Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Juliet Thompson, Diary of Juliet Thompson, Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1983, bahai-library.com. ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── THED ~ FJ UET . N With preface by Marzieh Gail The DIARY of JULIET THOMPSON ~ with a prefa~e by Marzieh Gail Kalimat Press Los Angeles \ Copyright © 1983 by Kalimat Press Third Printing Published from the 1947 typescript prepared and annotated by Juliet Thompson. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Thompson, Juliet. The diary of Juliet Thompson. "Published from the 1947 typescript prepared and annotated by Juliet Thompson"-Verso t.p. 1. 'Abdu'l-Baha. 2. Thompson, Juliet. 3. Bahais- Biography. 1. Gail, Marzieh. II. Title. BP393.T48 1983 287' .8963'0924[B] 83-lO540 ISBN 0-933770-27-8 CONTENTS At 48 West Tenth by Marzieh Gail . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. vii The' Akka Diary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 With 'Abdu'l-Baha in Thonon, Vevey, and Geneva .. 147 'Abdu'l-Baha in America ....................... 223 v AT 48 WEST TENTH by Marzieh Gail ~ JULIET THOMPSON Whether or not General Tom Thumb (Barnum's midget, and at the start of his career twenty-five inches long, weighing in at fifteen pounds) ever owned the Greenwich Village brownstone where Juliet and Daisy (Marguerite Pumpelly Smyth) lived so many years, we do not know. At the time when we knew the place, Daisy was renting it from Romeyne Benjamin, brother of Dorothy Benjamin who married Enrico Caruso. Like its fellows in the row, it was narrow and high, with black railings to either side of the front steps, other steps leading down to a long basement room, and a strip of garden in back. Inside, up from the front hall, narrow stairs hugged the wall on your right. The old house, painted light blue when we last saw it, long after the inmates loved by us were gone, might well have been the wealthy midget's, as Juliet was inclined to believe: it was just such a place. When Daisy asked' Abdu'l-Baha how to live, He said, "Be kind to everyone," and Daisy was. The house was a haven for a motley crowd. Here, Daisy's brother Raphael told me he had once, during the Depression, left his bed briefly in the night, and returned to find a sailor in it, complete with live parrot. Here, at one given time, in an upstairs room Dimitri Marianoff, Einstein's former sonin-law, who had become a Baha'i, was writing a book on Tahirih, while Juliet was revising her I, Mary Magdalen on a lower floor and I, at ground level, refugeeing from the family apartment uptown, was finishing Persia and ix BY MARZIEH GAlL the Victorians. Here Daisy, like Juliet a fine artist, sat among their many guests at the firesides. Usually inaccessibly vague, Daisy would from time to time utter a great truth. Once when her cat unsheathed its claws and raked delicate upholstery, Daisy spoke: "Cats are more £un than furniture," she said. 'Abdu'l-Baha had been all over the house. His living presence had blessed it all. In a dark comer of Juliet's whispering old studio stood a fragile armchair of black oak-it would later be willed by her to Vincent Pleasant -surprisingly small, with a cord across it, none ever to sit in it again, the chair of 'Abdu'l-Baha. He loved her studio room. He said it was eclectic, part oriental, part occidental, and that He would like to build a similar one. Here, Juliet had read in manuscript the books of her friend and neighbor Kahlil Gibran. Here she had struggled with her love for Percy Grant. Here, by my time, we talked a little about the land in Chiriqui which (such is my memory of it) Lincoln had helped her father, Ambrose White Thompson, his close friend, to acquire. A rich tract of land in northern Panama it was, and Juliet believed that somewhere in Columbia, which then owned the area, a government building had burned down, and all the relevant documents about the property had gone up in flames. After her father's death, Juliet and her mother were poor. Juliet could, of course, have married money. Many men sought, as they used to say, her hand. Two prominent Baha'is who proposed to her were John Bosch and Roy Wilhelm. Come to that, Mason, Admiral Remey's son, whom 'Abdu'l-Baha wished her to marry, was not a poor man. Juliet told me that in those days Mason had x AT 48 WEST TENTH grown a red beard, and as they sat together he would talk of the children they would have, and Juliet would visualize, floating in the air about her, the Remey babies, each with a small red beard. Mostly, we discussed the progress or lack thereof of our Baha'i community in New York and the nation at large, and one day we decided that what our Faith most needed in America was the qualities of George Townshend. Immediately, we determined to cable the Guardian and ask him to send us George Townshend-a preeminent Baha'i who was the former Canon of St. Patrick's cathedral in Dublin and Archdeacon of Clonfert-to travel nationwide and teach. Far from ignoring our doubtless brash suggestion, the Guardian at once replied, with a radiogram received February 19, 1948: JULIET MARZIA 48 WEST 10TH STREET NEW YORK REGRET TOWNSHEND'S EFFORTS DUBLIN VITALY NEEDED SIX YEAR PLAN LOVE SHOGHI. 