Theos-Talk Archives (December 2006 Message tt00094)

Here are a few observations from the past.

While in London in July of 1884, Colonel Olcott received a letter,
without any further explanation,post marked Madras. He described the 
letter as:
   	"written on a piece of paper such as is usually used at the
	headquarters of the Society in Madras. It is written in blue 			pencil, 
and signed with Dr. Hartmann's name. The writing has a 			general 
resemblance to Dr. Hartmann's. The following is
    	a verbatim copy of the letter.--

    	"Private.-Adyar, April 28, 1884-My Dear Madame Coulomb,--I was 		 
very glad to receive your kind warning: but I need a new and 			further 
explanation before I will believe in Madame Blavatsky's 		innocence. 
From the first week of my arrival I know she was a 			trickster, for I 
had received intimation to that effect, and had 	been told so by Mr. 
Lane-Fox before be went to Ooty, (and who 			added moreover, that he had 
come from England with this purpose, 	as he had received secret 
instructions from the London fellows) 		and even said that he felt sure 
she was a spy.

   	"She is worse than you think and she lied to me about lots of
	things; but you may rest assured that she shall not bamboozle 			me.

    	"I hope to tell you more when I see you upon your return from
	Ootacamund and show you that Colonel Olcott is no better than he 
should be. Excuse short letter I am writing in the dark. Yours 		 
faithfully.,
     		Dr. F. Hartmann,"

Colonel Olcott thought little of the clumsy letter and asked Dr.
Hartmann what he thought of it:
    	Dr. Hartmann assures us that this is no more than a clumsy 		 
forgery. He wrote to us on Saturday to say:--

    	"On the back of this nonsensical letter which is neither,
	grammatically nor orthographically correct, and which therefore 		must 
have been written in the dark, but which is executed in a 			tolerably 
good imitation of my own handwriting, was written in 			the handwriting 
of a Mahatma well-known to me:--‘A clumsy 			forgery, but good enough to 
show how much an enterprising enemy 		can do in that direction. They may 
call this at Adyar--a 			pioneer.’”

    	This morning Dr. Hartmann has published in pamphlet form, at the
	Scottish Press, a "Report of observations made during a nine 			months' 
stay at the head-quarters of the Theosophical Society at 	Adyar 
(Madras), India." In a postscript added to this Report he 		says:--

    	"P.S.--A few days after the above was in type, there appeared in 
a certain sectarian journal (The Christian College Magazine) 		 
published at Madras, an anonymous article, entitled "Collapse of 	Koot 
Hoomi," pretending to give extracts from a number of 			letters said to 
have been written by Madame Blavatsky to Mrs.
    	Coulomb. Why such a title should have been selected for it is a
	conundrum, because it neither disputes the existence of the 			Mahatmas 
and their powers, nor does it deny the occurrence of 			such phenomena 
as have been described; all it does is to throw 			dirt at Madame 
Blavatsky and to make an attempt to cause the
    	ignorant to believe that Madame Blavatsky had been implicated in
	the production of fraudulent phenomena by the assistance of 			Madame 
Coulomb and her husband. Thus Madame Coulomb exposes 			herself as a 
swindler, and cuts her own throat for the purpose 			of making Madame 
Blavatsky angry. Thus she gives herself up to 			the devil in the shape 
of a Rev. . . . to get her sweet revenge. 	The letters, of which the one 
in which my own handwriting was 			clumsily imitated, was called a 
pioneer, have come to light, and 	the prophecy of the Master has come to 
pass as predicted. . . ." 		(Madame H. P. Blavatsky, K.F. Vania, pp. 
222-223)

And yet more than a century later there are theosophists who print the
letters of this clumsy swindler, Madame Coulomb, in the context that 
there may actually be something to them. Strange.

Bruce