Double Vision Failed Him

New York Daily Tribune, May 8, 1901

DOUBLE VISION FAILED HIM.

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HINDOO DOCTOR AND TEACHER IN LANGUAGES

AND OCCULTISM CHARGED WITH IL-

LEGAL PRACTISING.

    Dr. Albert De Sarak, of No. 413 West Fifty-seventh st., was arraigned before Magistrate Meade in the West Side court yesterday afternoon by Agents Schwartz and Loring, of the County Medical Society, on a charge of practising medicine without a medical certificate.
    Dr. De Sarak says he is a Hindoo, an Oriental scientist, a general delegate to the Scientific Academy of Sauceteur (sic), of Paris, and member of the Oriental Society of Thibet and Calcutta. He said he practised the Oriental science of magnetism, double vision, concentration, and palmistry, and taught English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian.
    The agents alleged that the prisoner attempted to set a bulldog after them when they entered his place.
    Dr. De Sarak showed an invitation sent out by La Frater Nidad Lodge No. 387, F. and A.M., German Masonic Temple, No. 220 East Fifteenth-st., stating that a regular communication of the lodge would be held on next Saturday evening, at which Brother Dr. A. De Sarak would give a demonstration of occultism and second sight, experiments on disintegration, double vision at a distance and through opaque bodies, being blindfolded, and would demonstrate astral vision by painting a picture in ten minutes.
    Dr. De Sarak admitted that he was not registered and said he was not practising as a physician. He was held in $300 bail for trial in Special Sessions.

Commentary: Ohh! Sarak got busted. Love the sarcastic headline. So this took place before he went to D.C. and started the Order my great-grandfather would later join. I don't get it: He taught English? I thought he didn't speak it well. Oh, I love how he sicced a bulldog after his visitors, and when questioned by reporters, immediately plugs his magic tricks and gets them to print the time and location of his next show. The man must have magnetised them through their opaque bodies to get them to advertise for him. One thing I can conclude from this article: Bob Ross must have been the greatest master of astral vision of all time! He must have trained under Sarak and learned the Oriental Occult Secret Wisdoms of Thibet and Calcutta. How else do you explain his mystically astounding realistic speed-paintings? Bob Ross, you are missed.

Update: My brother Colin writes - "I'm amused to see that "Dr." Sarak lived on the same street as me. The Aurora, where Jess and I lived for several years before moving to our now-being-sold apartment, is at 475 West 57th, down the road and across the street from his residence in 1908. I'm not sure if the building still stands; there has been some redevelopment but I believe that end of the street has some old brownstones on it."

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