'Abdu'l-Baha teaches that we must never "belittle the thought of another" IBaha'i AdminstIation, p. 22), and although Shoghi Effendi was carrying the whole BaM:i world on his back, he did not belittle ours, and he took the time to answer. Once, when the powers that be were making life difficult for me in another city, Juliet wrote them a letter in my favor. To this, there was no reply. What status did Juliet have? She was only one, the Master said, that future queens would envy, only one who would be remembered long after the rest of us were gone and forgotten. She was always a rebel. She did not hesitate to speak well of the Germans during World War I, and to exhibit the Kaiser's picture on her living room table. Something like setting up a statue of Herod in a cathedral, at the xi BY MARZIEH GAIL time. In later years, she decided to rewrite I, Mary Magdalen and make Judas a certain leading individual who afterward lived on to receive great honors in our Faith. Juliet was a Celt, from a long line of early bards, and she was kin to Edward Fitzgerald, of the Rubaiyat. Her Irishness did not, apparently, extend to that country's religion. She told me that when her father was dying, he was by chance in the hands of the nuns, and they moved about, seeing to it that extreme unction las it was then called) was duly administered, while her non-Catholic mother wrung her hands. Reassuring, the moribund raised his head and said: "Never mind, Celeste, it doesn't amount to a damn." Rebels are valuable, but they are not always right. Once, contrary to everyone's advice, Juliet's strong feelings about an individual led her and Daisy astray. She made us all come to the man's talks, or rather talk, which was always about love. We got so we hated love. "No wonder he advocates love," was Harold Gail's comment, "look what it's done for him." It had certanly given him Juliet and Daisy, and only later on did they see the light-the light being that his main interest seemed to be Daisy's bank account. As the Guardian once commented, our World Order is founded on justice, not love. Our governing institutions are Houses of Justice, not love. The man did bring many to hear about love at Juliet's, which used to remind me of Romeyne Benjamin's gloomy prophecy, that the ceilings would fall in. It was the unconventional, rebel quality in Juliet-this, plus her sympathy and true love-that attracted so many to her, particularly the young. All ages, xii AT 48 WEST TENTH sexes, skin colors, and degrees of wealth and servitude, used to foregather at 48 West Tenth. Her name was, incidentally, in the New York Social Register, along with her brother's-"but I am only there as a junior," she laughed. This unconventional quality of hers, frightening to any establishment, appealed to the Guardian, as it had to the Master before him. We remember writing to the Guardian once, about a town where the activity was barely detectible, and he replied that the situation was due to "the lethargy and conservatism of certain elements in the community." 'Abdu'I-BahA praised Juliet repeatedly for her absolute truthfulness. On her second pilgrimage, when the Guardian asked her, "Do you like the /Wilmette) Temple?" she answered: "No, it looks like a wedding cake." She added, relaying the conversation to me: "We used to call it 'Mrs. True's church.' " (Mrs. Corinne True, later a Hand of the Faith, was known as "the Mother of the Temple.") She said Mason Remey withdrew his design, in favor of Louis Bourgeois', although each received the same number of votes. Needless to add, the ethereal, lacy, floating House of Worship at Wilmette does not look like a wedding cake, but Juliet had an opinion and she voiced it. "Let us remember," the Text says, "that at the very root of the Cause lies the principle of the undoubted right of the individual to self-expression, his freedom to declare his conscience and set forth his views." /Baha'i AdministIation, p. 54). We read in her diary of the Master's telling Juliet "a thing so wonderful" that she could not repeat it. In after years she confided to BahA'i pioneer Bill Smits what that xiii BY MARZIEH GAIL thing was. "You are nearer to me than anyone here," 'Abdu'l-Baha had said, "because you have told me the truth." Asked what He meant by "here," she said, "Oh, New York, the United States-I don't know." This diary we have here is not the original, longhand one. She destroyed that. She was essentially a private person and all those secrets have blown away. This diary is the core of the original: she kept whatever she wanted posterity to have, sat up in bed with the portable on her knees and typed it herself. I was one of (necessarily) few to receive a carbon, and mine has some of her own handwritten notes in the margin. Some years afterward I had the carbon professionally typed for the National Spiritual Assembly, but years later it could not be discovered in their files. Also, Philip Sprague mimeographed parts of it, but where that material is, we do not know. Still more years later, when Harold and I were back from Europe and living in New Hampshire, I became aware that with so few copies in the world it might be lost forever, and consulting with fellow Baha'is we had xeroxes made, so it would stay safe. Meanwhile someone-was it Daisy?