Theos-Talk Archives (May 2006 Message tt00034)

Concerning the letter from HPB to Mme. Coulomb,
which I reproduced at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/32853

I suggest that the first part of the letter
is genuine H.P.B.

I reproduce that part below:

===============================================

Monday.

My dear Mme. Coulomb,

Last night, Sunday, I wanted to show my friends a phenomenon and
sent a cigarette tied up with my hair to be placed opposite Watson's
hotel in the coat-of-arms (under the Prince of Wales' statue) under
the horn of the Unicorn. Captain Maitland had himself chosen the
town and named the place. He spent 13 Rs. for a telegram to Police-
Commissioner Grant, his brother-in-law. The latter went the moment
he received it and—found NOTHING. It is a dead failure but I do not
believe it, for I saw it there clearly at 3 in the morning. I am
sorry for it for Captain Maitland is a Theosophist and spent money
over it. 

============================================

This part of the letter is coherent and the accuracy of this part of 
the letter can be confirmed by both an entry in Col. Henry S. 
Olcott's handwritten diary for 1880 and from Captain Maitland's own 
testimony.  I will give these two pieces of evidence in a later 
posting.

The rest of the letter which reads:

==================================================
They want to tear the cigarette paper in two and keep one
half. And I will choose the same places with the exception of the
Prince's statue for our enemies might watch and see the cigarette
fall and destroy it. I enclose an envelope with a cigarette paper in
it. I will drop another half of a cigarette behind the Queen's head
where I dropped my hair the same day or Saturday. Is the hair still
there? and a cigarette still under the cover? Oh Dio Dio! What a
pity . . . .
                   Your faithfully,
                   H. P. B.

(Note on the flyleaf) Make a half cigarette of this. Take care of
the edges.
===============================================

is fairly incoherent in parts and makes little sense.  I would 
suspect that this latter part of the letter has been tampered with 
or completely forged by the Coulombs.

I will post later H.P.B.'s own comments about this letter and I will 
see what Walter A. Carrithers, Jr. has to say about this letter in 
his unpublished manuscript.

Daniel
http://hpb.cc