Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-05-11
A New Jersey 'sReIigiOuso Sect-An I'm
prOYement ON the HOWlIng Deryish6s.
From the Cincinnati Commercial.

| Great religious excitement exists in Mac
! pin, twelve miles from Patterson, n. j. A
new religious society called 'sJehovah S
Band" has been started, supplanting ia
vorite station of the Methodist Church.
The Methodists sent their best preachers to
| combat the heresy, but they are repudiated.
Each in turn is forced to leave.
The peculiar form of worship develops
itself in putting blowing, whistling, shout
ing, jumping, wrestling, falling to the
floor, and rolling over and kicking. Both
women and men engage in the exercises.
Baptism is by immersion in the village mill
pond, in the dead hour of the night. On
Sunday they hold continuous service, and
take recess for meals only, refusing to
read newspaper, or even to receive q let
ter on that day.
Every Thursday evening they held their
meetings in the school-house, until a diff
Guilty about the candles used led them to
leave it, and now they meet any house in
the neighborhood where the spirit mani
| tests itself
| John Rhinesmith, wealthy and well-to-
do farmer of the neighborhood, is the chie1
man of the band, and recently had his
house rebuilt especially to accommodate
| the brethren; one room resting on strong
beams, it stands the jumping but about q
month ago, an ardent member, in parox-
ysm of fanaticism, declared that when filed
with the Holy GhosJ he felt as light as air,
and even though they jumped upon look
ing glass, they would not so much as bruise
it with a scratch; whereupon he began to
leap upon the stove-hearth, and broke it
off, and then leaping on the top, broke in
| the frail covers. and finally smashed big
| rocking-chair before he subsidized.
ID
bert B. Speaker, a man of family and a
convert to the new faith, the baptism tax
ing place in Rhinesmith's mill-pond, be-
fore the members of the band and amid
shouts and cries, the whole gang at one
time shouting ''fre," to the alarm of others
in the neighborhood, it being then after
midnight.
One of the band told a reporter that as
he was at work in his barn, he got the
spirit and that he ran one mile over bitches
and fences before the spirit left him, and
all this time he was so elated that he
thought he was flying.
! When jumping in ecstacy of the Holy
Ghost, they say their spirits rise far above
their bodies.
They permit no person, excepting those
belonging to the band, to join with them
In singing or jumping, or any other of then
exercises, although no objection is made tc
the attendance of outsiders at the meetings
of the band. A dozen will have the floor
at once, pounding and kicking, and the
whole crowd seems worked up to fearful
state of excitement-some jumping until
they fall; the women shrieking in the wild
est manner, and others praying, whistling,
or putting, as for a wager.
They permit no leyity on the part of the
young folks during their proceedings. Mr..
Cobb, one Of the Band, is thought to be
growing insane under the excitement o.
this religious frenzy. There is no doubt
that the members of the Band are sincere
enthusiasts. The society now numbers
over five hundred members.