-had brought out a handsome booklet, printed by the Roycrofters, East Aurora, New York, and titled 'Abdu'l-Baha's First Days in America [without the diacriticals), From the Diary of Juliet Thompson. It bears no date or copyright, is forty pages long and contains only excerpts: a teaser, as it were. The truth seems to be that during her lifetime the Baha'is in charge of publishing did not cotton to the diary. "Too personal," they said. They probably meant that there was too much love in it. We understand this, but we note that the mass of the believers were always eager for it. Here was a woman blessed as perhaps no XIV AT 48 WEST TENTH other occidental Baha'i was blessed. Not only was she received by 'Abdu'l-Baha in the Holy Land, in Switzerland and the eastern United States, but she had an artist's eye and a writer's pen, and thus, better perhaps than any, she was able to evoke those so often irretrievable days and hours. 'Abdu'l-Baha prophesied of her that: "In the time to come, queens will wish they had been the maid of Juliet." Certainly she received priceless opportunities, and proved adequate to her good fortune. Love is not blind, it is "quick-eyed," George Herbert said. 'Abdu'l-Baha likened Juliet to Mary Magdalen because she loved, and saw, so much. She had that same storied love that Mary had-that love which after all is the only thing that holds the Baha'is together, or for that matter holds the Lord to His creatures, or keeps the stars in their courses. She says here that one early morning (on that breathless, ecstatic, tear-drenched pilgrimage) she gave up her will, made over her desires and her life to the Will of God, and saw how, when we are able to do that, "the design takes perfect shape." Then peace comes, she says, and "beauty undreamed of blossoms upon our days." Again she tells how the Master once gathered the American pilgrims together-they being symbols of all-and said He hoped that a great and ever-growing love would be established among them. He knew that their one main desire was to live in His presence, and He told them how this could be done. "The more," He said, "you love one another, the nearer you get to me. I go away from this world, but Love stays always." xv BY MARZIEH GAIL Juliet's death notice in the New York Times says that she was born in New York, but the jacket to her book, I, Mary Magdalen, undoubtedly more to be trusted, has her a Virginian by birth, and brought up in Washington, D.C. She was a cult figure. People became possessive about her, regarded her as theirs and only grudgingly doled her out. This was particularly true of Helen James, who came from the Caribbean area and was a long-time companion. I can remember Helen angrily barring the door to me one day, when Juliet was sick. It did not bother me too much-I knew from mythology that dragons guard treasures. Then there was another time when I had prevailed on a man to come over to the Village all the way from Brooklyn, and record Juliet's voice as she read from her diary. (On wire, it was. The business was new then. J And Helen tried, in the midst of it, to break in from the other room and let in even more noise, besides what was already being reproduced from the traffic on West Tenth. You can say for Helen that she was a true friend to Juliet, and faithful. One midday, years after all this, as Juliet lay in her bed, it seems that she looked up at Helen and asked, ' 'Do you want to come with me, and be with 'Abdu'I-BahM" "No," Helen told her, "I am not ready yet. 1/ And then, as she watched, she saw Juliet die. It was December 4, 1956. They had moved by then, the Times said, to 129 East Tenth. I was glad that she did not die at number 48. The Guardian's cable, received by Daisy Smyth on December 7, said "DEEPLY GRIEVED" and "HER REWARD xvi AT 48 WEST TENTH ASSURED." To the National Spiritual Assembly he cabled, "DEPLORE LOSS," and he directed that a memorial gathering be held for her in the House of Worship. In this cable among other praises he referred to her "IMPERISHABLE MEMORY," said that she was "FIRED WITH . . . CONSUMING DEVOTION" to the Center of Baha'u'llah's Covenant, and called her "MUCH LOVED, GREATLY ADMIRED . . . OUT- STANDING EXEMPLARY HANDMAID [OF] 'ABDU'L-BAHA." 48 West Tenth Street was a house dedicated to 'Abdu'l-Baha. Often when you were let in the front door, you heard His voice-the recorded, spontaneous chant made in 1912-loudly reverberating through the rooms. One day Juliet took Robert Gulick and me up the street to the comer of Fifth Avenue, and we entered the beautiful Church of the Ascension that had once been Percy Grant's pride before his ruin, and she showed us exactly where 'Abdu'l-Baha stood, delivering His first American public address on April 14, 1912. He came out of the vestry on the right, just as the choir burst into "Jesus lives." He sat in the Bishop's chair-which broke the nineteenth canon of the Church, for the unbaptized may not go behind the chancel rail. The red plush chair with its high back was still there, just as it had been that other day, although no flame burned on the altar then. When He spoke as you looked past the low steps to the altar, He was on the right, and He stood on the fifth flagstone. 