of affluence until her death, in 1891, by which time the cult had grown in number to near a hundred thousand members, scattered in the United States, Great Britain, France, and in. India. Madame’s earthly pilgrimage in her Blavatsky incarnation was therefore decidedly varied.

A small bov in a school not a hundred miles from Wellington, was asked to write sentences using the words “charlatan” and “excavation.” Looking up his very concise dictionary, lie discovered that a charlatan, was a “quack” and that an excavation was a “hollowing out.” He then produced the following sentences: “Mother, listen to flic charlatan of that duck,” and “The excavation of our bull is very loud.”

The reader who supplied the above informs us that at another school a little girl recently arrived from Britain with her .parents'was initiated into the mvsteries of tooth-brush drill, and informed her parents that she wanted a tooth-brush “to brush all the jam seeds and the tiny Germans” from between her teeth.

Mrs. O’Flarity, a charwoman, had been absent from her duties for. several days. Upon her return, her employer asked her the reason for her absence. “Sure, I’ve bin carin’ for wan of me sick children,” she replied. “And how many children have you, Mrs. O’Flarity?” he asked. “Siven in all,” she replied. "Four by the third wife of me second husband, and three by the second wife of me first.” OLD WOMAN. I need not pity yon; old bitterness And old chagrin have had long time ( to pass. Looking along the years without distress You sec your own young face in a bright glass: You need not deal with actual living more And all your memories that smile and bend Are fairer shapes than when they crossed your door . . . You go wcll-eompanicd until your end. —Margaret Widdcmer in "Verse.”