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"A certain Countess Blavatsky has, it appears, been doing some marvelous feats in India as a spiritualist medium.  The Indian Police were disposed at first to look upon her and her companions of a socalled theosophical party as a number of Russian spies; but if the trick which she has contrived to play with a glove does not convince them that the Countess herself is at any rate a far more extraordinary person than any spy, they must be very skeptical people.  The story itself, like other wonders in the same scientific fields, reads almost like a hoax; but a sober letter from a "Barrister, son of a well-known Liberal M.P.," in the ''Standard'' shows that to him, at least, the affair is serious enough.  According to the Indian papers, the Countess brought with her from England a pair of gloves.  On the 17th of February also a pair of gloves was seen by Col. Olcott in Bombay.  About this there is no question, and the Countess informed the Colonel that she had been requested by "an English barrister, President of the British Theosophical Society, and son of a Liberal Member of Parliament whose name is well known throughout India" &mdash; the gentleman who writes to the ''Standard'', in short &mdash; to send him one of these gloves immediately on her arrival, in order to improve his father's eyesight.  The scene changes to London.  On the same day the barrister found a telegram at his chambers in the Temple from a lady medium in London, saying that her "spirit" had received a message from Mme. Blavatsky in Bombay.  Needless to say that this "message" was the glove sent off from Bombay that very day, with "the well-known signature on the inside of the kid, and the less known and less decipherable symbol above it."  It was received by the gentleman full in the face, in a darkened room, and he now gives evidence that he is quite satisfied that the transmission of the glove was effected by the Countess Blavatsky in Bombay and the less powerful medium in London between them.  Earnest seekers after truth in Bombay have begged the Countess Blavatsky to send home their overland trunks by the same route, offering any reasonable price for the accomodation.  So far, however, she has accepted no contract: though we believe this is only a question of terms &mdash; at least that seems to be the opinion of the Indian papers."

&mdash; Transcribed by Will Johnson [mailto:wjhonson@aol.com wjhonson@aol.com], Professional Genealogist, from the original image.