'Abdu'l-Baha had told Juliet she must either break with Percy Grant or marry him. She had broken with him. Percy had arranged this meeting for the Master as a peace offering to Juliet. From this very pulpit, to win Juliet away from her Faith, he had often inveighed xvii BY MARZIEH GAIL against the decadent East, had even denounced the II Baha'i sect," but today he had filled the church with lilies and arranged for One from the East, and Head of the Baha'is, to speak. Juliet said that she used, in her story of Mary Magdalen Iwhom, as 'Abdu'l-Baha remarked in the diary, she even physically resembled) many things she learned from the Master himself. This book has inclined many a heart toward our Faith, and Stanwood Cobb considered it "one of the most graphic and lofty delineations of Christ ever made in literature." She illustrated her story with portraits, three of them: one haloed, of the Master's face; Mary wears Juliet's face, they being look-alikes; and the handsome lover, Novatus, wears the face of Percy Grant. She was a serious artist, frequently exhibited, and a member of the National Arts Club. She had studied at the Corcoran Art School, then at Julien's in Paris, and with Kenneth Hayes Miller in New York. During the Coolidge era, Juliet'S beauty and social background, along with her artistic gifts, carried her into the White House. lIt is interesting to note how many Baha'is have been received at the White House, all the way from Ali-Kuli Khan and Florence, and Laura Barney, in the early days to modems like Robert Hayden and Dizzie Gillespie). Juliet was there to make a portrait of Mrs. Coolidge, incidentally one of the most popular of First Ladies. "The President came in to watch," said Juliet, "chewing on an apple, and I told Mrs. Coolidge I could not put up with that." The portrait she did of 'Abdu'l-Baha, described here in the diary, no longer exists, except in a photograph. xviii AT 48 WEST TENTH Time-damaged, it had to be restored, and Juliet felt the original was gone forever. The Kinneys maintained that He did not like it because He said it made Him look old. 'Abdu'l-Baha greatly encouraged her art, and told her it was the same' as worship, but toward the end she no longer cared to go on with it, nor even cared for her onceloved New York as it had become, and all she wanted to do was teach the Faith. Sometimes Juliet and Marjorie would recline at the top of Juliet's large bed, while Daisy and I would sit on chairs at the foot. The sooty warm spring air would blow in from the little back garden, down where Rebecca-a statue picked up by Romeyn Benjamin-stood scanning the horizon, endlessly waiting on her pedestal, left hand to brow. It was one such time when the conversation centered on Percy Grant, that dramatic preacher who, in our view, certainly merits a biographer, not only for his small role in our Faith but because he represents so much of New York history at the century's tum. "Poor Julie. How long did you love him?" I asked. "Seventeen years, darn it." (In those days it went without saying that the love was platonic. J And that is how, reinforced by Marjorie, Juliet told me how things turned out for Percy Grant. Significantly, his end is relegated in the diary to a footnote. The story of it goes like this: Grant was-as 'Abdu'l-Baha remarked to Ali-Kuli Khan, comparing the popular society clergyman to his disadvantage with the fine Unitarian minister, Howard Ives -a womanizer. (Here, 'Abdu'l-Baha used a graphic Persian word. J His remark was prompted by the fact that, as they were leaving the church by a side door, they accidentally encountered the rector with a woman in his XIX BY MARZIEH GAIL embrace. Later the Master, father to daughter, even more graphically but in other words, warned Juliet to the same effect. And in the long run, it is of note that finally a woman toppled Grant down. She was a Cuban-descended beauty of great wealth, whose luxurious car would be seen outside Grant's rectory by day and night. She had a dead-white face with bright, red-painted lips, and was a given to wearing evening gowns with did not hide the fact one breast had been completely removed, while the other remained without flaw. No intellectual, she was what Marjorie called "eruditized" by her association with famous artists and scholars. Wherever Percy Grant went, she went, gazing up at him as he towered over her, and calling him "Little Rector." Without his knowledge, she spent $60,000 redoing his house. When she had their engagement announced in the Paris Herald, his only comment for the press was: No comment. Next, she sensed that Percy was unfaithful-it was his chambermaid this time-put detectives on his trail, and turned over their findings to the vestrymen Ithe Episcopal administrative body) of his church. On a given Sunday, when Grant was scheduled to preach, they forced him to resign, and took down his name. He was also required to pay back the $60,000, which wiped him out, and at that time Juliet went about among the parishioners, collecting funds to help. Most of the press, except for The Times, was brutal, she said. No church but one, Guthrie's, St. Mark's in the Bowery, would let him preach. In any case, the words would not come any more. As to the woman, she lived on, constantly under the xx AT 48 WEST TENTH surgeon's knife, constantly giving sumptuous dinner parties at which all she herself could eat was a little rice from a silver bowl-meanwhile assuring the guests that this was simply the best way of maintaining her jslim and lovely) shape. At the very last meeting Percy and Juliet ever had-it was in a drug store, and the conversation languishedshe asked herself how she could ever have loved him. With her final moments in the presence of 'Abdu'l- Baha, Juliet brings her diary to a close. On December 5, 1912, the ship sailed away, taking the Master out of this hemisphere for always. Physically, He would be unobtainable now. That was the last, sad day when He uttered His final spoken words to America, words in time to be read by millions, then heard by only a few. Florence Khanum remembered only four automobiles coming to the pier, she and