Chicago Tribune_Sun, July 8, 1906_2

the club, has had a remarkable career. She asserts she has had at least a dozen separate existences. Theosophically considered, the earliest inkling of her goes back to 1200 B. C., when she and Mme. Blavatsky had a pastoral sojourn in Egypt.

 

 

Daughter of a Rum Seller

As far as plain history is concerned, Mrs. Tingley was born in Newburyport, Mass. about fifty-five years ago. Her father was named Westcott, and his saloon and hotel were conducted in such a manner as to bring down upon him the displeasure of the community. The authorities eventually refused to renew the license for the place.

The daughter of this establishment obtained an insight into life far different from the peaceful existence in the valley of the Nile, for she was then a reckless hoyden. She has some recollection of being sent to a convent in Montreal, but the historians, who have no esoteric notions, fail to find any time in her life which could have been devoted to religious training.

 

 

Mrs. Tingley a Printer's Wife

She fled to New Orleans and married Richard Cooke, a compositor, by whom she had one child, which she said she adopted. This child, Flossie, was beautiful and her photograph has frequently been produced on Easter cards and mottoes. She is generally depicted as carrying lilies.

Mrs. Tingley’s second husband was George W. Parent, a detective and later a saloon-keeper, and it is not known whether or not she had any children by him. She adopted two boys, however, who have been known by various names. Her first two husbands obtained divorces on the ground of desertion.

Mrs. Tingley was in Boston for a few years, and then she made her appearance in New York. There, under the direction of Prof. Paul McCarthy, Mrs. Tingley studied hypnotism. As the professor once stated, he greatly improved her psychic gifts. There can be no doubt of Mrs. Tingley’s powers of hypnotism, and she used them with great advantage.

The manner in which the woman seized the leadership of the cult was remarkable. After the death of Judge Ernest T. Hargrove, a young English barrister of good family had been called over to New York, and had made the president of the theosophical society.

The seizure of the machinery of government of the society was one of the rarest bits of generalship in the history of such organizations. Mrs. Tingley convinced certain members, many of whom were men and women of education and attainments, that though Hargrove might be all well in his way as the nominal president, she was really the secret head of the organization, the adept whose personality was not to be revealed until one year after the death of Judge.

So it was that in May, 1896, the reincarnation of Mme. Blavatsky became “The Great Unknown.” She officiated as a veiled priestess at a remarkable ceremony, at which Claude Falls Wright, then secretary of the society, and Miss Laura Leoline Leonard were married.

 

 

Seizes Control of Society

At that time her portly form, swathed in draperies, stood upon a platform in front of a stump, supposed to symbolize the tree of life. When her identity as the head of the order was revealed Mrs. Tingley tood actual control. Hargrove was driven back to Temple Bar. Many of the prominent theosophists were alienated, and the society passed into the hands of a clique headed by Mrs. Tingley.

The name of the organization was changed to that of the Universal Brotherhood. The public was asked to contribute to the purple pence fund, and with the proceeds Mrs. Tingley and half a dozen of her cult started on a crusade around the world which consisted principally of sightseeing.

 

 

From Hypnotism to Theosophy

From spiritualism Mrs. Tingley turned her attention to theosophy, which was attracting much attention. She made the acquaintance of William Q. Judge, whom she seems to have impressed by her powers as a hypnotist.

In his writings after his death were found several fragmentary references to her. She pieced these together, and upon them advanced a claim that she was the reincarnation of Mme. Blavatsky, and had been chosen as the successor of Mr. Judge.

Her remarkable personality so impressed Dr. Wood of Providence, R. I. that he built the Raja Yoga school for theosophists at Point Loma. This is a superb tract of 1,600 acres, adorned with magnificent buildings. The total value of the tract and the buildings is estimated at $2,500,000. The theosophists are possessed of other property, which in all forms is worth close to $9,000,000.

The colony at Point Loma has been the center of innumerable scandals and sensations since Mme. Tingley became its ruler. Four years ago it passed its worst crisis, when a rebellion in the brotherhood threatened its disruption.

 

 

She Has Absolute Power

Soon after firmly establishing her leadership over the cult Mme. Tingley engineered a reorganization and obtained the adoption of a constitution that gives her absolute power over every individual member of the Universal Brotherhood and over every penny of its funds.

