San Francisco Chronicle from San Francisco, California • Page 3

"JTTi' 7.r,,iF rww I ft bbbsbbsbbsbbB: IsbbsbbsbbsbbH V. BBBsBBaBBaBBaBBaBBfBBaBBaBBBaBBiV ft WSmmksL mmmrmiXi mmm sOaasBsmar bsbsbsW 4 ffsi ABiXBcHKJIBk i Byiak ill "Hr 1 1 fViXMi MS KM KislJSS fc't jV 4 eMelLbVi 1 ONE SEER Makes a Little Mysticism Pay Big Dividends; ANOTHER Is Arrested on Complaint of His Fair Miss Cleo Jocelyn, Niece of Charles Q.ulncy MllltnnalcATiriin TY.M Ih fju Anm1afnlirl Tknl ft I7V It' Charles Newman Made Love toller During: a Seance. HOCUS POCUS" was what they called it back in the good old days when the "magl clan wore a pointed cap and searched the tars from his lofty chamber id the effort to learn and turn human destiny One could buy love charms from these august metaphysicians equally efficacious in binding forever an errant fancy, or in sweeping the earth of rivals. For even then it was love that most interested struggling humanity Then there were later days when the Prince of Darkness was said to assist certain' whom he favored in the rites of conjuring and curbing love and fortune This was the age, when witches were burned at the stake. Nevertheless they prospered, for men and women continued to seek such mystic services.

Still later (here was great rushing op and down among folks who wanted things, money per hips, but always love, who had begun to hear of the Twentieth Century hocus pocus workers. They obtained for you whatever you wished by the tearfully simple process of setting mind to work over matter Did your husband show symptoms of a roving disposition? Merlin in a dress suit would send his mind Into the silence to exhort hubby's spirit to return to the Areside and camp there Did you feel like marrying the lady you'd glimpsed for the first, last, and only time on the corner of the Park a week ago last Wednesday night? Fasyl Mr Adept lighted his sandalwood switched on the pink light, and commanded her soul to appear, and take its orders The following Sunday you were supposed tp be Jolted by the impact of the young lady throwing herself into your arms and screeching 'Be mine!" The idea is that if you rememberthls sprightly crowd you will be more than likely to recall the osoillations of Oom the Omnipotent, otherwise known as the Loving Guru of the Tantrika. And perhaps you will recall the "Reverend" Charles Newman, alias Harry Cohen, "The Man Whe Knows All," Los Angeles Mystic and founder of a strange love cult. Oom, whose ether name Is Dr Pierre Bernard, now holds forth 26 miles from New York up the Hudson in Nyack, to the consternation and icy disapproval of the staid little town Ills "Braeburn Club" stretches oVer miles of emerald velvet lawn and lies at the northern end of the town, Just above the Tappan Zee Golf courses are there, tennis courts, hockey fields. And in the centre Is a clubhouse, but hardly tbe sort to call from their mansions for week ends and longer stays dominant figures in the most select Knickerbocker society What Is the lure of the Braeburn Club? Tbs wealthy members may enjoy the out of door diversions at any of tb dosens of vastly attractive unlry clubs.

Conveniences of the ilub fcouse are. In nj way to be com pared with Uie lux. ury of their homes It i by a frequenter ef the orgtRitatton" that guests are required to make their own beds, wash their own dishes and copk their own meals! The very simple explanation Is that Oom haa succeeded in offering the wealth and fashion of this country and England something they haven't been able to buy elsewhere The occult! And sometimes the esoteric activities up in matrimony of his Nyack plant wind Such was the finish at least, to the membership in the club of Mrs Ogden L. Mills daughter of Mrs. William Vender bilt, and Sir Paul Dukes noted English author and lecturtr They traeled from the Braeburn Club not long ago, to the office of the county clerk at Nyack and were married, and slipped over to Europe before too much publicity could be drawn by their hasty action The "Reverend Newman does not ran to Country Clubs His idea of doing the handsome by persons who felt the urge toward the aid of the unseen was a "Temple of Love," a heavily curtained, fllmly lighted, incense scented, somewhat terrifying place of mystery, with bizarre eyrabpls snapped up here and there from every known age and clime to complete the atmosphere of ghostliness And into this absurd staging there poured a steady stream of men and women, all ages, of all degrees of mental, educational and cultural development, and of every possible state of poverty and affluence They earae for advice on financial problems, domestic difficulties, proposed enterprises.

But mostly they came for assistance in affairs of the heart An assistant, of the pseudo Reverend, who turned against tbs Temple after an attack of conscience, sUJed that hundreds of dollars were taken in every day by the sneering man in the ridiculous "priest's" robe who preyed upon his women clients and forced them into tbe most incredible of sex situations. Why do they fall for the mystery stuff? Why does superstition retain its hold upon the growing materialism of the day Why do supposedly intelligent men and women pat their faith In hocus pocus? Is it because the work! hasnt as yet grown upt because the charm of lip fairy stories still clings? Oom the Omnipotent first burst upon the alar tied vision of New York when the veil was I iSSPljrf tttfT HH BBBBBBBBBiSBBW fKSV TbB' Vr SBBBBBBBbHHH nHHslfsBBT UUmM III I lassssl I 111 Hill HpssbbbbbbbbbbbbbI HHHB ''WMmMhli 3sbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbI IbbbbbbbbbbV i tssBBBsf 'HP 'W flH 3 1ibHsbbbbbbbbbI mmmmMmmmmmmm wkm i)aaaH BWaBBBHsfaaWZStiBr. aaW mSSXBSSmmWKmmBMBBmK MWk Vl, "tBBSBBBBBBSBaBBBm. jH JaHaBHrTiBVH9ldbAfa Jbbbbb! MmSMmBSBBBBBjmBjaMMkmL. aal WJBF bbbbbbKmHLbbbbb aHaLff VJkJfSElMiS ia.ia.ia.ia.Bs'i!BlsBBBHaBSiHBH BHbbbHSbbbI mmm 5 iIbWsbHb iISbbbbbKbbbHbbbbbHbB m.