Ali-Kuli Khan being in the second one. These two believers, as well as Juliet, although they could not know it that day, would never look upon His earthly face again. Juliet tells how, aboard the Celtic, more and more Baha'is crowded into the Master's cabin, and how they all went above to a spacious lounge. There, Ali-Kuli Khan translating jas the Star of the West reports, giving his Baha'i name, Ishti'alJ, the Master paced up and down as He spoke: "The earth is ... one home, and all mankind are the children of one father .... Therefore ... we should live together in . . . joy. . . . God is loving and kind to all men, and yet they show the utmost enmity and hatred toward one another .... You have no excuse to bring before God if you fail to live according to His command, xxi JULIET THOMPSON in later years AT 48 WEST TENTH for you are informed of . . . the good-pleasure of God . . . . It is my hope that you may ... stir the body of existence like unto a spirit of life." Then the visitors slowly left the ship, and Juliet described 'Abdu'l-Baha's final look "as He bade His immature children farewelL" That loving anguish, those weary, prescient eyes gazing from His thin, ravaged face, are clearly seen in a photograph taken by Underwood and Underwood at the last moment-and Life Magazine /December 11, 1950) reproduces it, but with less clarity: the Master's look, from the rail of the ship, at the upturned faces of the American Baha'is. Somehow, with Juliet, we were able in after years to have three full-sized copies made from the old photographic plate, and only just in time, for it broke then, as a messenger carried it across New York. They still return to haunt the mind, those vanished days and nights at Juliet's. I know the steps of those long gone still echo there. I know the powerful chant of 'Abdu'l-Baha: "Glad tidings! Glad tidings!" rebounds from wall to wall. Surely all is still there as it was before: the spidery old chairs, the creaky, uncertain floor, canvases looming down in the dark, coals in the grate. Juliet in gold brocade and purple velvet: blonded, fluffy hair, smiling blue eyes, a man on either side. "You are not beautiful," her mother had told her. "You are not handsome. You are lovely." "There is a magic in Juliet's eyes," Dimitri Marianoff said. MARZIEH GAIL SAN FRANCISCO xxiii THE 'AKKA DIARY June 19 to August 27, 1909 ~ JULIET THOMPSON Naples. June 19, 1909. [/n Naples. In an old palace on the bay-the Via Partenope. Palaces around us, ruined palaces on the hills. Vesuvius to our left, Capri before us. This is the view from our window, Alice Beede's and mine. Yet all the rich beauty of Italy is as fantasy to me. The Reality of the Master· glows beyond. It is to the Master's heart I would fly! And we are going to fly there! We arrived this noon and sail tomorrow night for Egypt. ·'Abdu'l-Baha. Haifa. June 26, 1909. ells I write I look out on Mount Carmel, the flat-roofed white houses of the East with their bright blue blinds in immediate view. What can I say? I am speechless. Jesus from the ground suspires. This line has been singing and singing in my head all morning. And yet, it is more-oh, far more-than that. The Spirit of the Living Redeemer is breathing its peace into the air. As I sat side by side with Alice this morning in our high whitewashed room, gazing and gazing toward Carmel looming up in its great bare grandeur just before our eyes, suddenly I felt that heart-consuming Spirit and melted into tears. Haifa. June 28, 1909. iya-and I couldn't suggest to them to go! When at last they did, KhAnum I;>iya assured me I had time to dress. But then, the devil got into me: I wanted to make myself as beautiful as I could! And everything went wrong; it was like a nightmare! I chose an elaborate white lace dress, fastened in the back with hooks-and-eyes and my fingers couldn't find the right *Cf. Matt. 10:14, Mark 6:11, and Luke 9:5. THE 'AKKA DIARY hooks. I tried to put on my veil, a rose-colored one with a border, in the most becoming way, and couldn't arrange it becomingly enough! And before I was through adorning myself, Khusraw ran in with an appalling message: the Master and the Holy Household were already at the table! By the time I reached the House and the dining room, the Master had risen from His seat and was washing His hands in a basin near the window. He asked me to please excuse Him for leaving so soon, He had only taken a little soup. I sat stricken with an awful shame: speechless with shame, as I realized overwhelmingly the disrespect I had shown to oUI Lord in keeping Him waiting-and all because of my vanity! He came back to the table and repeated: "Ask Juliet to excuse Me for leaving her so soon. I only took soup today." And while He spoke He looked at me, such grief in His eyes as I could hardly bear, such grief because He had to punish me. Then He turned and went out of the room, having had nothing to eat. To inflict that so necessary punishment He had sacrificed His midday meal. The rest of the meal was, of course, pure agony to me. I could not hold up my head in the presence of the Family. Besides, a great geyser of tears kept rising in me and it was all I could do not to burst out crying. At last I escaped and returned to 'Inayatu'llah's. But no sooner had I taken off my miserable finery than the Master again sent for me. I slipped on a simpler dress and rushed back to the beloved House, where Munavvar met me. "Our Lord, " she said, "just wanted to know where you