The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 6, 1898, Page 17

FEBRUARY 1898. \DAY, 6, | Jz‘rtmye Scenes at a Wfidnight Sathering of e depia. OW I obtained permission to join the party is i that T ¢ statn it which t night to tr 1 in the Klon- and then the wall ated, re- h knew ‘The thorough und “Widen your > your personality. truth Ahfiu-\. 5 To & after the in a th ient to make its spirit subser power. If I know the attribu thing I know its spirit. If I'can make 1 thing 1 irit To und to imagine to be it. While the 1 eps the soul may go to different places and act in 1 Wherever consciousness u are. oncentrate your ditate upon that which you wish to know and so learn.” Silence followed. After a moment’s u ed the door quietly. arge room bare of the usual There was no carpet, no o soft curtains or portieres. a number of hard-seated chairs set stiffly back against the wall, and en similar ones were arranged in a slightly curving line facing to- ward, but a little distance removed from the wood fire which was blazing on the hearth and furnjshed the only illumination of the apartment. six of these seats were occupied, but vacant. As I had been instructed I slipped thout going through the tor-‘ of waiting for greeting or wel- No one appeared to notice my ix men present sat silent and motionless, gazing straight before them, apparently engrossed with their own thoughts. They sat with their legs- horizontal to the knees, then perpendicular to the Boor, their bodies erect. and their hands | There the s previou into it venth was | ever, their knees—the posi- circulation to what | “perpendicular cur- | | )f them was the young profes- | a recent arrival on the L‘Ufls(,i be a supreme Instruc- | American Order of Occultists vn as the already seen substantiated to degree by various m erious eso- | teric phenomena. He has the pale face, s and the slender physique 1 st =nt, and he locked less of the th and more of the spirit than us- even, in a flowing robe which lent | a certaln grave dignity to his appear- | and manner. him was a keen-faced business man whom I should never have sus- pected of having any inclination to oble with occult things. A law T and a physician were in the line, also ¢ -d capita who is said to spend a »d deal of his money in trying to find out things that few know. Our who is a novice like myself, made e required odd number. ing it impossible to concentrate nind as my companions were evi- voring to do, 1 gazed t me curiously, but covertly. By flickering light of the fire, w burned brightly, med on the point of going out 1 saw that the five sacred col- rismatic hues, were arranged ende some- in the way prescribed by the founders of the order, and that all the various conditiorn of material arrangement had been complied with as far as possi- under the circumstances. 1 glanced sidewise at the faces of my companions and became instantly con- scious that my curlosity was a disturb- | ing element. The man next to me stirred ureasily and the professor looked in my direction with a sad-eyed blankness which was a mute reproach. thing but my though conscious of a sir attitude of mind. From merely curious I became recepti : I no longer wondered it any- ge to occur; i simply events and accepted them The fire died down al- | rkne and we still sat | e with ourselves and our e and a soft vibration in the air. My companions were breathing in con- cert the ords which create the of atmosphere and thought and | St to be desired at such meet I joined with them as best I | ings. could and had only been breathing the | soft soupds for a few between us and the parently from above, a shower of glow- | ing points of light, which disappeared | before they reached the floor. | A moment later and a tiny ball of | luminosity—it could not be called defi- | nite and aggressive light—arose wav- minutes when | ‘ fire there fell, ap- | eringly from the boards at our feet, and, like a ball of incandescent thistle- down, floated uncertainly before us, higher and higher, until it, too, disap- peared in the dense darkness which seemed to hover over our heads like a cloud. I turned my eyes toward the pro- | fessor and saw without astonishment | that hi against shadow ace stood out in strong relief | e background of brooding | which surrounded us, as if | some light from within faintly shone | through it, making it visible by its own | soft glow. The other faces I could see | but dimly; 1 the central point | of the ng. The nerical whole gatl atmos in int vibrations in- | sity until a faint trem- ulousne unison with them thrilied through my whole system. I feit as if my breath were deserting me, or rather | if I were becoming capable of ex{st-“ creased ing without breath. I felt as if I were mysterious way lifted up in some : which seemed, how- quite natural and simple at the | time, far above everything that I had ever known or felt or thought, and | then, as from an immeasurable ais- | tance, I heard the sound of what seemed a chime of fairy beils. Clear, veet, but scarcely loud enough to more than suggest themselves upon the air they rang but for a moment—a lit- | tle fall of musical raindrops, as it were | —and then silence settled about us oncet again. We had heard the “astral bells' as the sounds died into the s that had scarcely .been disturbed we all rose and bowed' our heads. To the | occultist this is the signal that all con- ditions are right for the presentation | of such mysteries as may be accorded. The shadow that had hovered over | us drew aside and settled like a screen \ on the eastern wall. Bits of light uke‘ luminous snowflakes floated over ns‘ surface, increasing In number and-bril- | liancy, as they gathered toward the center, forming a shining cloud which | granted the rare permission of attend- | continually that something be done for | his brother. paled and glowed and then separated into sharply defined lett A ser tence written in cramped characters’| and fn to me an unknown language shone out clearly before us. “It is a greeting from the Master,” said the prafessor reverently. We rose again and bowed to the mys- tery which the absent mind had sent as h ion to our meeting, and | zed upon the message the lines and uncertain, and | themselves into the | n. shining clo Our ctor extended his hand in we were to re 1 kmndinv‘ and s t and concentrate our minds | on the nebulous brightness before us. It remained stationary as to place, but full of internal motion like super- heated air, shimmering and shivering, and by degrees changing its form frunl‘ the horizontal to the perpendicular as | it increased in size and density. At last it rested, a column of light | with its base on the floor, and then, as if sc s had fallen from my eyes, I| saw that it had resolved itself into the | semblance, or rather the actual ethe- .d personality of a man. was an old man with a long beard | and a slight stoop in his shoulders, and he was dressed in the flowing robes of the far His hair and beard and garments were of the silvery gray of a fog bank upon which the sun is shin- ing, but otherwise there was nothing | ghostlike or abnormal about him. He looked at us with steady, kindly eves and smiled at us in grave, pater- nal fashion, making a graceful Orien- tal gesture of salutation as he did so, but he did not speak nor move toward us. He stood reposeful and walting, a faint shadow of question on his hand- some, strongly marked face, and the| professor, looking down the line, made | a slight but imperative gesture to the other novice and myself. It meant dismissal. When we were | was | | ing the meeting it had been agreed that we should instantly depart on the ap- pearance of thé visitor. But we had | been promised greater sights in these | mysteries when we became more ad- | vanced in the learning of the order. We had already been permitted to see more | than any other newcomers into the | ranks of the occultists, and we went | out softly into the darkness of the hall | and left those who had a right ta re- | main in the presence of their astral guest. REUBEN TAYLOR. —_———— TWO BROTHERS. ! Here is the story of two brothers who‘ stuck to one another through life, and | in death wert not divided. They were | past 60 years of age, and, being report- | ed ill and destitute in the old house | where. they lived alone, were removed | to Bellevue Hospital. Each, though helpless, was anxious to take care of the other. When asked if they had any friends, both gave the same reply: “The best friend I have in the world is my brother here.” On their cots side by side they lay dy- ing, yet neither appeared to have any | thought of his own suffering, but asked The elder one died first, John, dear. God 1 Less than four hours after this farewell John breathed his last. The next day—it was the day after Christmas—the two brothers lay side by side in the Morgue, where an aged | woman, who had been their friend, | came and identified the bodies, promis- | ing to notify relatives who would see that they were buried together, i Such is a real incident from the great epic of daily life in the metropolis, and it points its moral better than some fic- tion.—Leslie's Weekly. 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