The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 19, 1901, Page 5

> this ga three e yus the world over as of “Primate” Hze Grove e of awa was me to C ago, when ed by these s and his took up Nagasawa has had and under his £ Fe Srove chatge supervis d a limited ally s are 1o, Prince Grove is now run basis, the owners by t sere surrounded luxuries of any other me houses on the Grove property Naga- s the fine ma used by is when he w2 der of the cc The other three houses are at of Miss Nicholas, Miss Mrs. Hart and tne vis- e the history of the ain Grove is turned Thomas Lake Harris he fut s will be but blanks com- parel to the chapters that have at times electrified the philosophic world. For Thomas Lake arris, spiritual het, seer, reformer, hy wotist or wkat y man. He was a human et wh ew after him thousands of s who were as clay in his hands, over nim all their worldly obeying his dictates as humbly not the ignorant and supersti- were caught in the meshes of cullar magnetism. Péople of Iture and refinement became his g slaves, performing the most de- 1 tasks that their spirits ed sufficiently to enter his brotherhood At & word from him devoted husbands forswore the ‘companiomhip of their wives Mothers parted with children &t his dic- tates. Sons and daughters renounced their parents. Amoéng the most distinguished followers of Harris were Lady Oliphant, her famous son Lawrence and his wife, Alice Ol- phant. Ledy Oliphant died in the broth- erhood, but Lawrence Oliphant and his wife before their deaths awoke to the true character of Primate Harris and his was when his talented ret Oliphant, published thelr branded Harris as a fraud the reputation of ris belted the globe. d and America did Tt book make a s t now this man whose mystic attrac- ed such havoc with so rounded by great weaith living in New York with hj Lee Waring Harris. Ani 1 Grove, once the focus for all d mysticward, is merely an ged vineyard. The only e left is that the man- n Harrls and his doctrines. arris to thful followers has re- cently issued the statement that he has discovered the secret of perpetual vouth. JA BULLET \GRAZED fl HIS HAIR | t 70 his vy youthful e almost his asser- New ago, n- in provements. first cre ripple these people he d clded to go to a distant place and d a community. “spirit” Jed them to a spot in North Carolina, which they named untain Cove ey believed that this was the origi- nal spot of the Gar- den of Eden. Harris acted as senger between the Lord and his own people, and owing to his position as the vicegerent of God he recelved and held in trust for God all the property of the disciples and the community,* But after a community life of two years the les disbanded and Harris went to England in 3 to lecture and preach. There he met Lawrence Oliphant, who, evep at that age, 30, had had a remark- able career. Oliphant, despite his ad- mitted talent, bad every kind of “‘wheel” except a balance wheel, and became infat- uated with Harris. It was not until seven years later, however, that he joined the brotherhood. Harris had selected Brocton, N. Y., on the shore of a beautiful lake, as the spot for his second colony. He crossed to Eng- land to raise funds for the purpose and renewed his acquaintance with Oliphant. Craftily he held himself aloof from Oli- phant after thoroughly arousing his curi- osity. Harris warned Oliphant how hard it was to get Into the protherhood on any terms. This only spul Oliphant on. Lawrence Oliphant was then wrapped up > Prince and doubtless - o — i in politics. Harris first tested his come plete power over this perverted brilliant man by accompanying him to the House of Commons on an occasion when Ol phant expected to electrify everybody. Harris forbade him to open his lips at the critical moment, and Oliphant, whose pet ambition had been to be a Parllamen- tary success, was adjudged a failure. Oliphant then turned his back on his brilliant career in politics, literature and soclety and followed Prophet Harris to Brocton. His name among the brother- hood was changed to Woodlive. He rose at 4 a. m., spoke to no one, received his food from a silent messenger, dug out cow stables, returned at 9 at night to his loft over the stables containing empty boxes and a straw mattress, only to sent out again in the dead of winter draw water for two hours. Thus at Pri- mate Harrls’ command did Lawrence Oli- phant, traveler, author and politician, “cast the devil out of himself.” Not only did he perform this menial work, but he THE SUNDAY CALL. gave his entire fortune, $125,000, to Harrls ® invest along the shores of Lake Erle. Groups of three or four persons were formed in the brotherhood, but if any af- fection developed they were broken up immediately. Thus, when Oliphant’s self- sacrifice had gloriously resulted in routing the evil one within him, he sent for his mother. Lady Oliphant came, but Harris would not allow her to see her son, much less speak to him. Harris, when Oliphant's probation of two years was up, sent him to London to test the strength of his bellef. He re- called Oliphant grequently to the commu- nity, and, though Oliphant chafed some- ‘what under this restraint, he remained loyal. Before allowing his disciple to un- dertake war correspondence in 1870, Har- ris gave him a sign by which he should know when he must return. That sign was to be 2 bullet whizzing into a room where Oliphant was to be seated. During the Paris commune Oliphant had just turned Into a house to avold a charge of soldlery when a bullet grazed his hair. He obeyed the sign