were and wanted you here.' I JUNE 19 TO AUGUST 27, 1909 We had our afternoon rest, Munavvar and I, in the reception room. Suddenly the Master stood in the doorway, beckoning us to His room. There, He led me to the mirror and standing close to my side, took my face in His hand and pressed my cheek against His, then told me to look in the mirror. So majestic He was, He appeared stem and His Face shone with a white glory beside my flushed, earthly face. Again He reminded me of a Star. So I saw myself in the clasp of the Good Shepherd, and, in that ineffable picture in the mirror, I saw my Lord's promise that He would be always protecting me, always watching over me. Once, during the morning, while I was alone in the reception room, the Master came from His room into the hall and, standing in the shadow against the white wall, like a Spirit in His white garments, He looked at me long and steadfastly. Suddenly love welled up in me and I smiled. A smile of intensest sweetness, of heavenly brightness, broke over His Face; He tilted His head to one side with tenderest charm, as though He were playing with a child. Once more He came out, gazed gravely at me, gazed almost longer than I could bear-so frail is the human spirit before the Force of Divine Love-and then, like lightning, vanished. Early in the afternoon He called me into His room. "How are you, Juliet?" "Happy," I answered, through tears! He looked at me with questioning, smiling eyes. Still, underlying my anguish, there was happiness, that my sacrifice had been accepted. "I love you," He said gently. "I love you ve.zy much." Then He began to talk to me, His aspect abruptly changing to one of great majesty. If only, only I had writ- THE 'AKKA DIARY ten down those last instructions! All I can do now is to quote fragments of them. "How many days were you in 'Akka?" "Twelve, my Lord. II "How many days have you been in Haifa?" "Twelye." "Twelve. Always twelve. You have received in those twelve days that which was given by Abraham to the twelve tribes of Israel. You have received that which was given by Moses. You have received that which was given by Christ to the twelve apostles; that which was given by Mu4ammad to the twelve Imams .... You have served me in America. Your house has been the center for the believers. You have loved them and shown kindness to them. Now I want to give you some instructions. "The time you devote to your art is your own; you are free to use it as you wish. But when you enter the meetings, I want you to concentrate upon spiritual things. Read the prayers, the Tablets, sing hymns, give the proofs. I want you to give strong, logical proofs . . . . Never let anyone speak of another unkindly in your presence. Should anyone do so, stop them. Tell them it is against the commands of Baha'u'llah; that He has commanded: 'Love one another.' Never speak an unkind word, yourself, against anyone. If you see something wrong, let your silence be your only comment .... Be firm and steadfast. Do not waste your time with light people." There was more: much more. How could my memory serve me so cruelly? Soon afterward Alice and Carrie arrived at the House. As Alice came in, our Lord continued: "Be firm and JUNE 19 TO AUGUST 27 I 1909 steadfast, and if you are firm and steadfast, be sure that no one who really belongs in your life will be lost to you. " He then told Alice that He wished us to love each other. His words were so heavenly that RUQ.a, as she listened, wept. Just before we drove to the ship RUQ.a called me, alone, to our Lord. I knelt at His feet. "Don't let me cry! Don't let me cry!" I implored, catching hold of His ' aba. He took both my hands, and God's Love gazed through His eyes into mine. "Remember My words to you, obey My commands," He said, "and you will marvel at the results." I dare not attempt to quote Him; everything else He said has escaped me. All I can bring to my mind now is that Face of divine compassion looking down at me, the strong hands that clasped mine, the grief that consumed my heart. "I have given you so much, Juliet," Ithis comes back to me) "because I have desired your spiritual progress. You can make spiritual progress. Now you need the power of discourse. When you begin to speak in the meetings, never think of your own weakness, but turn to Me." "My only desire is to follow Thy Will. But there is one thing I long for, Lord. May I become worthy to always keep the vision of Thy Face?" He bent over me with a look of profoundest love, and of assent. "My mother and brother, Lord: protect them-under all circumstances." Again that low bending over me, that assent. "I will pray." THE 'AKKA DIARY "I am bound to Thee, Lord, with a cord that can never be cut." And with this I broke down, and hiding my face on His knee, I wept. After a moment He lifted my face and, for the last time, wiped away my tears with His fingers. When He dismissed me, I raised to my lips the hem of His robe and pressed a long, long kiss upon it. He followed me to the door of His room. Taking my hand, He held it against His side. "Give My love to Lua," He said. "Tell her I am always with her in spirit." To me He said: "I want you to return a new creation, so that all will see that you are another Juliet, with another attraction." That night on the boat, my eyes fixed on Mount Carmel-the lights of the Tomb glowing yellow through the moonlight, the fragrance of the Spirit of the Lord diffused from that Sacred Spot-I wept my heart