Instead of giving out theosophical teachings after the manner of her predecessors she contested herself with pumpint “vibrations” and “generating currents” upon the inner planes, if any one can guess what that means.

She chose purple for her royal color, wore gowns of it, and called herself by the name of it until now among the faithful name of Tingley is almost unspoken. To them she is “Purple” or “Purple Mother.”

She selected a “cabinet” of twelve of the ablest men she could find – and richest. Their term of office begins and ends with her pleasure.

She removed the headquarters of the organization, bag and baggage, to a point which had been discovered in her great crusade around the world to be the esoteric center of the earth, and here, with weird ceremonies, she laid the cornerstone of a School for the Revival of Lost Mysteries.

 

 

Rebellion Breaks Out

Her arbitrary rule provoked a rebellion, which reached a climax in the resignation of Dr. Jerome A. Anderson, for years one of her strongest supporters. Dr. Anderson for fifteen years was a devoted theosophist and one of the most influential members of the society. His resignation was followed by a score of others in San Francisco, and there is no means of knowing how many in other places deserted the cult.

Dr. Anderson was a member of the inner circle or cabinet of the high priestess. At the time of his revelations he gave as his reasons:

“I left the Universal Brotherhood simply because I lost all confidence in its leader, Mrs. Katherine A. Tingley. I have seen the organization which she took over from W. Q. Judge, both large and enthusiastic, dwindled away in lodges and membership until it is now little more than a mere handful of her personal admirers; I have seen ‘loyalty’ to all her whims and caprices made the supreme test of membership.”

“I have yet to know of a prominent person leaving the ranks who has not been accused of having done so from base and unworthy motives, and of whom many have been most unmercifully slandered as to their private characters. I have seen theosophy travestied, and substituted for philosophy, and a worldwide organization degenerated into 150 cooped up at Point Loma, with not a man, woman, or child of them daring to oppose her slightest whim.”

“In fact, she has reduced the organization to the degree that it has become only one among a score of similar hamburgs, with a ‘leader’ at the head whom all must adore. I have seen able, learned men and women clothe themselves in ridiculous costumes and go through absurd ceremonies at her bidding; I have seen money extravagantly wasted; I have seen honest energy wantonly dissipated; I have seen her favors follow, and follow only upon flattery and fawning; I have heard her called to her face a ‘planetary spirit’ by one of her chief flatterers without protest, and with evident gratification; I have known meetings after meeting held by her, at which she was present during which all teaching was disregarded and every word uttered was in personal laudation of her and of the imaginary great deeds she had accomplished.”

“Everything at the Point is show and pretense; even when strangers are permitted to see the children at their play the curtain rises on as carefully prepared a ‘situation’ as at any theater. The buildings are shams – filmay, stuccoed, or cemented structures that present an imposing appearance, but which one could go through by hacking his way with a hatchet almost as fast as one could walk.”

 

 

Life in Lomaland Is Weird

The life lived by members of the Point Loma colony, which Mr. Gage will adopt, is one one succession of weird ceremonies.

Lomaland is astir before sunrise. From the window you can see a procession moving toward the hill that is known as the sacred ground. The men are dressed somewhat as Greeks and Romans were wont to array themselves, in white undershirts, a sort of pajamas, reaching the knee, below which the leg is bare, and draped about the shoulders a place of cheesecloth.

Passing into the sacred ground these men range themselves facing the sun. There is a short reading, perhaps from teh “Ghita,” perhaps one of Spots’ letters, which this inspired dog contributes regularly to the brotherhood publications (you can only guess, for sound does not travel so far), and then each one stoops down and picks up a little handful of dirt and tosses it back again. That is all.

The procession retraces its steps and the men take off their Greek garments, for some of them are guards and guides, and there must be no sign of short pajamas, bare legs, and cheesecloth togas when the gates are open to the public at 10 o’clock.

This is the daily ceremony of the Sons of the Rising Sun. While it is in progress another ceremony is taking place at the Homestead. Men and women, some in regular clothes, some in cheesecloth robes, all barefooted, have circled around the Homestead three times, and stopping on the eastern veranda, have chanted the praises of Lomaland.

 

 

No Prying Allowed

If you chance to step out upon the balcony to see what is going on you will be politely requested to withdraw. Not-even a member of the society is allowed the privilege of looking on.

