Memoirs of an editor : fifty years of American journalism / Edward P. Mitchell.

MEDDLINGS WITH THE OCCULT

187

Other World." Levitation, in particular, was a hobby of
his. He used to come up to The Sun and tell us how one
of the Eddys had floated out of a window for a distance
of three miles, landing safely on a mountain. He argued
earnestly with Frank Church and myself that such a
feat was possible for any one having confidence in the
fidelity of the spirit guardians. We used to offer to go
with him to the top of the tall tower of the Tribune
building and levitate one after the other down into Printing House Square, he leading and we promising on honor
to follow when we had seen him reach the pavement without fracture. Then he would change the subject to
theosophy and the continual receipt of missives instantaneously transmitted from the mother lamasery or cave
in Tibet to Madame Blavatsky and himself in New York.
I have before me now a cryptic message addressed inside
"To the Hon. Henry H. Markham, Governor of California, Sacramento," reading:
SIR: Crispi-12-13-94-Anaxagoras-Peloubet. On receipt kindly mail this sheet back to the Editor of The Sun, New
York City.
And marked on the outside of the envelope:
By Mahatma Delivery; kindness of Col. H. S. Olcott.
I engaged to join his Theosophical Society if he would
either read the message or cause it to be read without
opening the envelope, or successfully transmit it by the
aerial route to the unknown person to whom it was addressed inside. The colonel rather reluctantly undertook

to ask Madame Blavatsky to have it forwarded, but returned the letter unbroken soon after, saying that the
test was unnecessary and might even be considered insulting by the masters. We were good friends till he went