The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York), Sunday, November 30, 1902

Mrs. Tingley’s “Lotus Bud” Conservatory And Theosophical Center A Queer Place

 

Considerable attention has been attended to the Tingley brand of theosophy and in its settlement on the coast of Southern California, by the detention at Ellis Island of eleven little Cuban children, whom Mrs. Katherine Tingley head of the settlement, had imported with a view to stocking her California “homestead” with “Lotus buds.” Judge Vernon M. Davis, head of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, detained at Ellis Island for nearly a year while Uncle Sam was investigating have become the storm center of a semi-religious controversy that raged from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

According to Mrs. Tingley, life holds no happier fate than that of a child chosen to be a theosophical “Lotus bud.” According to Judge Davis, a “Lotus bud” stands a mighty poor chance of blossoming into a sort of manhood and womanhood that makes desirable citizens. According to Commissioner Williams, the children had better stay out anyhow. According to the Secretary of the Treasury, to whom Mrs. Tingley, having mainly brought all sorts of pressure to bear appealed, Williams was probably justified in his decision, but the colony had better be officially investigated before the children were sent back. And, according to the children, who have enjoyed a brief but eventful stay just without the gates of this land of liberty, being a storm center is not, on the whole, half had fun.

Commissioner General Sargent of the Bureau of Immigration was sent out to investigate the Point Loma colony and particularly the Raja Yoga School. The result of his investigation he declined to make public until he had first reported to the bureau. With him went Congressman-elect Daniels. With him was to have gon Mr. White of the California Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, but he failed to arrive in San Diego in time to accompany Mr. Sargent, and when he applied alone was denied admission to the colony. It is rather expected that Mr. Sargent will report favorably. Certainly Mr. Daniels, who was with him, appears to have found the colony all it should be.

About six years ago, William Q. Judge died, and Katherine Tingley declared herself head of theosophy in America. Theosophy in America was immediately disrupted. Since then there have been two theosophies in America, each claiming to be the only and original, each denouncing the other as a fake.

About five years ago, backed by wealthy theosophists and acting, as she claimed, by “occult direction,” Mrs. Tingley established herself on the coast of Southern California. Mrs. Tingley is probably the only person living who ever found anything “occult” about Judge Davis. Yet it seems to have been he who was mainly responsible for her removal to California. According to evidence given before Commissioner Williams, Mrs. Tingley tried to start a “Lotus” plantation right here in New York and appealed to Judge Davis to indorse her scheme. He investigated and replied that, far from indorsing her, he might find himself under the painful necessity of prosecuting her if she continued her operations in New York. She didn’t, she went to California. The climate of New York does not lend itself kindly to “Lotus” culture.

In California she picked out an ideal site on San Diego Bay, perhaps ten or twelve miles from the Mexican boundary line. The bay is almost landlocked. It is protected from the sea, by a narrow sand split, almost six miles long, which broadens out at its northern end, into a plateau on which is Coronado Beach, one of California’s famous watering places. The entrance to the bay is by a narrow deep channel, whose northern shore is formed by the rugged cliffs of Point Loma, a peninsula twelve miles long, which puts out into the sea and, curving southward, forms a massive barrier between the Pacific and the harbor. On Point Loma, too, Uncle Sam has built the tallest lighthouse in the world to sleep by day and wake up by night and mark the way for the storm tossed mariner. And on Point Loma, about half way toward the mainland Mrs. Tingley has built a Homestead of Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, which devotes itself among other things to culture of “Lotus Buds.”

Mrs. Tingley, or the Universal Brotherhood etc. etc. owns about 400 acres here. Five years ago much comment was raised by sundry purchases of land on “the Point.” The name of the purchaser was not made public. Much mystery surrounded the transactions, possibly as a forecast of the mystery that was to surround the place in the future. Finally the natives learned that this was to be the “world home of theosophy,” which was not particularly illuminating; and later that here was to be founded a school which should “revive the lost mysteries of antiquity.”