Starvation is a feature of the theosophists’ regime. By degrees Mme. Tingley has cut down their rations, and she comforts those who get a quarter of an egg a piece, a slice of toast, a walnut or two and a few raisins by saying this is an “ideal” breakfast and will make those who eat it more refined and spiritual.

But she does not join the early worshipers of the sun. Late in the morning she finishes her nap and is ready for a good square meal. The faithful believe that in the early hours her spirit has left her body and is away attending to national affairs. But later a woman of breeding and refinement, trembling with hunger after her “ideal” breakfast and weak from overwork, bears to the high priestess a tray stacked with everything the market affords and the best of its kind.

 

 

Gage’s Garb to Be Scanty

Mr. Gage also, when he becomes a full fledged member of the cult, will have to forgo many of the garments he has been in the habit of wearing.

In the libel suit brought by Mme. Tingley against a Pacific coast paper recently, which has just resulted in a $7,500 verdict in her favor, the evidence established many weird customs and dress of her subjects.

One of the witnesses described the reception given Mr. Spalding when he arrived at Point Loma with his bride. All the inmates, children included, assembled near the Spalding residence and rendered Greek songs, tripped through Homeric dances and other fancy steps, all of which, in the dark night, was especially picturesque.

The costumes for the bridal ceremony as described by Dr. Jerome A. Anderson, who resigned from Mme. Tingley’s cabinet, gave the scene a most ghostlike appearance. Participants in the Spalding bridal ceremony were dressed in a costume supposed to be like that of the ancient Greeks.

“It was something,” said Dr. Anderson, “like a loose skirt tied with a cord. I wore underclothing underneath, but I saw many who did not. It was, to say the least, a chilly costume when worn out of doors.”

 

 

Doesn’t Like Term “Mother”

The women wore costumes of similar character, but Mrs. Tingley’s attire was more elaborate than the others. She had donned her large embroidered robe of purple, whence she is known among the cult as “The Purple.” Formally she was called “Mother,” but she forbade that title.

Excommunicated Tingleyites state that in her dog Spot, Mme. Tingley found the reincarnated soul of William Q. Judge, former high priest of the Universal Brotherhood and founder of the American school of theosophy. Spot is carefully tended and has several suits of clothes to protect him from the changes in the weather; for, if he should die, the intelligence of William Q. Judge might reappear in some animal thousands of miles from Lomaland, and the Universal Brotherhood would lose one of its most valuable advisors.

In appearance Mrs. Tingley is a small, rather plump woman of genial, yet decided manner. She keeps much of herself, conducts a vast correspondence, and personally attends to all the business of the Raja Yoga school. She exacts implicit obedience from everyone at Lomaland.

 

 

Gage’s Secretary Denies All

New York, July 8 – [Special] – Lyman, J. Gage left New York on a western trip during the last week in April of this year. All that time the report gained credence that he was to join Mme. Tingley’s colony in California. His secretary, H. S. Morrison, entered this denial:

“Mr. Gage left New York a week ago Tuesday for the west. He spent a day in Chicago, where his son Eli lives, then went to Denver, where he planned to spend some time visiting his sister, Mrs. Brainerd. According to what he told me before he left, I expect him back within a month.”

“Of course, Mr. Gage is a member of the Society of Psychical Research, and like many other thoughtful men of today, he is much interested in psychical subjects. I believe he has met Mrs. Tingley and thinks her a remarkable woman. He admires the work she is doing in her colony at Point Loma. But he does not believe in theosophy, as far as I know, and he never had nor has now any intention of joining Mrs. Tingley’s colonies.”

“There was some sort of absurd report current some years ago about Mr. Gage joining Dowie’s colony, I believe. It arose from Dowie going to see Mr. Gage in Washington about letting some lace making immigrants for his colony into the county. That was all there was to it.”

“The fact that Mr. Gage has been working hard for fifty-five years and now has retired from active work, to be at liberty to do what he pleases and go where he pleases, I expect he will start soon for Europe.”

On his retirement from the cabinet, Secretary Gage came to New York and took up the duties of president of the United States Trust company. He filled this position until a short time ago. On March 19, he announced his coming retirement and in explanation added:

“I have been working fifty-five years and am nearly 70 years old now. If I’m ever going to take any leisure it is about time for me to begin. I have been obeying other people’s wishes for a long time. Now I am going to do just as I please. As a private citizen I will have the right to follow my own inclinations entirely.”

