Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1881-12-01


munity in Utah.
Guiteau gave his views of his fathers
religious belief, and was asked if he or
hls father had any peculiar views on the
neallng OF diseases. He replied: .Oh!
Yes; father was an awful crank on that
subject"
Scoyille-What do you mean by a
crank?
Gniteau-Well, that's short way of
putting 1t when you want to say a man
is pretty badly crazed.
Guiteau, in reply to question, said
he did not believe in religion until his
conycrsion-thati is the word they use.
you KNOWN 1859, when lie came under
The influence of Bcecher and the Young
Mems Christian association. Bcecher.
up to that time, was supposed to be a
virtuous man.
Guiteau told the story OF his connec-
tion with tho Oneida community. bis
newspaper experiences and legal adyep.
lures. lie was thirty days in the Tombs
aud IN Jail several times, but WAS never
indicted before.
Guiteau then related his efforts to se-
cure the Chicago Inter.Ocean. He said !:
] applied to MIR. Adams. president of the
second national bank of Freeport, sun
posed to be worth $500.O00. L told him
l would make him governor of Illinois,
and he said he did not want.to be gov.
ernor. He had been state senator and
was a man of reputation and character,
but he did not pan out very we'll after
my interview with him. He did not
have any political aspirations. WANTED
to get hold of those fellows who had
both aspirations and money. They were
the fellows to help me. Adams did not
seem to care anything about being gov
ernor. He was about sixty years old and
preferred his simple way of living and
did not care to go into politics. I also
consulted my old friend Charles Reed on
the matter. believe he put S25 into it,
which he has not yet got back. 1 went
to theology after that, and that was
worse than the newspaper business. |
think publishing the New YORK Herald
simultaneously in Chicago was part of
the lnter-Ocean scheme. j looked about
the building and press. consulted the
manager of the Western Union telegraph
company and Atlantic and. Pacific
telegraph company. The latter
was just starting at the time. and its
manager was an active young fellow who
wanted to get business. 1 told him that
l proposed to duplicate the New York
Herald dispatches and he thought it an
immense thing and SO it was. l wrote
to James Gordon Bennett about the dis
patches. Think told him if he helped
me out in the matter / would consider
the Herald suit at an end.
Question. After you gave up the news
paper enterprise what did you next do
Answer. That brought me down to the
winter and spring of 1876. I tried to
pick up a law business again, which
had neglected, but the law business was
scarce and 1 found it difficult to get any
When went out to your place in Wis
consin worked about the house, studied
theology and the New Testament, rea(
newspapers, soaped trees and all tina
kind of businss. In October, 1879, I wa.
in Chicago during the Moody and San
key meetings. | attended the praye
meetings and services regularly day ant
night during three months. Moody wa
there from October to January. During
all that time was with Moody and bort
an active part. was usher and helped
around in general way. I spoke ire
quently at prayer meeting. Some time
in November, during the latter part o1
the Moody work. heard DIR. Iittridge
pastor of the Third Presbyterian church
say in reference to the text: "If I vii
that he-meaning John-tarry till
come, what is that to the brethren"
have to confess that do not know wha
that means. At that time there wa
great expectation in the public mind tba
the savior might soon ap
pear and that idea has per
vaded the peoples mind ever since. Tia
set my brain whirlipg. I began an in
vestigation. l went TO work in th
Chicago public library and dug out my
lecture on the second coming. The ide,
of that lecture is briefly this: That til,
second coming of Christ occurred in til,
destruction of Jerusalem in the cloud
directly over Jerusalem. That was al
event in the spiritual world and that til,
destruction of Jerusalem was an outwart
sign of his coming. [ hold that for al
these eighteen centuries the churche
have oil been in error in supposing tha
the second coming of Christ will be in tn
future. That is the proposition on which
my lecture was written, and that was til,
result of three or four years investiga
tion on that subject.
Witness then went on to relate his vari
GUS failures in delivering his lecture il
Chicago, Evanston, Toledo, Buffalo
Washington and elsewhere. He fire
quently laughed upon repeating SOM
humorous incident of his failure. A
various times he was put off trains 70
not paying his fare and arrested for no
paying board bills. At other times h
grew excited in asserting that in all h
did he was, like st. Paul, engaged IN til
service of God, and that God was there
fore responsible for his board bills. o.
this latter point he said: did not Civ
up lecturing because of repeated fail
ures. stuck to my work. My idea wa
that as worked for the Lord l wouI,
do my duty and let him care for me q
he felt disposed. went into that Who'll
business to serve the Lord, not none
success, aud failure was nothing to me-
considered it the Lold's affairs and m.
duty to continue my work. Paul ha
no success because he had new case j
theology. | kept thinking of Paul {.
the time. On my way from Baltimor
to Washington avoided the conductor
who had ordered me off at relay house
and so managed to get on to Wash n:
ton The straugest thing about it wa
that after had arranged my seat ma
came along and SAID to me: my fricnt
are you going to Washington? 1 sai
, "yes." He said: "Would YOU like goo
boarding house?" said Eyes" and Ii
! said he could take me to one. Now
! had been praying that I could get
boarding. house, as did not want to &
to hotel, and had no sooner got I'll
, prayer out than this man came alon
, and was just as free and easy with me a
= if he had known me twenty years. No
, l call TINT providence, l have had hui
dreds of similar experiences where