Zirkoff B. - HPBs Scrapbooks: Difference between revisions

  | publications = The Daily Graphic, New York, Vol. V, October 30, 1874, p. 873

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  | alternatives = [http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v1/y1874_001.htm KH]

Beginning in 1874, and for about ten years, H.P.B. pasted a wide variety of cuttings from newspapers and magazines into Scrapbooks. There are twenty-four of them in the Archives of The Theosophical Society at Adyar, India. Every newspaper reference to the T.S. and its work, and any account thought to be of consequence for historical purposes, was pasted in these Scrapbooks. This included also cuttings of H.P.B.’s own articles and letters to Editors which had been published, and some of Col. Olcott’s contributions to various Journals of the day.

H.P.B. appended pen-and-ink and pencil remarks and comments to various statements in the text of these articles; many of these comments are humorous and are enhanced by cartoons, either drawn by herself or pasted in from some other magazine or paper, frequently with her own additions. Here and there appears some important statement of her own, not to be found anywhere else in her writings.

In the pages that follow, the reader will find all pertinent comments by H.P.B. introduced in their approximate chronological sequence, which at times is not easy to determine; some of H.P.B.’s annotations may have been added later than the time when any given article was published.—Compiler.

The first article definitely known to be from the pen of H.P.B. is the one in the New York Daily Graphic, entitled “Marvellous Spirit Manifestations,” with which the present Volume opens:

{{HPB-CW-comment|[In H.P.B.’s Scrapbook, Vol. I, the above article is pasted on page 5, in three separate columns, together with the Press Cutting mentioning her arrival at the Eddy Homestead on Oct. 14, 1874, as may be seen on the accompanying illustration. H.P.B.’s comment at the top of the page reads:]}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|The curtain is raised. — H.S.O.’s acquaintance on October 14, 1874, with H.P.B. at Chittenden. H. S. Olcott is a — Rabid Spiritualist, and H. P. Blavatsky is an occultist — one who laughs at the supposed agency of Spirits! (but all the same pretends to be one herself).}}

<nowiki>#</nowiki>They may be the portraits of the dead people then repro . . . . . (they certainly are not Spirits or Souls) yet a real . . . . . nomenon produced by the Elementaries. H.P.B.

{{HPB-CW-comment|[In H.P.B.’s Scrapbook, Vol. I, pp. 6-7, where the above article is pasted, H.P.B. added in pen and ink under her signature:]}}

 

{{HPB-CW-comment|[In H.P.B.’s Scrapbook, Vol. I, pp. 7-8, there is a cutting from The Daily Graphic of November 1874, which deals with the visit of a Mr. Brown, the “mind reader,” to the Eddys’ Homestead. Mr. Brown relates how one of the “spirits” brought to H.P.B. one of the decorations which had belonged to her father, and says that “Madame was overwhelmed with gratitude.”}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|H.P.B. underlined the word overwhelmed and added at the end of the article in pen and ink:]}}

Overwhelmed—be switched! . . . . not my father’s pet, if you please. H. P. Blavatsky is never “overwhelmed.”  

{{HPB-CW-comment|[In Scrapbook, Vol. I, p. 8, the account of Mr. Brown is followed immediately by an article entitled “Unpractical Spirits,” presumably also from The Daily Graphic. It is signed with the initials “I.F.F.” which obviously stand for Irvin Francis Fern. H.P.B. added the following remarks in pen and ink:]}}

Bravo! Irvin Francis Fern—a great Occultist. He IS RIGHT but we have to defend phenomena & prove it too before we teach them philosophy.

{{HPB-CW-comment|[In H.P.B.’s Scrapbook, Vol. IV, p. 79, there is a cutting from the Banner of Light of September 8, 1877. It is a very appreciative review by Dr. G. Bloede of some advance sheets of Isis Unveiled. H.P.B. wrote at the bottom of the first column:]}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|[In H.P.B.’s Scrapbook, Vol. IV, p. 83, there is a cutting concerning Dr. J. M. Peeble’s travels in India and Africa. He looks upon Buddhists as being Spiritualists, and suggests that millions of Spiritualistic tracts be distributed among them to enlighten them on the subject of “angel ministry.”}}

 

Heaven save the mark! It is not enough for the poor Hindus to be pestered with Christian missionaries, but they must have the affliction of being bombarded with tracts and lectures of modern Spiritualism. Of Spiritualism of which they and their forefathers were just masters and professors for the last several millenniums.

{{HPB-CW-SB-reference|1:271|1:70, 7-46}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|[In her Scrapbook, Vol. I, p. 70, H.P.B. pasted the last portion of an article by Emily Kislingbury entitled “Spiritualism in America,” published in The Spiritualist of London, December 14, 1877. Above the cutting, H.P.B. wrote in ink:]}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|[In her Scrapbook, Vol. VII, p. 46, H.P.B. pasted another article by the same writer and wrote the following remarks on a small card decorated with coloured flowers:]}}