Prophet of New Creed To Teach Britons Its Tenets

Movements of Oriental Sage Are Kept Even from Most Zealous and Ardent Followers

London, Sept. 18. — ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas, the mysterious prophet of the Bahá’í religion, which has at a moderate estimate, 3,000,000 followers, is now travelling through Europe on his way to London, where he will make a short stay and meet his English adherents. The exact day of his arrival in this country is uncertain, but in all likelihood it will be next week.

His movements are kept secret. Even those few people in London who know him personally cannot name the date of his coming. They have, however, been informed by cable that it will be very soon and that he will remain in London at least a week. He is travelling now with a suite of Persian secretaries and interpreters and one body servant, and during the stay in London will live in eastern style in a flat. A week or so is also to be spent in Paris.

This present journey is the first ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has ventured among Western people. He is the third prophet of the Bahá’ís. The first was Mirza Ali Mohammad, known as the Báb, born in 1819, in Shiraz, a city of Persia, who founded the great Bahá’í religious movement, and was shot at Tabriz, six years after he declared his mission. The mantle of the Báb [text missing] them all to one single divine source. They seek to unite all faiths and religions as one.”

In London ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the chief of the faith, should attract a large amount of public attention by his personal appearance alone. He is described by an English convert, who has lived at his house at Acre, as tall, with a slow, dignified carriage and kingly presence. His beard is long and white.

His snowy hair he wears doubled below a turban, which surmounts a strong clear-cut face, in which a pair of clear blue eyes are set below heavy eyebrows. The dress he dons is usually gray in color, a flowing tunic robe made of cotton, and sandals. Converts say that when present with him one does not want to talk, it is sufficient just to sit before him, and that his eloquence in addresses is beyond description. He speaks, however, in Persian, as his knowledge of English is limited to a few words.