On the western or higher half of the plateau, which runs along the whole peninsula, a quarter of a mile from the sea on the one side, three-quarters of a mile from the bay on the other, and looking across to the town of San Diego, eight miles away, is Katherine Tingley’s School of Antiquity, familiarity known as the Raja Yoga School. Its corner stone was laid with much ceremony and in the presence of some of the leading theosophists of the country, in February, 1897. Its pupils are poetically known as Lotus Buds. Just why is not apparent, except that the name smacks of the East and of its creeds. But for that matter the whole place reeks of Lotus. To the believer, the homestead is known as the Lotus Home. Mrs. Tingley is known as the Lotus Mother, though to be sure she has any number of aliases. She is also known as the Wise Soul, the Great T. of Mahatma, and most frequently the Purple Mother, because all perfection for some insurable reason is supposed to be purple.

By whatever name she goes Mrs. Tingley is empathetically “She Who Must Be Obeyed.” She is the absolute autocrat of all that pertains to the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society. Moreover she keeps informed concerning almost every detail of each branch of the work of the various departments. She has her cabinet of advisers and officers, and the Brotherhood has its national centers in America, England, Ireland, Canada, Sweden, Holland, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and India. Its objects sound well in print. They are “to teach brotherhood, to study ancient and modern religion, science, philosophy and art and to investigate the divine powers in man. It seeks to help men and women realize the nobility of their calling and their true position in life, to educate children of all nations in the tenets of the brotherhood, to assist unfortunate women, and those who have been in prison, to promote a closer relationship between civilized and savage races, and to relieve suffering by famine, flood, war or other calamities.” Fine, oh fine: But the unfortunate part of it is that there exists a wide difference of opinion whether or not it is accomplishing these things.

To be sure the general public is not in a position to know what goes on at Point Loma, for the general public is carefully excluded. Newspapers are given interviews, but the interviews are carefully edited by the Purple Mother or some of her lieutenants. What it is desired that the public shall know is told, not what the public percentage desires to know. Interviews are only granted on condition that no change shall be made in them after they have been revised within the walls of the Homestead. The Raja Yoga School shares in this all pervading mystery. Its theory is beautiful: its practice not made public – at least not by Katherine Tingley or any of her followers.

To guard against the intrusion of strangers from the outside world, buglers are posted at the entrances to the grounds. Their silvery notes publish at once the fact of an alien approach. The stranger is not put out vi et armis; but he is met with a guarded hospitality, and watched with wary eye. Questions are not encouraged. He finds that the main building of the settlement is an immense rectangular structure, three stories high, surmounted by a great dome. It is built around a center court and is in turn completely surrounded by a wide veranda. This building is so placed that every room receives direct sunlight. Part of it is used as a hotel for such guests as are not too inquisitive. The accommodation is first class in a plain, wholesome way. In other parts of the building are Mrs. Tingley’s offices, an oriental rest room, the apartments of teachers and students, and other departments from which the public is excluded.

Close to this building and connected with it by an arched causeway is the recently built Aryan Temple, a beautiful piece of architecture and memorial to William Q. Judge and H. P. Blavatsky. There are, beside the Isis Temple, housing the Isis Conservatory of Music and smaller and insignificant houses – tents, many of them – known collectively as the Raja Yoga School. Music is a great feature of the Tingley brand of theosophy and the Isis Conservatory aims at a “comprehensive theoretical and practical musical education, embracing not only the ordinary methods and lines of teaching, but also unique and original features designed to give music its proper place and power in the world.” Mrs. Tingley believes that the perfect development of the voice depends largely upon a healthy body and harmonious mental condition. She believes also in the character forming element of music. To give greater scope of her efforts she recently bought the Fisher Theater in San Diego, one of the largest and best appointed on the coast, and renamed it the Isis Theater. In it she gives free public entertainments, consisting of music and readings, every Sunday evening. The house is generally well filled and when Mrs. Tingley herself is to speak, it is crowded to the doors.

As to the Raja Yoga School that is one of the mysteries of the settlement. Public curiosity as to its methods goes perforce unsatisfied. In it are trained young children gathered from the United States and foreign countries. It trains some selected specimens of the race with a view to the ultimate salvation of the whole. The methods, according to the superintendent of the children’s department, are “something which cannot be communicated on paper, but they excite enthusiasm of the young volunteer teachers.” In writing of the International Children’s Lotus Home, as it is called, the superintendent further says: “One of the surprising things is that only about one-third as much food is given as is usually considered necessary and yet the children gain rapidly weight, health and strength.”