and returned to Har- ris in New York at once, though the Lon- don newspaper, which he represented, en- tered a vigorous protest. But Oliphant, after being recalled from the scene of the Franco-Prussian war, didn’t stay long in America. He returned to London and with his mother went to Paris. Here he met Alice Le Strange, a young, cultured and wealthy English woman. They were married after great opposition from Harris, whose permission PRINCE TOKUMMOYE N ONE DA GAIN FOOT wWiNnDow both had craved most humbly. Two years later Oliphant, his wife and mother returned to Brocton. His wife soon became as thoroughly infatuated with the brotherhood as he. Lady Ol- phant and Alice were made to wash, iron, mend clothes and raise chickens, while Oliphant himself was In New York most of the time attending to the business of the community. ‘When Harris pulled up his stakes at Brockton and came to California to found another colony Alice Oliphant was among those who accompanied him. Oliphant was ordered to stay East and when he crossed the continent expressly to see his wife the prophet said him nay and duti- fully Oliphant returned East. Later he went to the Holy Land and thence to London, where his wife was allowed to Join him. In May, 1881, Lawrence visited his mother, Lady Oliphant, who was serious- ly 11l at Brockton, and he started with her for Fountaln Grove. She died in his arms shortly after arriving there. Harrls, it 1s sald, was very angry that any curs at all should have been sought for Lady Oliphant. This with the discovery that Jewelry Alice had worn when entering the brotherhood and which the priorate had teken away from her, adorned a member of Harris’ household, opened his eyes to the kind of brotherhood he had joined. ‘What he had suspected before he now thoroughly belleved. This jewelry In- cident is told by Margaret Oliphant, the popular novelist, in her memoirs of her cousin Lawrence. Lawrence Oliphant and other members of the Brocton community tried to get back the money which they had invested in land and which Harris held sole title to. Harris telegraphed to Alice Oliphant in England for the aid of her authority in order to put her husband in the mad- house, where it # said Harris’ first wifa was. Proocedings to declare Oliphant a lunatic had already begun, but the sanc- tion of the nearest relative was needed. At this the scales began to drop from Miss Oliphant's eyes also. Eventually #both of them recovered the land at Broc- ton their money had bought. ‘While the Oliphants are perhaps the most noted of Harris’ proselytes, he has had others of equal wealth and good birth. Among the ladies who resided at Fountain Grove was Jane Lee Waring, a sister of SHE AT TEMPTED 'O ER LIBERTY BY JUMPING FROM A TWENTY the late Colonel George E. Waring, Com- missioner of Strest Cl New York. Although she for years, it w departure for ) ago, that Harris ma described imate had ho of the > black, g over his eyebrows were beetling an s were revolv- ing lights in & , and, like his voice, had a g focus. His cast of mitic. He wors > and a lo ed to be at z gray beard. only twenty- other times over Grove vineyard is w people there h he dwelt at ve years. their very elt But strange been the rumors that have floated down from this home of the mystics. There have been s about t g an obstrep- was to cure her of objecting to his way of making platonic love. Again it was rumored that whenever a person had an attack of the “devils” he or she was kept without sleep as the “infernals” wers more active at night time. One woman, it 1s said, was allowed to sleep only from 9 o’clock at night to 3, the other hours be- ing put In at hard work. Besides the handsome residences at Fountaln Grove, Harris had a little cabin ten miles back in the hills, where he spent the hours in solitary seclusion and in the “‘conversion of fleshly molecules into psy- chic animates.” About five years ago Santa Rosa woke up one morning to find that the little fourteen-year-old girl, Mary Harris, had committed sulcide at Fountaln Grove. They had not even been aware of the ex- istence of this girl and her sister, so closely were the children kept when vis- itors were around. Not only were these two girls denied a peep at the joyous out- side world of childhood, but they wers even deorived of each other's company, as the testimony at the inquest developed. For days before this young girl commit- ted suicide she was kept a prisoner In her own room on the groundless charges that she was “stubborn and wayward” and needed disciplining: The testimony, how- ever, proved that she was no more “stub- born™ or “wayward” than any high-spirit- ed young girl fretting for physical and mental freedom. She was kept In solitary confinement awalting orders to release her from her grandfather, Primate Harris. Mary Harris rebelled against this with all the strength of her independent spirit, One day she attempted to gain her liberty by jumping from a twenty-foot window, only to be picked up limp and helpless in the garden and returned to solitary se- clusion. Then fourteen-year-old Mary Harris swallowed the bitter draught, de- termined on release at any cost. But the old days at Fountain Grove will never return. With Harris in New York there I3 no longer the human magnet thers to attract distinguished people from the four corners of the earth. To-day it is merely a rich vineyard, with Prince Ka- nal Naggsawa as manager in chief. New Zealand shares with Iceland the distinction over other parts of the earth in freedom from all forms of cattle dis- ease.