out. "Forevermore, my Lord, is my heart linked to Thee by this suffering. Forevermore," I cried, "am I chained to Thee!" I remembered His words of a few days before: "I suffer. You must suffer with Me." And my suffering became my treasure of treasures. Mary broke the alabaster jar and poured all her precious ointment over the feet of her Lord. And last Sunday I broke my heart over the feet of my Lord-poured out all the love it contained at His feet. No more love have I now to give. It is given-to Him. He told me that He would strike me, and, as He said it, He laughed. So may I "endure the cross, despising the shame." WITH 'ABDU'L-BAHA IN THONON, VEVEY, AND GENEVA July 23 to November 23, 1911 DRAWING OF 'ABDU'L-BAHA by Juliet Thompson 48 West Tenth Street, New York. April 8, 1936. "Love devastates every country where He plants His banner." In 'Akka I had looked upon the Mystery of Love and of incarnate Sacrifice. I returned, this vision filling my eyes, blinding me to all lesser values. This, and the fact that I was so immature both spiritually and in worldly wisdom, caused me to become, myself, the instrument of the devastation. But I devastated not my country alone, but others. When, this winter, I read my diary of 1910, I was crushed with shame, and remained so for weeks, because of my blind, cruel blundering all through that awful year. Then came a flash of what I believe to be perception, and this has comforted me. My Lord, 'Abdu'l-Baha, Who "saw the end" where I saw "only the beginning" land in Whose compassionate hailds are the lives of all) had, in reality, offered me two choices: first, my own Willi then, His Will-or what appeared to be His Will. Though I played my small part so miserably, at least I chose the Master's Will. When in my extremity I still clung desperately to His Will, He released me from my engagement to Mason Remey. As for "the other man": as I review the whole drama of my connection with his life, ending in tragedy, it is clear that at every crisis, something diviner than fate stood between us. 'Abdu'l-Baha had another plan for me. And this, I believe, was His plan from the beginning. S.S. Lusitania. Atlantic Ocean! Sunday, July 23, 1911. c::::!Vothing could have been further from my thought than that I should begin this volume somewhere off the coast of Ireland! I had expected to begin it in our new home: a small, very old house on Tenth Street, from the windows of which, if I lean out just a little way, I can see the tower of the Church of the Ascension, and even-the rectory! But there came a Call ... Ten days ago, on July 13, I received a letter from Ahmad. * To my infinite surprise, for I had only just heard from the Master, I found it contained a Tablet. These are the words of the Tablet: o Thou who art attracted by the Breath of the Holy Spirit! When thou wert leaving to return to America and this made you sad and unhappy and you wept, I promised I would summon you again to My Presence. Now I fulfill that promise. If there is no hindrance and you can travel in perfect joy and fragrance, you have permission to be present. In this trip there is a consum- • Ahmad Sohrab, who had lived in the United States, but was at this time residing in Egypt. WITH 'ABDU'L-BAHA IN SWITZERLAND mate wisdom and in it praiseworthy results are hidden. Upon thee be Baha EL ABHA. (signed) Abdul Baha Abbas In Ahmad's letter was the amazing news that the Master was on His way to London to attend the Universal Races' Congress which was to open the following week and last for three days. "If you can sail in a week," wrote Ahmad, "you will find our Lord in London." I leapt over every "hindrance" (and three of them were high walls) and within the week, with Silvia Gannett, boarded the Lusitania. Just before I left I broke the news to Percy Grant. He said something blasphemous-violently-then did something to break my heart. Well, that is no "hindrance," I thought, I can leave him to her. He spent the last evening before I sailed with me. "Don't you want to send a message to the Master?" I asked. A mocking look came into his face. "He sent you one," I went on, "from 'Akka, when I was there. But I have never been able to tell you about it, because whenever I have mentioned the Master to you, Percy, you have answered in a flippant way. But I can't go back to Him now until I have delivered it. "I spoke of your work to Him and He called you 'a great soul.' Then He invited you to visit Him. I can repeat His very words. 'When you return, say to Dr. Grant: If you will go yourself to 'Akka, you will find that JULY 23 TO NOVEMBER 23, 1911 which is beyond imagining. If you go, you will find all you had imagined useless in comparison with the Reality. If you go you will receive that for which you would not exchange all the kingdom of the world.' " "That was a very whole-souled message," Percy replied. "Tell Him that if He comes to New York I will welcome Him gladly. Tell Him I think He would find New York a big enough field even for His great work!" "I don't think that message will do," I said. "Tell Him, judging by His fruits," (with a meaningful look at me) "His Teaching is the most beautiful spiritual force in the world." "I shall certainly not tell Him that!" "Tell Him I am very happy to have a share in those fruits-" "No; nor that either." "I can't suit you with a message! Well, tell Him I feel that what He is trying to do in the world is very beautiful and potent." Then I gave up! s.s. Lusitania. fJ should like to