THE MUSICAL COURIER

New York City, New York, U.S.A.

21 July 1915

(page 23)

ERIN GO BRAGH!

The New York Times of Tuesday, July 13, had a remarkable article entitled “Irish Republic Born in New York Harbor,” an account of some very fantastic ceremonies conducted by the “Secret Revolutionary Committee of Public Safety of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic.” The Principal High Muck-a-muck was a certain Aleister Crowley; and the most interesting statement in the article was this: “Aleister Crowley was displeased when the news of the ceremonies at Bedloe’s Island and of the formation of the committee came into the possession of The Times, and he declined to discuss his plans and purposes.”

Aleister Crowley, whom we personally know and admire, was always averse to publicity of any kind. So much so, that at one time he was accustomed to go through the streets of the Latin Quarter of Paris clad in a long Oriental coat, blue on the outside and gold on the inside—just so that the people would be sure not to notice him and to ask who he was. We shall thrust a few more lines of distasteful publicity on Aleister Crowley by referring to an article which he once wrote in the English Review on “Art in America.” One whole paragraph of this article was devoted to music as follows:

“I do not know of anything, except MacDowell’s work, which even pretends to be ambitious or to have any real connection with anything beyond musical comedy and dollars.”

Not long after the appearance of this article we chanced to meet Crowley in Paris, and said unto him, “Crowley, to the best of our knowledge and belief, your knowledge of music is about as extensive as the average Hottentot’s knowledge of Greek. Pray tell us where you got that brilliant summing up of American music which appears in your article.” Crowley is an honest man, a pleasant man and a frank man. He replied unto us, “When I came to the music part of the article, I was quite lost; I remembered the only American composer I had ever heard of was named MacDowell, and my stenographer said he was the only one she had ever heard of. So, it was a unanimous vote, I wrote that paragraph.”