It is curious how differently the same facts impress different people. Part of the evidence submitted to Commissioner Williams by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, in arguing against allowing the Cuban children to be taken out there was in the form of a letter from Mrs. Mary E. Green of Charlotte, Mich., whose two little grandsons were rescued from the Raja Yoda School by habeas corpus proceedings. Mrs. Green finds no difficulty about communicating the methods on paper. She writes in part:

“My daughter, Mrs. John J. Bohn was either tricked or hypnotized by this woman and she took her two little boys there. Then Mrs. Tingley refused Mr. Bohn admittance, as everything there is secret and well guarded in enclosed grounds. The Supreme Court of California issued a writ of habeas corpus to take the children, the case was tried in Los Angeles and the children were removed from Point Loma and given to their father.”

“According to the statement of these little boys, children all sleep in tents, about twenty boys and girls in a tent, on a bunk. Every night a girl about fourteen years old comes and ties their hands together, then fastens them about their necks. No child is allowed to talk loud and only whisper about necessary things.”

“All children are made to stand up when visitors come and say, “We like our Lotos Mother and are glad to be here.” Children have meat only once a week: for noonday lunch they are given a cracker and an apple, the biggest boys getting two crackers. Thus are the children cared for.”

“My grandchildren were there six weeks: they never saw their mother except as she marched by with a white robe on at sunrise, holding up her hand – as they are sun worshippers.”

“Katherine Tingley is high priestess and all followers bow down and worship her. I spent some time in California, where the general impression and belief is that Point Loma is an immortal place; yet when people once get there they are powerless to get out; the grounds are fenced, all gates guarded and the greatest secrecy prevails. The temple of Isis is a most mysterious place.”

“The children were half starved when rescued, while my daughter, their devoted mother, did not bathe them or eat with them or put them to bed, but was marching about with a white robe on, barefooted, at sunrise, worshiping the sun. Such is the story of her two little boys were made to call Katherine Tingley “Lotos Mother,” and to stand up and say to all visitors “we love our Lotos Mother and are glad to be here.”

From Irene Willis of Hannibal, Mo., the society had a letter charging grossest cruelty. She says:

“My private opinion of Mrs. Tingley is a woman who has a strange power over weak minds.”

“My sister fell into her power. I found her, my sister, Mrs. Freeman, neglected, starved, dying, relegated when so broken and abused that she could no longer assist Mrs. Tingley to a wild place among the chaparral which they call the “Colony,” deprived of food fit to be eaten, even by the strongest, coarsest people, and forbidden to buy other food, lest it reflect upon the institution. No one was allowed to assist or comfort her. Willis Freeman, her son, of 16, was kept at work for ten hours a day, then kept on guard two hours every night – a young, growing lad, who had never handled a gun or firearms of any description – two hours in the middle of the night, on half rations and less of this miserable food, bread made of beans and peanuts ground together, and not allowed to buy a fresh egg or bottle of milk for his dying mother, although there was plenty of both for sale by the residents of Point Loma, just outside the Colony gates.”

“The students, so called, of this abominable place are all hypnotized. They form rings and circles and gaze with a stupid somnolence into this woman’s face, kiss her hands, her garments, call her Queen of the World, swear to worship her through this life and all lives hereafter, know this is hard to believe, but it is true.”

“Mrs. Tingley is fearfully afraid of assassination from without, and every male member of the society or inhabitant therein, from 10 years to 70, has to take turns watching, guarding and protecting her life night and day. The only education given to the children or for which she seems to care is military drill. She is apparently trying to raise up an army for her bodily protection.”

“Many of the children are badly treated always, I believe, if they show the least resistance to her authority or if they do not succumb at once to her domination.”

“One little girl has been isolated from all beings except a demented, one-eyed grass widow, who acts as her jailer. She has been thus isolated for two years, while her wealthy father and mother and sisters (younger) board at a fabulous expense with Kate Tingley and approve of this incarceration of their pretty little daughter over at the Colony.”