write of a dream I had two days before my Tablet came, for I think it is something that should be kept. I had been praying at dawn. Afterwards, putting the Master's brown 'aba over my bed and hoping for a vision, I fell asleep. I awoke in a vast, dim crypt, with many aisles branching away into utter darkness. I was standing, alone in the crypt, beside an enormous gray sarcophagus. Then in WITH 'ABDU'L-BAHA IN SWITZERLAND the far, far distance, I saw two figures in white, in long robes and turbans, walking out of the shadows in my direction, and I recognized the Master and Mirza I:Iaydar-'Ali, "the Angel of 'Akka." Something is going to happenj I shouldn't be here, I thought. But I can't escape now. There is nothing to do but hide. And I crouched behind the sarcophagus. The next picture in my dream is of the Master and Mirza I:Iaydar-'Ali bending over the sarcophagus. Then they lifted its lid and dropped into it, drawing down the lid after them. Now I could make my escape! I tried to steal away on tiptoe, but before I had taken a dozen steps, my shoes creaked! At this, the Master rose from the center of the sarcophagus, His face unsmiling-stem. "You may stay," He said, "but keep perfectly still." Once more I crouched, holding my breath. First there was an awful silencej then, from within the sarcophagus, I heard the strains of a solemn chantj then groans, followed by blood-freezing screams. And I thought, What can the Master be doing to Mirza I:Iaydar-' Ali? But somebody else was in that sarcophagus. The end of it suddenly burst open and out of it dashed a figure racing up and down so fast that all I could see were flying garments and a shaven, bluish head with a black fez on it. At last, exhausted, he sank to his knees on the ground, shielding his face with one arm. Then he rose and crept back into his coffin. Then, down every aisle of the crypt came armies on the march, a standard-bearer with a flag leading each regiment, so that soon all the flags of all the nations drooped above the sarcophagus as the armies gathered around it. And then I saw a lovely woman standing JULY 23 TO NOVEMBER 23, 1911 among the flags. She wore a long white tunic, her hair was bright gold, and she radiated light. While I watched this brilliant and formidable scene, wondering how 'Abdu'l-Baha could be concerned with a pageant, the figure with the bluish head and the fez again broke open the end of the sarcophagus. But now I saw: Satan himself! Now he was naked, fully exposed, with a white body and great dark bat's wings springing out from his shoulders-even with the orthodox tail and hoofs! And now he stole from his hiding place and, like a serpent-sinuously-wound his way in and out between all the standard-bearers, creeping under all the flags, wriggling his way among all the armies, all the national groups! The dream changed. I was in New York, in the Peoples' Forum. Percy Grant was sitting on the platform in the Parish Hall and his mother, Sylvia Gannett,. and I standing among the empty chairs just vacated, I knew, by a large audience. I bent to kiss Mrs. Grant. She looked up, her eyes full of tears. "I have seen Him," she said, "the Master. He spoke to me. Oh, there was never such a Face in the world!" "You have seen Him!" I cried. "Where was He?" "In here; a moment ago." "But-a moment ago He was in the sarcophagus." Then Percy rose and went out. London. Friday, August 4, 1911. [J am still in London, waiting for the Master to come. He did not attend the Universal Races' Congress. They had asked Him to speak on philosophy and to make no WITH 'ABDU'L-BAHA IN SWITZERLAND reference to religion, so He sent a representative, Tamaddunu'l-Mulk. ITamaddunu'l-Mulk is about four feet high and his name means The Civilization of the Country.) The three days' conference opened with an ode written by Alice Buckton. Here is one verse: They come! Who come? Listen! What thunderous tread of viewless feet From citied walls where waters meet, From isles of coral foamj From Western prairies red with com, From sacred temples of the mom, They come! True British idealism! The last session ended in a brawl. Annie Besant I"Pa, with Ma's bonnet on her head," as Mrs. Stannard called her) took the platform and hurled the monkey wrench. "This talk is all very well. But what about India?" Then-the uproar in crescendo till the very last minute! When I hear that the Master was not to be at the Congress, I cabled to Him for instructions. The answer came: "Wait." London. August 9, 1911. £I have just had another cable from our Lord. It says: "Remain.' , Here in London a little group is humbly preparing for His coming. Devoted hearts are waiting for Him. Every night we all gather at dear Miss Jack's and pray. JULY 2.3 TO NOVEMBER 2.3, 1911 The English believers have been so kind to me: dear Miss Rosenberg, dear Mrs. Knightley (who calls me "cousin," since we have an ancestor-Lord Edward Fitzgerald-in common), Mrs. Stannard-the most fascinating woman, whom I met in Beirut two years ago and immediately loved; Lady Blomfield; the Jennens; Miss Faulkner; Miss Buckton; and others. And our own believers who are here: Maud Yandall, the Chicago friends with their warm hearts, my beloved Isabel Fraser, Miss Pomeroy, Rhoda Nichols, Albert Hall and Mountfort Mills. And, of course, little Tamaddunu'l-Mulk. Post Office Telegraphs: Thonon-les-Bains. August 22, 1911. THOMPSON, 5 SINCLAIR ROAD, LONDON. COME HERE. HOTEL PARCo (signed) Abdul Baha France. August 23, 1911.