Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1873-03-26
THOSE ASCENSION ROBES.

In the winter Of 1928, I was q
medical student, attending my las
course oflectures In the Yale Medic
al College, at New Haven. The Mil
lefites or as they called themselves,
Second Adventists, abOunded IN that
city, and as the time predicted by
their leaders drew nigh, their zeal
waxed hotter and hotter, and they
held meetings every night some of
them, / am sorry to say, characterized
matter Of personal knowledge to me
that one dry goods dealer on Chapel
s rect, who was, / think, himself q
Millerite, drove a thriving trade In
bleaehed muslin, purchased for the
avowed purpose of making up "as-
censor robes" In the house adjOin-
ing that at which 1 boarded, there
were four MIllerites, two men and
two women, who made up these
robes for their own Use, and 1 reeol-
lect seeing them habited In them Oh
the evening before the ascension was
reported to take place. These robes
were made much like a long night
shirt or night dress, having sleeves
aud coming down to the feet. It was
a rather unexpected denouenent to
this enrolling, that two women land
my impression is, these ttUo, but ]
am not absolutely eertain), were ar
rested, q day or two later, tried and
convicted, for stealing a quantity of
bleached muslin, which they had
used in making themselves "ascen-
sion robes" The night on which the
predicted resurrection and ascension
was to take place, was, in the early
evening, ushered in by q violent
snow storm, and I well reeollect that
large factory at WestYiIle, some
three miles distant, took fire, and its
brilliant blaze, shining through the
falling snow, produced very singu-
lar appearance, the light being so
much diffused as to give the idea of a
much larger and nearer flIe, than
this proved 70 be. The firemen came
out with their engines and began to
run in the supposed direction Of the
fire; while one old man, one Of Mil
ler's followers, standing on a corner
of Chapel street, kept calling to them {:
"YOu needn't run to that fire; all
your engines cant put 1t out the
world is burning up, and the elements
are going TO melt with fervent hest
Late in the evening, in fact, neal
midnight, in company with two
classmates but now deceased, went
to the old cemetery, near what wa
then the Medical College (now I be-
lieve the site of one of the buildings
of the Sheffield Scientific School,
Here, though 1t was a cold night, aud
the snow had been falling, there
were numbers ofpersons Il think ]
am safe in saying several hundreds)
who had eongregated in their white
robes, to wait for the sounding of the
| la>t trump, the rising Of the dead,
and their own ascension. They erept
to their homes very quietly about
dawn, the next day. thoroughly chilli
ed, and many of them We're unWil-
ling, few days later, to admit that
they had been in the company
There was no end Of the absurd sto-
ries told of the vagaries of these peo-
pie who were weak and foolish, but
not often, 1 think, wicked or hypO-
critical; though I must confess T. al
my faith was shaken in the honesty
of some of their leaders. One, which
/ had from q friend, who was him.
self an ear-wItness of it, I will give.
Among the Advent lecturers and
preachers, at that time, were some
young men very voluble. but not very
wise. One of these was lecturing al
small village between Meriden aud
MiddIetoWn, Conn.,, on the eventful
evening, and closed his address in
this way "Brethern and sisters, this
1. ,-ohaITp fha last ffnta Wa shall
meet together on earth before to-
morrow morning expect we shall
all be caught up To meet the Lord in
the air +; bIttJ anything should hap.
pen that He shouldn't come, l shall
lecture here to morrow night P-
Cor. N. Y. Observer.