“It is not true that I was converted to Spiritualism by the Fox sisters,” said Emily B. Ruggles, to a reporter of The New York World in late March 1893. “I have been a believer in Spiritualism for over forty years.” Emily was a slender woman, in the brighter side of sixty. She looked quite motherly sitting in the in the parlor of her home at 492 State Street, Brooklyn. The house itself was old-fashioned, with brick exterior, with a... Read more
There were still quite a few citizens of Findlay walking home from work on the evening of May 21, 1888. Nothing, at first, seemed out of the ordinary. Just a few years earlier it resembled a mining-town, with a scattering of derricks, immense oil tanks, and a few rude shanties. It was now the great natural gas town of Northwestern, Ohio, and the adventurers were displaced by civilization. The finely shaded streets were lined with pretty cottages, and the... Read more
Mabel Collins (1851-1927) was born Minna Mabel Collins in 1851 at St Peters Port, Guernsey, and though never formally educated, she proved a skilled writer since childhood. In 1871 Mabel married Keningale Robert Cook, a stockbroker, writer, and former editor of The Dublin University Magazine. Both Mabel and Keningale contributed numerous articles to magazines, mostly on topics concerning education, fashion, and women in the arts. (Mabel was a fashion columnist for Edmund Yates’ periodical, The World.) The couple lived for some... Read more
Murshidabad Table Of Contents Pre-India Charley The English In India: Part I The English In India: Part II The English In India: Part III. Murshidabad Murshid Quli Khan Berhampore The Civil Station Bricks Of Opium Tussar Silk Bhadra Lok The Daghee The Pavane Of An Indian Dynasty Maharani Swarnamoyee Who Sows Sesame Reaps Sesame Anglo India Berhampore Theosophical Society Sanskrit Examination Saint April How The Nawab’s Army Was Kidnapped Gopal Baba Verochka’s Letters... Read more
EVERYTHING NEAR AND DEAR Vera Johnston July 10 1890, Suez Canal. Approaching Port Said. The endless Suez Canal stretched on. The ditch of dirty water, especially unsightly after the bright colors of the Red Sea, was so narrow that it seemed that there was no way for two medium-sized steamships to pass through it. Nevertheless, steamships were encountered, and very often gliding past the Chusan so slowly that the passengers between on the two vessels had time to talk.... Read more
THE S.S. CHUSAN Vera Johnston July 4 1890, Near Aden On The Red Sea. My two large Chinese vases were smashed to smithereens. A piece of white tulle, embroidered with gold, and the wings of those bronze-green Madras beetles were completely soaked, and stained the color of the red silk pillowcase in which I placed it. How many clay idols were crushed and crumbled! And my gorodnichya! My God, what troubles did the merciless monsoon cause to my gorodnichya!... Read more
BOATILA-MANJI Vera Johnston June 27-July 4, 1890. “Native Boats Off Bombay.”[1] We hired local boatsmen to take us to the steamer in their native-vessel which they called manjis.[2] It began to rain as soon as we sailed out of the port, but the sun shined so bright that it hurt one’s eyes. The little manji dived and climbed the crests of the wave. The helmsman began to sing his endless song, which was picked up by the rowers.... Read more
GOING HOME Vera Johnston June 27 1890. We were detained in Bombay for a whole week. Our things, due to the mistake of the station master in Calcutta, turned out to not only not arrive, but to be sent to the northwestern provinces. We had to let the large steamer of the Italian company Florio Rubbattino pass, although the tickets had already been purchased, and Charley and I were bored with the familiar Bombay. We already knew everything that... Read more
THE TREE IN HELL Charles Johnston June 1890. You enter Allahabad across the splendid bridge over the bright blue Jumna, whose sapphire streams stretches away as far as the eye can reach. A little to the south of the bridge the Jumna is joined by the sacred Ganges, and the two flow on southwards to the holy bathing places of Benares, the thrice holy bathing places in Benares the old Hindu gods still rule; but here at Allahabad we... Read more
CHOLERA Charles Johnston February 1890 The pariah dogs were forgotten in the sterner, depressing duties of the cholera epidemic, which came down upon Kandi Subdivision two months before its time.[1] The deeper cause, I suppose, was bacterial infection. The predisposing condition was colic, due to the eating of new rice, which has some such effect as green crab-apples have in the department of the interior. So my people began to die like flies.[2] Certain Bengali ways made it terribly... Read more
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