THE HULL DAILY MAIL

Hull, Yorkshire, England

16 May 1917

(page 3)

“M.M.M.” MYSTERIES.

A TEMPLE ORIENT RAIDED.

At Marlborough-street Police Court on Tuesday before Mr. Denman, Mary Davies, 50, described as an authoress and preacher, of Regent street, W., was charged on a warrant with pretending to tell fortunes.

Detective-inspector Curry, New Scotland Yard, said that on Monday evening he went with another officer to 93, Regent-street. On the glass panel of the door were the letters “M.M.M.,” which he believed stood for the words “Mysteria, mystica, maxima,” representing an Order of some kind. At the foot of the stairs he saw the name “Mary Davies, sittings 11 to 5.” The name “Mary Davies” and the word “Clairvoyance” were on the panel of the door of the second floor. In a front room on the third floor he saw the prisoner with 10 other persona—five men and five women. Davies was

SEATED ON A THRONE CHAIR

wearing the regalia of a Worshipful Master of the Freemasons. The others were wearing Masonic aprons. He told them he was a police inspector, and asked the prisoner if she was Mary Davies. She replied, “Yes,” and he then told her he held a warrant for her arrear. She said, “I have done no wrong. This is a Masonic Lodge: you have no right here.” In response he said, “I don’t recognize it as of any consequence: I understand you call this the Order of the Temple of the Orient,” and your founder is a man (mentioning a name) of evil reputation and a traitor to this country.” She asked to see the warrant and when he showed it to her she said she did not tell fortunes, and that some mistake must have been made.

Blanche Daisley, a married woman living in Hoythorpe-road, Southfields, described a visit she paid to Davies at the instance of the police.

Mr. Denman remanded the prisoner, allowing bail in two sureties of £50, or in one of £100.