There were strange reports set afloat at the time of the organization of the Society of the mysterious appearance of a Hindoo adept in his astral body at the "lamasery" on Forty-seventh street. It was said to be that of a certain Mahatma Koot Hoomi. Olcott declared that the adept left behind him as a souvenir of his presence, a turban, which was exhibited on all occasions by the enterprising Hierophant. William Q. Judge, a noted writer on Spiritualism, who had met the Madame at Irving Place in the winter of 1874, joined the Society about this time, and became an earnest advocate of the secret doctrine. One wintry evening in March, 1889, Mr. Judge attended a meeting of the New York Anthropological Society, and told the audience all about the spectral gentleman, Koot Hoomi. He said: "The parent society (Theosophical) was founded in America by Madame Blavatsky, who gathered about her a few interested people and began the great work. They held a meeting to frame a constitution (1875), etc., but before anything had been accomplished a strangely foreign Hindoo, dressed in the peculiar garb of his country, came before them, and, leaving a package, vanished, and no one knew whither he came or went. On opening the package they found the necessary forms of organization, rules, etc., which were adopted. The inference to be drawn was, that the strange visitor was a Mahatma, interested in the foundation of the Society." [Illustration: FIG. 37. WILLIAM Q. JUDGE. [Reproduced by courtesy of the _New York Herald_.]] And so Blavatskyism flourished, and the Society gathered in disciples from all quarters. Men without definite creeds are ever willing to embrace anything that savors of the mysterious, however absurd the tenets of the new doctrine may be. The objects of the Theosophical Society, as set forth in a number of _Lucifer_, the organ of the cult, published in July, 1890, are stated to be: "1. To form a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, or color. "2. To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions and sciences. "3. To investigate laws of Nature and the psychical powers of man." There is nothing of cant or humbug about the above articles. A society founded for the prosecution of such researches seems laudable enough. Oriental scholars and scientists have been working in this field for many years. But the investigations, as conducted under the Blavatsky régime, have savored so of charlatanism that many earnest, truth-seeking Theosophists have withdrawn from the Society.