A WEIRD CULT.

Shannon News, 22 May 1925, Page 4

A WEIRD CULT.

\ XHE, TRIBE op JUDAH. i

DIABOLICAL practices,

All America has been aroused con- . “T- strange cult which has its cermng a strange eu „<;?- centre in California, and m cons nuence of the, weird practices assoE£d\t«i it there ®e arrest of the principals, including M Anna. Rhodes, the ‘‘High £ £ ste *' and Roaring Lion of the Tnbe Judah” (writes the San Fiancisco correspondent of the Auckland Star ). The diabolical practices came light at the little town of Gridley, m Northed California, where scores> of townspeople, im*n and * hcir and many other neophytes foi m around, are also believed to have been seared with hot irons by leaders of the strange cult, and an investigation has been ordered into the mysterious rites on a wholesale Schalow, brother of Mr ®* self-styled ‘‘High Priestess of the Holy Ghost,” is dead from burns admittedly inflicted by Mrs. Rhodes under the frenzy of religious hysteria. As District Attorney William Rothe sought* to unravel the circumstances surrounding the man’s death,, abounding evidence of barbaric ■ rites m ! which otherwise normal people participated, kept coming t° lyt . Nude dances performed by Adam and Eve” Mr. and Mrs. Edward Rhodes—and ‘‘their children” in e Rhodes farmhouse, orgies of prayer and red fire, convocations of tne wildest type, fake materialisations, weird “flesh purgings,” during tl,e “ordeal o£ Are," which coat Schalow his life, were undergone, were listed. . Two women collapsed Mrs, Anna Rhodes, the high priestess, and Mrs. Herman Schalow, widow of the dead man, victims of nervous prostration and Herman Schalow is dead. Gridley sat tight-lipped while the public prosecutor probed into tne sensational happenings. There were many night sessions at the Rhodes farmhouse, located three miles from town, at which many of .the townspeople were present. Many were branded with, the hot irons of the “roaring lion of the tribe of Judah.” Others refused ,and it was stated that frequently force was used to compel them to undergo the ordeals which they were now unwilling to discusß. Religious Orgy, A meagre few escaped entirely. The burning of Herman Schalow followed a religious orgy which began at 10 o'clock one night and lasted far into the following morning. It started with prayer and “renunciation,” and carried on with all the hysteria of an unbalanced gathering. Lights were extinguished, and only the weird flames of a fire burning m one corner of the room cast shadows on the wall. Chanting hymns of their own .making, .the group reached a climax of hysteria. Schalow was to be “purified of his sins,” according to the story of all those present, and Mrs, Rhodes branded him with a white-hot poker burning him so badly that he died a few days afterwards, and laid down the foundation for the present murder investigation. When it was over Schalow staggered from the place in.his underwear Mrs. Rhodes .then set about “purifying” the Rhodes's home of “evil spirits” ldft behind. She placed oilsoaked rags about the place and lighted them. As the flames sprang up she rushed into the fire with a cry, and was badly burned about ,the legs and hips by the “holy flames.” _ Edward Rhodes, her husband, stamped out the flames and put her to bed. This was on the night of February 28, and at the time of writing the high priestess was still confined to her bed suffering from the burns and her own mental collapse. Outside Rhodes toils in the fields going about his farming duties as though nothing had happened, apparently oblivious to the fact that the legal net was tightening about him as the wheels of the law enmeshed the various actors in the weird drama of .the countryside. •Mis. Rhodes told a partial story of the affair, but it was not all coherent. She said: “We all gradually went under a strange influence, and as the hour grew later something seemed to tell me that ■ I must place the sign at, God on Herman in order that he might come with us. “The influence .that came over me gradually became more and more powerful. Shortly before 2 o’clock I put the poker in the stove and told Herman what I was going to do. Ho said that he was willing and anxious to have .the sign of God placed on him.

Kissed Hot Iron. "Prom then, on I hardly know what happened. 1 remember kissing the iron and then applying it to Herman s body. I don’t believe that this could have been the cause of his death. It was a blessing from God.” Indicative of the powerful influence exerted by doctrines and beliefs of the cult over the members, Prank Rhodes told Rothe of a'n incident occurring some time before the burning, in which Mrs. Francis Schalow, widow of the dead man, walked over hia prostrae body .then stamped his face with her feet as a means of giving him the “Holy Ghost.” Rhodes, it is alleged, received a number of deep cuts in the process. A few days prior to the Rothe was told, members of the families of Edward and Fra'nk Rhodes gathered in a room at the house of the former and stripped themselves of clothing to eriac.t scenes from the Bible depicting the Garden of Eden. The ceremony, he said, was stopped by the arrival from San Francisco of | Mrs. Charles Humphries, another sis- i ter of Herma'i Schalow. I Another story was to the effect that members of the cult on one occasion constructed a rude cross of sticks

and flayed Herman Schalow with it, to cause the "Holy Ghost” to enter his body. ~ , 'Mrs. Humphries, an evangelistic minister from Fresno, California .stated that she went to Gridley recently to halt the weird rites which cost Schalow his life, because he ‘‘had a feeling” that- something wais {going to happen. She placed the blame for the whole affair on Edward Rhodes, who, she said, dissented from the Pentecostal Church, in which he was an active factor, and formed a cult of his own. Evidence has developed i "at two young children were compelled to rise early from their beds and participate in the rites of the Garden of Eden .the youngsters also being naked.