(This article was published in the Manchester, England, Two Worlds newspaper on December 11, 1891, p.671-672.)
MADAME BLAVATSKY
by
Hannah M. Wolff
There
is such a diversity of opinion in regard to this remarkable and notorious
woman, and the combined result of the articles published concerning her is of
such an oddly kaleidoscopic character that I am tempted to add my bit of color
to the mass of evidence which will eventually determine the verdict regarding
her.
That
she was a woman of strong intellectual ability and great diversity of talent
can not be denied. She had been solidly educated; had traveled extensively; was
almost insanely fond of adventure; had no physical or moral fear; was a close
observer of whatever scenes she passed through and of whatever circumstances
surrounded her. She had marvelous readiness of adaptability to her environment
and knew "how to abound and how to suffer need." She delighted in
gaining any kind of intellectual ascendancy over those about her, and
particularly in dominating men of known strong mental calibre. She would go any
length to dupe them and scorn and mentally deride them when duped.
(This is false because I have not seen in any anecdote about
Blavatsky that she has acted in this way.)
I
first saw her in the early part of 1874 at the Working Woman's Home in
Elizabeth street, New York, where I called on business for the newspaper upon
the staff of which I was then engaged. On entering the room of the lady whom I
was to interview (the room was shared with four other inmates) I saw, half
sitting, half reclining on the carpetless floor, a scantly clad, and, as I then
thought, very stupid and unprepossessing woman who was introduced as Madame
Blavatsky.
She
was at that time quite stout, though not as unwieldy as she subsequently
became. Her complexion which must in her youth have been fair, was torpid,
pasty and grimy; her eyes were magnetic and peculiar, with a strange compelling
fascination in their blue-grey depths, but were in no sense beautiful, as some
have described them. Her nose was a catastrophe, like Petrea's, an appendage
for use and not for ornament, and her mouth lacked power and was animalistic.
The shape of her head was finely intellectual, and her hair was the most
peculiar I have ever seen. It was very thick, and not long, gathered into a
knot at the back of her head. Its peculiarity consisted in that while it was
blonde in color, its texture was like that of the negro's. It was soft and fine
and light-colored, but woolly.
When
my interview with Miss M. was concluded, Madame Blavatsky, who retained her
position and extremely careless attitude upon the floor, and had, while
attentively listening to our conversation, rolled and smoked cigarettes with a
most marvelous rapidity, entered into conversation with me.
She
appeared desirous of informing herself concerning the position of women on the
press of this country, and my role of interviewer was changed to that of the
interviewed in the colloquy that ensured between us. I gave her all the
information I could; but I left that room with the new sensation of having met
an educated, intellectual woman with marvelous conversational powers, who had no
more sense of propriety or feeling of natural modesty than the cat or the dog
that sprawls about the floor at will. During this conversation she informed me
that she was stopping at the Working Woman's Home for economical reasons.
A
month or six weeks after this I met her in the ante-room at one of the women's
conventions. She then told me that she had received a large sum of money from
Russia and was staying at an expensive hotel on Fourth avenue, near
Twenty-third street. On this occasion she invited half-a-dozen ladies to lunch
with her, and subsequently told me that her bill footed up at the rate of $5
each. I think that this lavishness of expenditure was habitual to her when she
had means. When her purse was collapsed she retired to humble quarters and
contented herself with frugal fare.
She
was prodigal, but not generous; lavish, but not benevolent. She had at no time
any need to be cramped for the means of comfort, for she had a ready pencil and
could, whenever the incentive presented itself, dash off most graphic and
salable sketches of Russian or other life, with which she was familiar. It was
no uncommon occurrence for her to receive $30, $40 or $50 for sketches limned
in a few minutes when the mood was upon her.
Two
or three months after I first met her she expressed the wish to a near friend
of mine, who was an ardent Spiritualist, to attend some of the Spiritualist
lectures, and to study its phenomena and philosophy, of which she professed
herself ignorant. Mr. W. took her to a lecture, given by E.V. Wilson, a noted
trance speaker and test medium. At the close of the lecture she received from
him what she declared was a very remarkable test, and told Mr. W. that it was
the first experience of that sort she had ever had.
(This is false because Blavatsky had a lot of knowledge and
experience with spiritism and she was very critical about mediums, see link.)
Since
that time she has claimed, and others have for her, that years previous to this
she had not only investigated spiritualistic phenomena, but had attempted to
establish some sort of spiritualistic organization in Constantinople. I do not
know which of her statements was true. I know only what she told us.
She
told us, however, that she had for many years been conscious of strange and
peculiar psychic gifts and experiences which probably could be best accounted
for on the spiritualistic hypothesis of mediumship. At this time she fell into
the habit of dropping in at my rooms and conversing with me about her travels,
occult phenomena, etc.
She
spoke of having been with Garibaldi in his struggle, but I was never able to
hold her to the subject so as to get any succinct or lucid account of her
adventures as a soldier. She showed me the scar of what she claimed was a
sabre-wound. A Russian acquaintance of hers told me it was the mark of the
knout, one of the many that scarred her body, received for complicity with the
Nihilists. If this were true I cannot imagine why she should not have told me
so, for she knew that I was in hearty sympathy with this class in Russia,
although disapproving of some of the methods.
In
relating her experiences in the East she never touched once upon having made
any study of Buddhism.
(This is false because Blavatsky had a great knowledge of
Buddhism and whenever she could she introduced Buddhist concepts to Westerners
such as karma and reincarnation, see link.)
