Show I Ilm 0 0 4 a 4 aa Q 1 nd l ll l Oa V Q d bI r 9 I cH- cH J I r JJ YI N f 7 2 1 2 14 tI fly j l 1 rA sharp word of command from llie blaster paralyzes the I I How the Russian I st e Teaches dancers all o l His Men and Women s sI l Pups I s to Live Years t tf f I ri by Dancing badly N Night Long and Working S f a b ti a h I 4 k s I as Farm Hands by Day DayI y k sk yr k By C G de Vidal Hunt PARIS July 12 OR some time past the tha good CItizens citizens citi- citi citizens FOR zens of Fontainebleau have been talking in whispers about what is going on behind the high walls of the theOld theOld Old Priory Strange rumors of worshipers sun sun using the tho place placa for their exercises were ere a circulated by some Peeping Toms 1 oho ho had climbed the tho walls back of the taU tall cypresses and observed some of the mys mya- my mysterious dv dwellers ellers in the act of taking sua su suI I baths in the costumes that Nature had gl en them Others advanced the theory that th the halls of the Priory where 1 Lou Louis i is s XIII andIA and IA IAMme j jv jN v N Mme Mme de Maintenon f d da B P ere v wont ont to con confess fl eSI t k their their little errors lil i ito f were to the monk fathers were low ov used by a x love free-love sect t of s e e c A wild-eyed wild worn women n nand yand e and men who had no fi J cares in the world i except the unrestricted unrestricted rituals of their cult One or two jour jour- fro from m Eng Ing- Ingland Eng Eng- England England I land had published reports which only s I added to tho the mystery rayss mys- mys mystery tery of the place r rand and thus the secret of the tho Old Priory appeared to be ba for the pigs and d dever dever ever hidden Its forbidding walls nails In view of all these rumors and the tho distrust of newspaper writers enters thus cre- cre created cre created among the occupants of the place I was agreeably surprised to be admitted to the tho premises in a spirit of absolute hospitality y A charming woman Madame de Hartmann gladly volunteered to tell me all she could of the strange doings doing of the men and women who had com come from Russia Rissia England and even Amer Amer- America America America ica to submit to o the authority of f George Russia i 1 savant and possessor of the fabled wisdom of the tho East It was indeed a curious curious spectacle I beheld as I followed their extraordinary doings first in the Priory itself and then in the H Hall U of Studies where som some thirty mn mm and women of all ages danced the mystic dances of the tho Tibetans and tho giddy rounds of tf the tho whirling der- der dervishes der dervishes of Turkey Among the men was a British mil mil- millionaire millionaire mil millionaire who Mho looked like Mr Lloy Lloyd George and seemed to bo be a special of Mr Dir G for he sipped black coffee and smoked Turkish ciga elga- cigarettes while the others were commanded to dance on until they dropped dead That not one ono of them reay really dropped inanimate to the ground was Vas one of th the wonders Bonders revealed to me that night It was a B miracle mirada of human endurance particularly par par- particularly on the part of the women The sanctum to which I had been con conducted ducted was a wide hall lined and literally covered with costly Persian and Turkish rugs In la the center a luminous lummous fountain f f fg g I Iy I y Ik k kj i j ii Ss f fl i l lJ J l S PG I i t tJ f j A j g W I w wA F A 4 s o et t tb I k b q Q at ata ata 1 a n a j c I w I II I 1 w a e ep p t v re V extraordinary attitudes as asIf asty asif I ty If frozen to the tho spot by the snappy command of the ZA 4 af q master Thus they re- re remained re remained rem m without even the flutter of an eyelid until ae t gave the word One of the rich fash fash- fashionable of release about five min mm minutes and well-educated well pupils who feed utes later other menial labor on the the the estate where the Immediately tho the first school is located dance began under the tho Un n vigilant eye of the master n as fiery jets Into an glass bell and radiating strange Oriental perfumes that changed with every changing color of the water Upon the coarse skins of Siberian olves sat the disciples of the women on one side of the hall and th the themen men on the other all clad in whIte mu muslin lIn and tunics and wear wear- wearing wear wear- wearing wearing ing red yellow and green round roun-l their waists A man who had once been known own in inthe inthe inthe the world of music as a great composer sat