THE END OF THE WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 132, 18 February 1909, Page 3

THE END OF THE WORLD.

No fewer than three American prophets agreed that the end of the world was due on December 27. Just how they calculated the date is not stated. Probably one of them hit on the day, and the others accepted it is being as good as the next. There seems to have been a striking similarity in their methods. Mr Lee Spangler, the Prophet of Nyack, in the State of New York, has quite a considerable following, and ne oragnised a solemn ceremony in anticipation of the moment when the flock, clothed in white robes, would be lifted up into heaven from the hilltops,. Reporters from New York journeyed to Nyack to watch the proceedings. They found that many of Spangler's followers had not gone to bed on Boxing night, being anxious to be awake at the moment when the trumpet might call them. At dawn thirty women, in white dresses, white Tarn o'Shanters and white tennis shoes, assembled to meet the prophet at the local railway station. Other saints were to join them -after breakfast. Spangler had been telling the faithful that on December 27 he would surely rise to heaven in a chariot, but what he did do on the due date was to hire a buggy and leave the county. When be failed to arrive at Nyack Station the white-robed throng refused to return home, and, with the help of two carts and three horses, proceeded up the snow covered slopes of South Mountain, there to wait for the c: .:k of doom in Oakhill Cemetery. Ae < . ;- ing to the fugitive prophet, the skies were to have rolled back like a - : .: about eleven a.m., but mid-day found the Spanglerites help!<-ssiy ing. A small crowd of vikag> rs ;■.:.-: followed them on their ::gsi: well-equipped with beef ;;=:;■:.; and hard-boiled eggs, wheih l! vhit - robed ones, as time wore on, gratefu.ly consented to share. There v.'as a great deal of kneeling in the sr.o-.v, and much praying, but the throng of curious folk seemed more interested ky a dog fight. Finally the superir,:< :/i> :,t of the cemetery intfrver.fi. ar.'i at last the dejected saints, saying not a word, took the niari Im.rn' ■.