“Have you made any plans for the future?” he was asked.

“None, except that I will travel,” he replied.

“Has there been any disagreement between yourself and the officers of the company, or has there been any other business reason for your retirement?”

“None at all,” he said. “Everything has been harmonious and satisfactory.”

Gage said the United States Trust company was about the only concern in which he was actively engaged, so his retirement practically will be from all business activity.

“I have been in the public eye for some time,” Gage added, “and I am glad to get out of it.”

 

 

From Office Boy to President

From office boy up the long and difficult ladder to the presidency of the First National bank of Chicago, an institution which he practically created, then to the high post of secretary of the treasury under President McKinley, an office he filled with conspicuous honor and distinction – such in its briefest form is the record of Lyman J. Gage.

Mr. Gage was 70 years old in June. He was born in De Ruyter, N. Y., in June 1836. The first money he earned was $5 a month he received as a clerk in the Rome (N. Y.) post office after he left school.

In 1884 he first took up the profession in which he became distinguished, when he entered the Oneida Central bank at a salary of $100 a year. It was the insufficiency of this salary and chance that contributed chiefly to a train of circumstances that developed one of the world’s greatest bankers. He sought an increase. It was refused. Then young Gage did what so many other self-made Americans did in their youth, struck out for Chicago.

 

 

Enters Chicago in 1855

He came to Chicago in 1855, when he was 19 years old.

A career of conquest did not immediately open before him. Indeed, he had only stepped upon the threshold of a way that led to success afar off and through many vicissitudes.

The banks and other institutions in which he sought employment in the line of his experience had no vacancies that he could fill, but there remained other lines of industry in which he thought that he could make a living, and he found a chance to work hard for small pay in a lumber yard and planing mill, where bookkeeping formed a part of his duty. This was not what he had sought, but he went at it with alacrity, and for three years followed it industriously and without complaint.

It was not till 1858 he was given, his first position in a Chicago bank. The Merchants Savings, Loan and Trust company, wanting a bookkeeper set him at work at a salary of $500 per year. He regarded himself as fairly started now upon a road of life that led upward.

 

 

Is Advanced Rapidly

Events proved the good grounding of his hope. He laid hold of his new labor with a will and worked with that effectiveness that usually results in an occupation for which a man has natural ability. In less than six months he was promoted to paying teller, at a salary of $1,200, and at the expiration of a year was further advanced to assistant cashier, at a salary of $2,000.

At the end of another year he was given the post of cashier, which he held until 1868 when, having served the institution a complete decade, he severed his connection with it to assume a more advantageous connection with the First National bank of Chicago.

He went into this great financial institution on most alluring terms as its cashier, his abilities having been readily recognized some years before by its management. He soon gave evidence unmistakable of the possession of a high order of banking genius. His services did much toward extending the popularity of the bank, and in 1882, when a new charter was procured and a reorganization effected, he was elected vice president and manager. He filled these offices for nine years with the entire satisfaction in the directors and stockholders, and after discharging the active duties of the executive for several years, he was selected president of the bank in January, 1891.

 

 

Interested in Public Works

He was president of the bankers’ section of the World’s Progress and one of the chief promoters of the Art Institute and later of the Field Columbian museum.

When in Chicago Mr. Gage’s humanitarian interests led him into the study of economics, especially the relations of capital to labor, and he has taken prominent part in labor, and he has taken a prominent part in the discussion of questions growing out of those relations, and has sought to advance plans for their mutual benefit. Every great problem of labor or reform – for the moral and material well being of his fellowmen – has had in him an earnest student and strong worker.

He was in the forefront in the battle waged by the Civic federation, of which he was president, for the purification of the city of Chicago, and was a frequent speaker and wielded a large influence in the monster meeting s which were held by that body to purge the city of gambling houses and other evils.

Mr. Gage never held a political office, though frequently asked to become a candidate. He declined the nomination for the office of mayor of Chicago twice. Feb. 15, 1897, he resigned the presidency of the bank to enter President McKinley’s cabinet as secretary of the treasury. He was appointed March 4, and confirmed March 5, 1897, and immediately took the oath of office.

He was married in Denver in 1887 to Mrs. Lloyd D. Gage, his brother’s widow. She died May 17, 1901. In recent years Mr. Gage devoted himself to the Central Trust company, New York, where he resided. He resigned this post a few months ago.

 

 

 

Done