|
As Related by Arnold Bennett (circa 1910)
from
PARIS NIGHTS George H. Doran, 1913 (pages 36-37)
"By Jove!" said the violincellist. "There's the Mahatma [Aleister Crowley] back again! Oh! He's seen us!"
The peering face preceded a sloping body into the cafe, and I was introduced to a man whose excellent poems I had read in a limited edition. He was wearing a heavily jewelled red waistcoat, and the largest ring I ever saw on a human hand. He sat down. The waiter took his order and intoned it in front of the service-bar, proving that another fellow-creature was hidden there awaiting our pleasure. When the Mahatma's glass was brought, the Scotchman suddenly demanded from the waiter the total of our modest consumption, and paid it. The Mahatma said that he had arrived that evening direct from the Himalayas, and that he had been made or ordained a "khan" in the East. Without any preface he began to talk supernaturally. As he had known Aubrey Beardsley, I referred to the rumour that Beardsley had several times been seen abroad in London after his alleged death.
"That's nothing," he said quickly. "I know a man who saw and spoke to Oscar Wilde in the Pyrenees at the very time when Oscar was in prison in England."
"Who was the man?" I inquired.
He paused. "Myself," he said, in a low tone.
"Shall we go?" The Scotchman, faintly smiling, embraced his friend and me in the question.
We went, leaving the Mahatma bent in solitude over his glass. The waiter was obviously saying to himself: "It was inevitable that they should immediately go, and they have gone." We had sat for four hours.
Outside, cabs were still rolling to and fro. After cheerful casual good-nights, we got indolently into three separate cabs, and went our easy ways. I saw in my imagination the vista of the thousands of similar nights which they would yet spend. And the sight was majestic, tremendous.
As Related by Arnold Bennett
from THE JOURNAL OF ARNOLD BENNETT The Garden City Publishing Co., Inc, 1932 (pages 169 & 210)
26 April 1904 In response to a telegram I went to lunch with Aleister Crowley and his wife [Rose Kelly] (Kelly's [Gerald Kelly] sister) today at Paillard's. He had been made a "Khan" in the East, and was wearing a heavily jewelled red waistcoat and the largest ring I ever saw on a human hand. I rather liked him. He said some brain specialist had told him that what made a great brain was not the number of facts or ideas known, but the number of facts or ideas co-ordinated and correlated. I said, "Of course." Talking about Beardsley, when I said that people had said they had met him and seen him in the flesh after his death, he said he knew a man who had met Oscar Wilde in the Pyrenees while Oscar was in prison.
9 March 1905 I dined at the Chat Blanc, Aleister Crowley was there with dirty hands, immense rings, presumably dyed hair, a fancy waistcoat, a fur coat, and tennis shoes. Stanlaws was saying that the indecency of the Moulin Rouge etc. "wasn't 30 cents" by the side of Coney Island. I had heard this before. He described the rag-dance, which used to be danced everywhere but was lately forbidden by the police. It appears to be a combination of a waltz and the dance du ventre. He described a number of other Coney Island contrivances for the exhibition of women's legs and underclothes. |