Mrs. Tingley and her associates make great capital of an alleged indorsement by President McKinley, Generals Wheeler, Shafter and others for work supposed to have been done at Montauk Point, where the Purple Mother claims that she and her assistants ministered to 9,000 soldiers, only one of whom died. President McKinley is no longer in a position to deny the allegation and defy the allegator, but inquires directed to General Wheeler and General Shafter and the Secretary of War, have brought forth disclaimers of any recollection of these remarkable services or of Mrs. Tingley’s presence at Montauk. Some of the men who were there, however, do remember a small tent by the roadside, over which floated the banner of the Universal Brotherhood, but not as an important factor in life there or one whose work was considered seriously.

Weird tales are told of a dog given Mrs. Tingley by the late William Q. Judge shortly before his death. It seems that Mrs. Tingley claims that the spirit of Judge now inhabits the dog and directs the doings of the order. He is alluded to as the “Purple Inspiration,” and is an object of reverence approximating worship. One of the peculiar ceremonies is the daily march to the Holy Hill to see the sun rise. The majority only go as far as the fence surrounding the hill, but a certain band of the elect go within. They all wear loose white robes and go either barefoot or wear stockings. Only Mrs. Tingley is allowed to wear slippers “inside her stockings.”

It is claimed that Mme. Blavatsky’s ashes are buried on this Holy Hill. As to that, Harold W. Percival, head of the Theosophical Society in New York – the other theosophical society that discredits Mrs. Tingley says: “Mme. Blavatsky died at 19 Arverne road, London in 1892. One-third of her ashes was sent to India, another third remains in London and the remaining third came to this city. They were in an urn that stood in a niche at the headquarters, then at 144 Madison avenue. Finally, when Mrs. Tingley got possession of things, the urn was thrown in the closet in a rubbish and the library of theosophical works was thrown into boxes and barrels and put in an areaway. No one ever knew what became of the urn or the ashes. The empty niche in the wall was hidden by a piece of furniture.”

Among the theories that Mrs. Tingley promulgates according to L. F. Fitch, one time bookkeeper in the Universal Brotherhood’s institutions, is that the marriage of to-day is wrong in spirit and that the true marriage should be one of entire purity. She teaches that when people have reached the proper stage, marriage as it is known in the world will not be necessary. “One man told me that she herself is the only one of the brotherhood yet eligible for this perfect marriage.”

Just what the children are taught appears to be something of a mystery, except that they are all taught the tenants of and trained to membership in the Universal Brotherhood of which as Mrs. Tingley one said, “Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Zoroaster, Mohammed, and Quetzalcoatl were members.” But in spite of this godly fellowship the children’s society seems to doubt the desirability of the children being brought up as members. Commodore Gerry says its teachings have been picked up piecemeal from India, Mexico, Egypt and similar countries and is “a repetition of the mysteries of Isis and Osiris and one only has to study history to learn the full intent of their moral depravity.”

Also, there seems to be conflicting testimony as to the financial solvency of the community. Lois T. Fitch testifies that it is supported mainly by contributions from private individuals, that the source of income are precarious, that the property is mortgaged, only enough having been paid down to secure the land. On the other hand a correspondent on the spot writes, “Mrs. Tingley is fortunate in being unhampered by financial considerations. She could probably fill out a check for $600,000 without being embarrassed in any way.” And such men as Albert Spalding of Spalding & Bros. are willing to vouch for and indorse her. And of the community of which she is president, Frank M. Pierce, formerly president of Pierce & Miller Engineering Company of 26 Cortland street, is nominally secretary and really the business head, and August Neresheimer, formerly a well known merchant here, is treasurer.

The woman herself must be a marvelous personality with a rare talent for organization and leadership. She is described as short, heavy and swarthy, an accomplished student of human nature, and mistress of rare oratorical powers – a most impressive speaker. But it is said that she is given to trailing around in a loose flowing purple robe, and that must be hideously unbecoming to a “short, heavy, swarthy person.”

