LIST OF ARTICLES

THE CRISIS THAT AMORC HAD IN 1918 REPORTED BY THE SUN NEWSPAPER

 
In June 1918, several members of AMORC accused Harvey Spencer Lewis (the founder of AMORC) of stealing money, which caused a strong crisis in AMORC,  and this event was reported by the New York newspaper The Sun through three articles that I transcribe below.
 
 
 
1. THE FIRST ARTICLE 
 
It was published on June 18, 1918, where it mainly reported the raid carried out by the New York police in the AMORC building.
 
 
The text says:
 
 
DETECTIVES RAID A MYSTICAL CULT
 
H. Spencer Lewis, Leader of Rosaecrucians, Arrested in Lily Langtry Home
 
BOND FRAUD CHARGED
 
He is Said Also to Have Suggested Means of Evading Draft.
 
 
Three score or more men and women of varying ages -the majority of the men within the draft age- were seated last night in parallel rows in a room on an upper floor of what was the old Lily Langtry home, and before that the Josie Mansfield residence, at 361 West Twenty-third street.
 
Any one who had ever been received in that room when the Jersey Lily was the chatelaine and who was there last night would have been impressed with the changes that have taken place since. They have been peculiarly impressed with the furnishings that were in evidence last night when Detective Joseph Russo and four or five other men from the District Attorney's office entered. But more about the detectives later.
 
About 9 o'clock sixty or seventy men and women were assembled in what was once Mrs. Langtry's drawing room. From the front the old place would give the impression of a well appointed private residence or club. The windows were shaded and the iron fence that fronts the place had just received a new coat of paint. It was almost a place of distinction and soldiers and sailors who were strangers in New York looked at it while passing and inquired of one another what it was. An inconspicous group of four or five men at a convenient corner were also watching the place, but were not so ignorant of its character.
 
 
Scene in Drawing Room
 
Inside, in the drawing room, were assembled the members of the New York branch of the so-called American Rosicrucians. A feeble light from three candles on a triangular altar in the centre of the room was the only illumination. On a raised dais at one end, clad in all the robes of his office as grand master and imperator of the order in America, Brother H. Spencer Lewis, F.R.C., whatever that means, was giving the regular weekly lecture to the members.
 
At the other end of the room in the sombre setting of a cheap black screen stood a five foot wooden cross, with a wreath of roses at its base. The furnishings were of the cheapest, and the floor was uncovered except for a layer of dust. An unprotected heating flue gaped in the middle of the floor; plaster was hanging from the walls and ceiling, and the desk from which the Grand Imperator was delivering his lecture on the alchemy of life was of the cheapest unvarnished pine.
 
Across the entrance to the room that once boasted of double sliding doors there hung a cheap orange colored curtain, through which the light from the three candles softly filtered to the hall without. Downstairs one or two members, to whom the ceremony in the room above was no mystery, occupied desks and were busy going through card index and classifying applications for membership.
 
Then the officers came and in a moment the whole place was in a tumult. Detective Russo with his aids entered and were on the top floor before the bewildered Rosecrucians in the business office knew what was coming off. A man was placed at the door, and Detective Russo, thrusting aside the cheap orange colored curtains, stepped into the dimly lighted lodge room, walked to the dais and announced to the assembled members that everybody in the room was under arrest.
 
The Imperator attempted to expostulate but was told to keep quiet and prepare to go to headquarters. He quickly divested himself of his robes of office while his followers wondered what is was all about and while other detectives went to phone for a patrol wagon.
 
 
Lights Show Queer Scene
 
The Grand Imperator was in the midst of an interpretation and delineation of some of the occult mysteries in the unraveling of which he is regarded by his followers as a seer, when he was so rudely interrupted. When the lights went up a queer scene greeted the officers' eyes. The assembled men and women who had been absorbing the words of wisdom from the lips of the seer presented and odd picture in the dilapidated room, that was not only shorn of its once elaborate furnishings, but which showed unmistakable evidences of long neglect.
 
Most of the people in the room were of German, Scandinavian or Russian extraction. Most of the men were within the draft age, although there were several older ones in the group. Several of the women were well dressed and gave evidence of education and culture. Some of them replied to the questions of the detectives in an unmistakable foreign accent. But all of them expressed the greatest concern in what was to befall the Grand Imperator.
 
After the detectives had questioned them and served several with subpoenas two or three went to Police Headquarters to await the arrival of Lewis. Others went to a nearby restaurant to await developments. Meantime with the appearance of a police patrol wagon a crowd of several thousand gathered in Twenty-third street curious to know whether it was Assistant District Attorney Jim Smith instituting a Monday night raid by way of change, or what kind of an affair was being staged.
 
