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THE BUFFALO TIMES Buffalo, New York, U.S.A. 4 January 1922 (page 4)
“THE HERMIT AND THE LOVER.”
“Order of the Temple of the Orient” Is Strange Cult in Detroit.
HAS MYSTERIOUS RITES.
DETROIT, Mich., Jan. 4—Whatever the ritual shown herewith may mean, and there are those who argue, with some show of reason, that it doesn’t mean anything, the new love cult, “The Order of the Temple of the Orient” has created a stir in Detroit, wrecked business men, broken up homes and shaken social circles of that city.
Staid Detroit business men, who,
up to two years ago, didn’t know a cult from a cultivator,
are walking around Henry Ford’s town giving each other the
high sign and wiggling their ears.
Many Detroit wives are complaining that their husbands have taken the tenets of their cult too literally, and several divorces are threatened following an attempt on the part of the faithful to live rigorously according to their creed.
Book Concern Fails.
One result of the operation of the cult has been the failure and bankruptcy of the Universal Book Stores, Inc., a stock company operating a chain of book stores.
It is said that the head of this concern, Albert W. Ryerson, undertook the publication of then the official text book of the O.T.O. The results included not only the financial wreck of the company, but Ryerson’s conversion to the cult, the transformation of his book store into a temple with seats for 200 worshippers, his divorce from his wife, and his remarriage to a devotee.
While the communicants of the new cult include several score of prominent men and women of Detroit, many others of prominence who were stockholders in the Universal Company withdrew their holdings and sold their stock when it became apparent that the Universal was becoming less of a publishing house and more of a Hindu religious order, with a temple at Loch Ness, Scotland, it is said.
Among those who sold their stock and left in disgust was the Rev. Dr. Hugh Jack, a well-known divine and pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church.
Mystery Conclave.
It is rumored among members of the cult that the second Mrs. Ryerson, who assumed this title shortly after Ryerson’s divorce, is about to start for her attendance at the world congress of the order, which takes place in the spring, tra la la.
There seems to be some slight mystery attached to this world-wide conclave which, considering that it is to be a meeting of delegates from all over the world, has been kept mysteriously shrouded in gloom.
The best that one can gather from devotees is that it will be held “in the East.” But whether this refers to the Orient or to the hypothetical temple at Boleskine, Scotland, or only to Portland, Me., no one will divulge. |