at Bt the piano and was playing weird tunes Nearest to my ray post of observation observation observation tion squatted an English physician who I was told danced until 2 o'clock every morning and then had to get up at 5 t W milk the cows Presently the great himself appeared nonchalantly smoking a ciga ciga- cigarette cigarette rette and letting his blackeyes black eyes B sweep Beep lazIly over the men and women omen who sa aa shivering in their transparent pan pan- For it was a cold night and only a few privileged ones had been given the warming solace of a drop of Suddenly there came a sharp command from With the alertness of soldiers tho white whits fig figures res bounded to their feet only to be stopped by a D sharp Halt Haiti I The word seemed to paralyze them into statues some standing on one leg WIth hands uplifted others crouching on one knee and still others erect but all rigid and absolutely m motionless in the most a showed dancers in a series senes of allegorical poses and rhythmic contor contor- contortions contortions bons that would dislocate ocate every bone in ordinary human beings My guide a man who ho had been a 1 major in the British army and is now nov no vone one of the tho chief disciples of did dida a little explaining We call thIs place an institute for the development of harmony in man he whispered and andone one of tho the purposes of the exercises is isto isto isto to increase the efficiency and rapidity with Ith which our mental centers can con con- con rol control tho the physical movements On One One of the great lessons brought back from the wilds of Tibet and Persia was as that of controlling his emotions He Ho can love or hate as ho wishes and md his natural state of mind IS absolute indifference That is only one of the things he teaches us now and the tho exercises you are witnessing are aro means of training the mind and the body In that direction The other evening evening fifteen of us sat together in one room One Ono of tho the girls Drought brought in some fresh cut roses and put them in a B vase Mr looked at the flowers and then suddenly said to 10 tous lous us We Wo hate roses Immediately e ae hated the tho roses and within five minutes they had wilted away as if the hot breath of the desert had swept over them Most extraordinary I whispered Not at all extraordinary he cor cor- corrected corrected corrected so far tar as we e arc are concerned You Yoa see Bee we have learned no longer to idea iden l t i fr t i 1 I x I 3 f f fw 6 Wi t Pf R Y k I IAn An acrobatic cro ti 1 S f moment m in the a I 1 P 1 II night all dance 1 3 6 that is u f t if claimed claimed to help R 1 produce perfect I abs v 11 control of off aa tb the emotions motions 1 f v y J JI I ao k I i s S ts Ja Jt is W 1 w i iA iW W A i s x r Shivering Y in a ce A gauzy 1 ya a t tK K ti Su i draperies x i ar are e c ct l t i a N C the p pupils pils sit f squatted on the ballroom waiting v a for the nights night's strenuous activities to a jk cw aa y o N qZ to Mw a begin t Ht tw t A rd w yav ath with persons with causes mth with interests with emotions or with fancy pictures of ourselves Women very commonly ident identify y with their husbands or their children feeling what they feel vicariously and quite UI ui necessarily Men usually identify with their ambitions or their pleasures Thus they surrender the control of their own emotions They are at the mercy merey of th their ir vanity or their tastes or their friends They become vulnerable and every implies a waste of energy Having learned the lessons of Gourd Gourd- Gourd we no longer waste our energies We can concentrate on love or hatred a we select and the withering roses are a good example of what we wo can accomplish accomplish for roses are living things as you and L I INow iNow i iNow Now the dancers were chanting It was a weird sort of melody fully years old my guide explained and hall hail been brought from Tibet by It had bad a B lulling effect even upon me for forIt forit forit It was now about 1 o'clock in the morn morn- morning morning morning ing But the major continued They are now dropping into a state of full consciousness some of them You see we do not learn to control the flow Bow of our blood as the dancing dervishes can OP or how to produce emotional ties eles such as some monks of the East Cast can command or how to control the actual processes of the mind as the Eastern Yogi do What we really learn is some something thing more comprehensive Wo We are trying to develop our