QUEER CULTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 13 July 1907, Page 4

QUEER CULTS.

| tine of the strangest phenonienons of jour times (says the Daily Mail) is the jlaet that the millions of America, otherjwisc the .shrewdest business people on earth, are easily the most gullible of all j when it comes lo freak .supornaturali.Mii,

I he rise and downfall of John IJowie is a case in point. With no wealth of his own. he accumimihitcd from gifts at least .C0.111111.11D0. The self-styled "Elijah" was a kind of grotesque High Priest, uho dissipated the vast for! line poured out Irom his too credulous flock, and lately died insane. Fifteen years ago lie founded Zion T'itv, an industrial town Ot over M'ven thousand people. Its factories .hkl stores were humming hives 0 f industry, but his wealth was swallowed up, ami the community's debt stands at Ll.:illo.iinO.

The downfall of Omvie and D.iwieisni dates from "Klijal, ill.'s" pilgrimage to New York three year.- ago |„ convert what he was pleased to call the World's wickedest city. Alas, the pilgrimage "Illy resulted in ridicule, and a 10.-s of

nearly tlon.oiio. «„t it was on'v a lew wee!;, before las! Christmas that the crash came. On that day it was announced that Zion City would be abandoned. On I hat day, too. Dowie made j hi* Inst appeal to the faithful few maining. Hut even to them he was a poor embecile.

A NEW ELIJAH. Anil then there is that other "Klijuh," Kandforrt, who built his huge temple at a eost. of £200,000 on the sandhills near Durham, in the State of Maine. Sandford came near rivalling Dowie as a prophet, and began (o build the foundations of the lemple with his own hands in ISn.l. As showing tlie credulity of tli? Americans, it may be mentioned that at this time the man's sole possessions were a wheelbarrow and a shovel. As he labored ho was jeered at by the farmer:-: yet one alter another of them fell under his influence nnd adopted his strange tenets. Indeed, many of them sold their rich farms and gave all thev had in I lie world to Ihe new Elijah, lie sent missionaries into foreign lands, nnd "immigrants for the new faith-colony began to arrive at Ellis Island, the famous immigration station in Xew York harbor. The new prophet imposed fasts of incredible duration; he himself claimed to raise the dead to life; and his '•faith-cures'' were heralded far nnd wide.

Physicians and the orthodox churches of the State tried to combat the new craze, but in vain. Like many another, ■Saudford throve oil persecution; saiil lie was the representative of God. and ruled even his richest and most powerful adherents with an iron rod. J!ut the end soon came. The vast pile of wood, brick, and stone ou Beulah Hill began to look deserted; rats infested the prayer,rooms in the minarets. None remained ,I'nt a lew half-starved dupes in the stronghold when the impudent charlatan claimed to have talked with the "Almighty.

The Governor of Maine ordered an investigaiion „f lift. ~c ]lim, <llp I)n] . s of the Xew Zion. and Sandford's assistant, "Moses" Holland, was haled forth, with a number of half-insane creatures, who were handed back to their own people more dead than alive. Sandford's wealth is believed still ( 0 |, O I'antaSdV as these things are, they are excelled by what is to come. Saudford bought a "licet"—an old barrpietine and two yachts. With "Kli.jah" ,Saudford and "Mo„es" llalland as admirals, they I'lit to sea with seventy of (heir ' i|,„-l<. I lie "Holy Meet's" destination was kept secret, but it leaked ouUaler (hat the pilgrims were at lieirut. in Svria

RULT.KRR.

-Wny „m i„ Seattle. in the f!11 . ,v nrlh . \\es,era Nate uf Washington, the "|j„ly Hollers,' are in i'ull swing. nml n l vi . ;u j' v tl'i'.v Jiav.- caused 1 In- blood to flow. < 'coi-go Mitchell. a despairing yonnu' who declared that the lives of his two siMors had been i«i ne ,l l,y , lk K. Canficld. ||,e so-called Moslma" of thi seel, shot the leader dead. And (he affair laid a terrible sequel. One of the Misses .Mitchell followed her brother I > court m Seattle, and in the midst of the i ,,o ' hl, c-<I a revolver and shot him 'lead. A a result the Holy Hollers on the Pacific coast had to My for their lives, for the murder of young Mitchell aroused wild frenzy against them. Tins sect was organised six years ago iy the shores of Canandaigua Lake, in Western Xtw York. Belief i„ ] IC ' U j 9 <'»'»>• chief tenet; and conversion is by l«ir. The penitent lies oil tile floor at (he end of the great hall and rolls "*er and over like a hypnotised Hindu at a big -niela" ~u t il i] lc authorities are satisfied (hat the devil ,'s rolled out of "" s fantastic ceremony has lasted as long as five hours, and as the unhappy penitent rolls the sins of a lifetimo arc elicited from him by confession.

FLYIXG ROJ.LEKS. 1 There are also the Flying Rollers, with headquarters at Benton Karl,or, MitehiTl,eHe c,aim converts even from Australia and Xew Zealand, where they have hail missionaries at work. At llit-ir "purification meetings'' a great fire >■" hinlt and the converts throw their ( rea»nri'f into the llaiues (o show they forsake all tiling f,„- t] lc TDK KAXCTJFIED ABAAf.

All this is strange enough. Imt there is comedy in the "Sanctified Church of Adam and Eve." Its founder was av-re-ted wliil,. preaching in (lie main street Of Ivathdnini. Fdaho, and was haled off to I lie police station arrayed in a liorsehlanket. This mail, the liev. John A. Matt ley. Hi,* police thought, should have jilt- least some covering. The truth is he was preaching as Adam must- have pieachcd in Eden—if ho ever preached there -without any clothing at all! lakeu before a Commission in Lunacy he declared all clothing insanitary. ]ini. Ills plea dill not appeal to the authorities. who promptly placed him in an asylum. ■