J2i mm KIHBiir JBH 6mmmSm rimllWiHBBiBWW 'EliMHBREiililililH KMjMWWXtMlmmtAM9iMmUMmUTl' l4w7 Vi kV fj jwirtlfiBalSaHMraBTf aBflBaBBBBBBBBBl ft4KlBB fPBT rIrvVBBMr SflBBBBBBBBB CHStfflBBBBBBBBBBBVf tmzf sy fJjmwmBmmW lESbJ S9mWmmmmmmWy'' ifsBBBBBBHsBBBBBMFllKlasTa? mmwKmWmMSSKA XbbbbII MmmmMmmmJtTtW bbbVh bmbbVJ VBEv4rAvi'f bbbbBvbPbMV KPaffiP' rJ bbbbsKjbbbbVSbIbbbbb' Wrviflsn WBWiu ll bbH Above "JUr." Charles Newman, Who Ran a Hocus pocus Love Cult in Los Angeles Until the Police Called, and, in the Circle, Dr. Pierre Bernard, Better Known as Oom, the Omnipotent, Who Now Bans the Braeborn Club at Nyack, N. Y. torn from before certain of the goings on In an apartment on Eighty sixth street Investigation proved that an ultra ordinary, unread and under bred man, once a lemon picker in the orchards of California, had established a grotesque love cult in which he figured as a veritable Rasputin. And like the victims of that arch villain these of this American charlatan were of the highest social strata in the land His assistant and high priestess was and still is the former Mrs.

Dace Melbourne Shannon Chariot, wife of a weathy Mexican miner, now known as Mrs. DeVries. Aftex the expose and the scurrying to cover of those who haunted the New York quarters, Oom lay low for a while and then opened bis Nyack estate Such wealthy and socially prominent women as Mrs. K. Vanderbilt, allied herself with the dub, as did her daughters, Mrs.

Barbara Hatch and Mrs Mills. Mrs Vanderbilt is ssld to have put 1200,000 into the establishment, but later waa reimubursed $76,000 of this amount Mabel dsPuyster Haskell, former wife of Walter Haskell of P. Morgan Company, members of one of the most aristocratic families in America, has been In the Loving Guru's Brah min temple a number of years At the physical culture studios Oom maintains In the city, would be initiates of the order are given, along with their exercises, instruction in the mysteries of Tantraism Thry are taught that it is an etMical science conveyed by a series ef shocks, thief of which are the love shocks. Upon the Nyack estate a calisthenic ritual Is gone through by men and women together, scantily dad. That all human experience, together with tbe entire world is encompassed In the body of woman is one of the important teachings "Mysticism" is the Guru's name for it, but others call rob.

i. long, white n.ghUdrea. Emer effect trimmed up with cabalistic designs. He Who Telb of the Buncombe I Bto wears it on occasions of Importance, one of which, Used to Deceive Men and Women Into JJonai no doubt was that which marked the meeting of ing Toward His Temple of Love. The Former Mrs.

Ogden L. Mills, Daughter of Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, Who Married Sir Paol Dukes, British Author, After a Courtship Which Took Place While Both Were Members of the Omnipotent Oom's Braeburn Club in Nyack. Margaret Rutherfurd Mills and Sir Paul Dukes.

Sir Paul long has been noted as a lecturer on occult subjects In Russia he is said to have been chief of the British Secret Service, and ht Bol sheviki put a price on his head. In the only statement he made following his marriage, he championed tbe Braeburn Club as a place of high ideals and stated that he considered membership an "inestimable privilege In Los Angeles the "Reverend Newman fares less well than docs the mystic of this coast Mrs. Lillian Ilildretb, a 16 year old bride, decided the weird ceremonial of the wizard who undertook to give ber the benefit of his leverage on the ipirituaworld was in the nature of indignity to herself Accordingly she visited the police on her way home from the Tomple of Love and what she told them caused Cohen to be put under arrest It was about this time that a reformed helper of tbe wiiard told of the queer rites of the temple Women would be ushered into the sanctum and ordered if young and beautiful to disrobe. The mystic could not see their spirits through their clothes. Hrst they made their any thing from t5 to whatever the seer thought they had His pronouncements alt w4re aa filled with mystery as they were deficient In good sense.

One of his requirements was $7 for a brow of "spirit herb'' made pf water, vinegar and pepper. But Cohen was arrested, finally, and he gave his version of why human beings fin for theknys tery stuff Said he: "Women in general txlieve that there are life and lev mysteries they cannot, of themselves, fathom. They believe some wiser aoii of Adam or daughter of tve holds the theao pussies. Thais the secret oX hocus pocus. "Usually there is something wrong with a woman's love life when she begins visiting medi urns.

They go to seer to confirm; or refute their own. snspiciens. Practically all women patrons ask me 'It my husband true? Mo wise medium answers 'No' to such a question. 1 imnwdiately propound the counter qustionrar you true to hunt' When they shriek 'yeal' I Well, he true to you too. Go home and be happy I' "My system Is to outguess thrm evajs their questions.

It's a battle of viti and. to mind, perfectly legitimate i ii U4 It i i i 1 1 jrv ii i VOsWarSc Ir rXVf LV Lc7 1 i. i iisM bw'fc OTr V4 Ato.iummhh vT yrrgr 1 i if wwm i. A i 77 j. THB SAN FRANCISCX) SUfvTMY CHROrJIA, ti7intc 5 JS.V MW, 1 ST.iTl km.