three distinct centers simultaneously that s ls the tho mental the emotional and the moving moving ing fag or instinctive center In the last are included the sensations of hunger thirst love and so forth and wo we control l lany any of these most admirably As I looked over the thirty-odd thirty dancin dancing dervishes male and female that were now whirling around the carpeted arena I ventured to say that this sort of thing ought to sharpen their appetite sad and thirst But we dont don't eat whenever we e are hungry the major explained A month ago told me ins to eat nothing but bread and drink nothing nothing but water ater and andI andI andI I have carried out his orders ever since I have lost fifteen pounds but I am in perfect condition and able to work ork twenty hours a day How do I do it Simply by working only certain muscles at a time or certain certain certain tain faculties as they are required When I carry a heavy load on one shoulder all the rest of or my body is thoroughly relaxed Only by severe use and a method of long study do we 13 acquire perfection of control over our muscles and mind People die at seventy or eighty be- be because because be because cause of wasted energies We learn how not to waste them them and we can live years Mr knew men and women in the wilds of Tibet who welO years old We of course cannot hope to live that long because when ao 1 came to the institute we had already wasted asted more than we should The dervishes were still whirling men and women dressed alike in the costume of Turkish dervishes dervishes During the after after- afternoon afternoon afternoon noon I had watched these same people doing the tho most laborious work vork and I wondered how they could stand tand the tho terrible strain One woman of forty the liveliest per per- perhaps perhaps haps in the whole lot never neier drew a a- a fast breath She was a Russian and I remembered noticing her in the tho han hall hallof of the tho Priory scrubbing the floor Boor Another woman slightly younger had been been heen doing hard labor in the fields alt all allday allday day long She was a doctress of philosophy philosophy phy at one of the American universities uni Another one I had seen tending tho pigs She was a young girl from Crom Mos Mos Moscow cow and very rich in her own right An English lady of high degree was employed in the kitchen as a B scullion But now they danced and and ch chanted as if they hat had been resting all day It was nearly 3 o'clock when I 1 goth got h 0 back into the room that had been as assigned signed to me for the night The bed I 1 was as to sleep in had once been occupied by Napoleon On the table I noticed a at t tempting collation of cheese sardines butter and fresh bread also a flask of vodka and another of white win Presently I wa was joined by m my fr end the tho major But we must not talk he said for he might hear us and then he be would send fend me out into the forest to dig a welt well wellor wellor or chop wood until the sun comes up So we ate in m whispers whispers Thatis Tha Thal Thalis is he ate and I spoke As a matter of fact i rarely saw a more wonderful appetite in any man In ten minutes there wasn't a scrap of bread chees cheese sardines vodka or wine vine left It was wasa w lS isa a rare treat to the major especially after his thirty ys di-ys of fasting Tell me I 1 asked how do you ou g get t tinto into this place anyway anyway Well he said after a moment of thought and a distressed look over the empty table table we come here for study and to know v ourselves better We give Ve tip up all our earthly possessions to Mr and work on his place as lie he He does not care for our money but if we want to go out and purchase anything in the way ay of cloth cloth- clothing clothing In ing or other necessaries he must know exactly what we want to spend the money fOJ for tor The money we give him is- is I always ours Ife If ne e ever should ant nant to leave the tha institutes institute he would return t it tall all to too us H He has absolutely no use for money We grow and raise everything WI we need hero here in the way of food food food- All tha th tb work is done by ourselves and there isn't t an hour wasted in the whole day Th Th- worst waste of energy is day dreaming day To accomplish our purposes it is is far better to occupy ou our mind with a useless arithmetical problem than to allow our emotional imagination to wander To day triage stop imagining even lor or a an astonishing gain in D psychical en energy s |