 
Bond Fraud Charged
 
The raid followed information that for several weeks has had the attention of the District Attorney's interest in the case comes through the allegation that Lewis and his associates in the so-called American Rosae Crucis were selling fraudulent 6 per cent gold bonds.
 
The interest of the Federal authorities is in the allegation that Lewis and his associates were soliciting membership in the order on the representation that such membership automatically exempted men from the draft and gave them a legitimate right to profess conscientious scruples against war. The interest of the Masonic officials was aroused by the representations of Lewis that he was a Mason.
 
Lewis is not a Mason. But the first question he asked Detective Russo when he appeared on the scene last night was, "Are you a Mason?"
 
According to the story of the career of Lewis and his attempt to organize his American Rosae Crucis, as it was told to a reporter for THE SUN last night, the movement has made headway. There have been several branches of the so-called order established in Western cities, but through the instrumentality of men who were watching his movements attempts in other places failed.
 
In New York City the affairs of the cult seemed to reach a crisis last Friday night. A.B. Brassard, Lewis's former secretary, and the man who finally gave the District Attorney the information on which he acted last night, became suspicious of the genuineness of the 6 percent bonds that Lewis sold to prospective members.
 
Brassard and some of his fellow members went to the Twenty-third street headquarters Friday night and accused Lewis in the presence of several other members of making suggestions by which men of draft age could get exemption. Brassard's signature appears on some of the bonds that Lewis sold. On Friday night, according to the story, he accused Lewis of certain irregularities, including the violation of another Federal statute.
 
 
Lewis Asked for Proof
 
It is said that Lewis invited Brassard to return on Saturday night with proof of the charges he made. Brassard accepted the invitation, and it is said, presented Lewis with documentary proof of the alleged irregularities and demanded his withdrawal as head of the Rosaecrucian order, whereupon carding to Brassard's story. Lewis tore the documents up and challenged Brassard to go ahead if he wanted to in the face of what Lewis thought was destroyed evidence. Brassard claims to have kept originals of the documents in question and to have handed Lewis only copies.
 
Another failure of the case, and the one that is most interesting the Federal authorities, is the statement that at a recent meeting of the members of the organization Lewis is said to have addressed his disciples as follows:
 
-      "I hold in my hand a letter from President Wilson guaranteeing exemption from the draft to members of the Rosaecrucian Order in America."
 
At the headquarters of Local Board 158, where it was said certain of Lewis's followers had claimed exemption on the ground of membership in the order, officials were not able to trace the records of any such cases without the names although the three members of the board said they recollected that such claims had been advanced.
 
 
Initiation Fee and Dues
 
Apart from the sale of bonds, one of which a former member of the organization showed to a SUN reporter last night declaring at the same time that she paid $100 for it and to which was attached a receipt signed by one L. Lawrence, as secretary of the organization, new members were required to pay an initiation fee of $5 or $10 and member dues of $1.
 
The organization is also said to have published a secret paper called the "Cromaat," the letters of which backwards are the first letters of the title the cult has assumed - The Ancient and Mystical Order (of) Rosae Crucis. Another monthly magazine called "The American Rosae Crucis," carries on the first page the names of a number of associate editors in various parts of the world. These, it is represented, make up the Supreme World Council of the order.
 
Among the dozen or more are such names as these: Emanuel S. Camilleri, Upper Egypt; Prof. C. Magala Desa, Bombay; Mohamed Ismail, I.G.O.H., Ceylon; Sir N. Irnathellickerjo Lemindar, Bengal; Lady Brooks, Shangai, China; Sir William Samuel Grant, Natal, East Africa; Lady Florence Burgess, London, England; Raynaud E. de Belcastle-Ligne, Toulouse, France, and several others.
 
A more definite address is not given in the copy of the magazine, but THE SUN reporter yesterday saw a dozen of more such letters that had been sent to addresses furnished by a former member of Lewis's organization, all of which came back with the notation "No such person known," or "No such address."
 
(p.14)
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2. THE SECOND ARTICLE 
 
It was published on June 19, 1918, where it is mainly reported that Harvey Spencer Lewis was arrested and imprisoned:
 
 
The text says:
 
 
GRAND IMPERATOR GRIEVED AT ARREST
 
Prying detectives want to know about those gold bonds and things.
 
SPENT NIGHT IN A CELL
 
Cult leader asserts purpose of organization had no taint of money getting.
 
Half a dozen detectives attached to the District Attorney’s office were exam feats –meaning sateen sasher, robes and other regalia– taken in the raid of the headquarters of the so-called American Order of the Rosae Crucis.
 