It
was evident from the first that she smoked tobacco to great excess, frequently,
as she told me, using a pound a day. I soon learned also that she was addicted
to the use of haschish. She several times endeavored to persuade me to try the
effect upon myself. She said she had smoked opium, seen its visions and dreamed
its dreams, but that the beatitudes enjoyed in the use of haschish were as
heaven to its hell. She said she found nothing to compare with its effects in
arousing and stimulating the imagination.
(The claim that Blavatsky had smoked opium is a lie invented by
Mrs. Wolff, and that Blavatsky smoked hashish was another lie invented by Albert
Leighton Rawson, see
link.)
In
all the interviews I had with her, and they were many, during the four or more
months of my intercourse with her, she never mentioned theosophy. I always
believed it was an after-thought sprung from some seed sown in her fertile brain
by some of her experiences in Spiritualism and her dabblings in an at least
semi-spurious mediumship.
(This is false because Blavatsky was always talking about
theosophy, read for example the interview that Charles Johnston did with her, link.)
Very
soon after her attendance on the lecture of E.V. Wilson above alluded to, she
professed to Mr. W. to have had a new and singular development of occult power.
She claimed that photographs left in her possession and shut up in a box or
drawer, would without aid of human instrumentality become colored as by
water-color pigments.
She
asked Mr. W. to go to her lodgings and see some of these specimens of spirit
art, and invited me also. We went. At this time she had spent the large sum of
money received from Russia, and had moved into cheap quarters down town.
The
apartment she occupied was shared on the co-operative plan with a party of
journalists of rather Bohemian tendencies, two gentlemen and a lady. There was
a good sized room served as a sort of salle a manger into which the
bed-rooms opened. The furniture of the room consisted of a small dining-table,
a few chairs, and an old-fashioned chest of drawers, which also served as a
sideboard. This bureau was just opposite the door of a small bedroom occupied
by Madame Blavatsky.
The
pictures were in one of the three little drawers at the top of the bureau. She
showed them to us, and explained that the coloring seemed chiefly to be done in
the night when nature was in her negative mood.
Subsequently
I made acquaintance with the three young journalists who occupied the other
three rooms of the apartment, and was told by them that they, being skeptical
as to the Madame's occult powers, had laid wait for the spirit who worked in
the night watches, and had discovered it materialized in the form of Madame
Blavatsky, dressed in saque de nuit; had seen it glide softly across the
room, armed with lamp, colors, and brushes, take the pictures from the drawers,
and rapidly work upon them one after another until they were as nearly
completed as could be at one sitting.
(I have not found anyone else to attest to this story.)
About
this time she called at my rooms and told me that she was doing some literary
work in English, and not being sufficiently conversant with the language to
write it with grammatical correctness she wished to secure my services as
editor.
(This is false because Blavatsky already had people to carry out
these tasks, Colonel Olcott was the one who corrected the English of Isis
Unveiled and Dr. Alexander Wilder was the one who edited that work.)
In
reply to my inquiry as to the nature of the work, she said it was a humorously
satirical criticism on the Government of the United States.
(This
is also false because nowhere Isis Unveiled talk about that.)
I ventured to
suggest that it might be thought an impertinence for a person who had been so
short a time in the country as herself, who had so little insight into its
institutions to attempt such a structure, but she cried me down and declared
that I must examine before I condemned. it. She left, engaged to bring
manuscripts in a few days.
In
the meantime I met Mrs. Y., the lady who shared the apartment with her, and
told her of the proposition. She
looked quizzical, and said:
-
"When
you get that manuscript let me know, and I shall have something to propose to
you. Do not engage to attempt the work until I have seen you."
In
a few days the unfinished manuscript was left at my rooms. I dropped a line to
Mrs. Y. and she promptly responded by coming to see me.
-
"Now,"
she said, "I want you to go to Brooklyn with me to the house where this
thing was written, while Madame was the guest of the people, who are
Russians."
We
went, and I found Mr. ------- and wife very cultured and charming people. Mrs.
Y told our host that Madame B. asked me to edit her work on our government.
-
"Did
she tell you it was original?" he asked.
-
"Certainly,"
I replied. "She claimed that it was an expression of her own views of our
government in satire."
-
"Well,"
said he,"the portion of it that you have she translated from this
volume." taking a book from the case near by, "the second volume she
borrowed when she left here and has not yet returned."
The
book was the work of a celebrated Russian humorist, whose name has escaped me.
Mr. -------said:
-
"If
you will follow me on the pages you have I will translate a few paragraphs from
the print."
This
he did.
The
manuscript was an almost verbatim translation of the book, "United
States" being substituted for "Russia," "President"
for "Czar," and certain other needful changes and adaptations being
introduced. The Madame's pretended original work was a complete theft.
When
I returned the manuscript with a note explaining my reasons for not accepting
the commission she made no reply, but later, when I accidentally met her and
brought up the matter, she sneering said that as Americans were almost entirely
ignorant of Russian literature she saw no harm in what she had attempted.
(There is no such book.)
This
closed my personal acquaintance with the founder and high priest of Theosophy.
OBSERVATION
Given
that this article tells many falsehoods and that there is no other person to
witness the events that are reported, I conclude that the author of this
article invented those meetings and those conversations that he claimed to
have had with Blavatsky.
CONCLUSION
This
article was written by a detractor of Blavatsky who wrote it to despise her by
passing her off as a liar, and taking advantage that Blavatsky had already died
seven months earlier (she died on May 8, 1891) and therefore she could no
longer defend herself.
I
suspect that even the name Hannah M. Wolff is a pseudonym used by the
author of this article to hide his identity. And unfortunately other detractors
have used this article as if it were a legitimate document to continue to denigrate
Blavatsky.