 

Point Loma People Live For An Ideal

As showing how the Point Loma colony impressed an unprejudiced observed, the following letter from Mrs. Lydit Avery Coonley Ward is of special interest. Mrs. Ward is a Chicago woman, prominent socially and intellectually, a woman of wealth, who delights to honor brains, a woman who has seen nearly all the world has to show. She has been president of the Chicago Woman’s Club, an organization that stands for much in the line of reform, philanthropy and intellectual activity in Chicago. She is an active member of the Fortnightly Club and of the Little Room, a club representing upper Bohemianism, to which brains and good fellowship are the entrance qualifications – a woman of catholic tastes and wide interests. She writes:

To the Editor of the Brookly Eagle:

“I have been much interested in decision regarding the Cuban children brought over by Mrs. Tingley, the theosophist of Point Loma, Cal., and my indignation is aroused at the course taken. There seem to me here no direct charges; there are insinuations which are slanderous; but doubtless so skillfully introduced as to avoid prosecution for libel.”

“As for honoring dogs, however exaggerated this may be, I wish we could get a fraction of the spirit into our own people, so that the poor dogs would not suffer as they do from cruel treatment in pounds and hardships and indignities too numerous to mention. They may reverence animals, but we certainly err in the opposite direction, and a happy medium might be found. I think that in their extreme regard for nature we might learn a lesson and not be careless of public and private property in grass and flowers, as we often are. There are worse things than to believe in the soul of nature. However, I am not defending the Point Loma people against these accusations, for I know nothing of the truth of them, nor have I any special interest in theosophy; indeed, I have given it no thought whatever. Last June, however, I was in California, and while visiting at San Diego, I spent a day at Point Loma, where I was surprised and delighted beyond expression. The people there are certainly living for an ideal, and I am thankful for any one who does follow an ideal; it is not in the least necessary that it be our ideal, or any definite one, but only that it be some ideal.

“The magnificent grounds of the Point Loma homestead, the exquisite climate and superb buildings, all aroused my wonder, and to that was added delight when I saw the children they have in charge. I believe there are over 100 of them and I must have seen nearly as many. Never anywhere have I seen a large body of children as handsome, as healthy and as happy as they. They are being taught by masters in their line. The music which I heard, both instrumental and singing, is of a high order. Their food is carefully looked after by trained professionals. The conditions under which they live are ideal, and no one who sees the children can for a moment doubt their happiness. Those who are accustomed to children must also note there a wonderful absence of self-consciousness. When we consider that these children are almost all walks from the streets of various countries, it is a matter of thankfulness that any one has rescued them from lives promising the evils and set them in conditions for developing good citizenship.”

“Universal brotherhood is the ideal aimed in the Point Loma homestead. I met a number of men and women living there; they are highly educated and cultivated and interesting in a rare degree. The work they do is done for love of it and of humanity. Upon the whole place there are only three Japanese servants. These New York proceedings seems to me to rest on a foundation of spitefulness. It is not proposed by those who forbid the children to go to Point Loma to do anything for them except to return them to undesirable conditions.”

“Among the children I saw at Point Loma were many Cuban reconcentrados. One mother, with her two daughters, were rescued by Mrs. Tingley after the father and third child had died of starvation; the mother, with a sad beautiful face, is now a teacher at Point Loma and the daughters are among the scholars. One little girl, now 21/2 years old, was taken from an ash barrel, where she had been left to die. To see children like these under what are apparently the most desirable conditions possible to childhood and to think from what they have been rescued makes one thankful; and after seeing them to find people apparently paying little attention to the testimony of men belonging to the Point Loma Brotherhood and their accredited representatives, but approving the testimony of those who have little that tis definite to say against it seems to me a very reprehensible proceeding.”

“For myself, of course, I know Point Loma only from the one day there, but I heard much of it in the neighborhood and nothing to its discredit. I saw no animals, but I do not believe the testimony given in these reports. If one does believe it, it is not very difficult to match the dressing up and petting of dogs in ridiculous degree among the New York Four Hundred.”

“I have no interest in this matter beyond the general one of seeing justice done. I certainly think it is a crime to send children back to bad conditions, and if they are not allowed to go to such a place as Point Loma, where people are eager to care from them and teach them in ways which are right, then those who forbid it should see that some other persons with ideals take charge of them.” Lydia Avery Cloony Ward. Chicago, November 26.

 

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