While they were still going over the papers, books and other paraphernalia of various kinds collected in the raid that was described exclusively in The Sun yesterday, H. Spencer Lewis, who had been variously described as the main works, the grand Imperator, the most perfect master profundis, and illustrious brother of the illuminati of the world, was explaining to The Sun that his arrest, detention and examination taken altogether comprised one of the greatest outrages ever perpetrated upon a real and regular Rosae Crucian.
 
Grand Imperator Lewis was arrested on Monday night in a spectacular raid on the headquarters of his organization in the old Lily Lantry house at 361 West Twenty-Third street. Two or three dozen of his followers tried to get ball, but the Grand Imperator had to spend the night in a cell.
 
 
Gold bonds figure in charge
 
Lewis was arraigned yesterday in Jefferson Market Court before Magistrate Blau on a short affidavit sworn to by Detective-Lieutenant Joseph Russo, alleging suspicion of larceny of money through the sale of bonds of the so-called American Order of the Rosae Crucls. Lewis was later released under $5’000 for examination to-morrow.
 
Lewis gave his name as Harvey S. Lewis, although he is known among the members of hit cult as H. Spencer Lewis. The charge against him is based on statements of Miss Elisabeth Meeker of 70 Fifth avenue, who at one time was a member of Lewis's organization, and who, when the financial affairs of the so-called order was somewhat strained, declares that she handed over a hundred dollar bill, subsequently receiving one of the per cent, gold bonds of the Ancient and Mystic Order of Rosae Crucis.
 
Miss Meeker explained yesterday that her contribution had been given with out solicitation In October of 1916. That she received the bond with a receipt for the money paid, and that she had also received $6 interest. She admitted, however, that after attending several meetings of the organization she felt compelled to withdraw as a member.
 
From his home In Flushing last night Lewis told a reporter for The Sun that at no time had his organization –the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis– ever clamed to be operating as a branch of the Rosae Crucis organization in France. "We have never claimed to hold any warrant, charter, patent or authority from any foreign country," he said over the telephone.
 
 
Studies of the Occult
 
The allegations against Lewis are that he has disposed of several thousand dollars worth of bonds upon the representation that his organization was a recognized branch of a worldwide institution devoted to studies of the occult.
 
Among the papers seized in Lewis' desk on Monday night is a piece of parchment, headed "Pronunziamiento R. F. R. C. No. 987601". The document is adorned with a number of crude seals, dated Toulouse, France, September 20, 1916, and signed by one Jean Jordin.
 
After the signature follow a series of hieroglyphics. In the body of the document addressed to Le Secretaire-General, Thor Kiimalehto, appears the announcement that a separate jurisdiction of the Rosae Crucls order has been established in America under the supreme pontiff High Ancient Shekah El Morla Ra of Memphis and that the official seal is being forwarded to the Most Perfect Master Profundls, H. Spencer Lewis at New York.
 
 
Honors for American Master
 
In the February, 1916, number of the American Rosae Crucis, which is described on the first page as a monthly magazine devoted to science, philosophy and religion, a picture of Lewis in his robes of office appears, and in reference to him is this statement:
 
"In 1909 our Master Journeyed to France and England to complete his preparation for the Rosaecruclan work –which always seemed to be his goal– and he was given several honors and titles by the French R. C. order. By agreement with the supreme council in France and Egypt the permission, long sought by scientists and earnest philosophical students, was given unto our Master to establish the R. C. Order in America in the year 1915."
 
When he was arraigned in court yesterday Mark Ellison, counsel for Lewis, declared that the District Attorney had produced no proof to show that Lewis ever received a dollar in cash for the bonds he is alleged to have sold.
 
(p.14)
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3 . THE THIRD ARTICLE 
 
It was published on June 23, 1918, where it is reported that Harvey Spencer Lewis was exonerated.
 

The text says:
 
 
LEWIS FREED BY COURT
 
Harvey S. Lewis, lecturer and alleged agent for the Ancient and Mystic Order of Rosae Crucis, was discharged yesterday by Magistrate Groehl in Jefferson Market Court. The prosecution asked for an adjournment in order to work up the presentation of the case. The defendant’s counsel asked for Lewis’s dismissal on the ground of insufficient evidence. The motion was granted. Lewis was arraigned on a short affidavit sworn to by Detective Russo of the District Attorney’s office, charging suspicion of larceny under false pretences.  
 
(p.14)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
OBSERVATIONS
 
It should be noted that Harvey Spencer Lewis was not declared innocent but that the evidence presented was considered insufficient to be able to formally accuse him of stealing money from his followers.
 
In the end, this matter and what happened to the money was never fully clarified, but many AMORC members in New York resigned their membership and Lewis had to go to California to continue his manipulations.
 
I detail more about this crisis that AMORC had in 1918 in this other article:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment