Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-01-06
AwAIrrNG A REsURRECrIoN.

The Body of Robert j. Haynes Prayec
Over for Fen Days-BOots Put UpoI
! the Feet After Death-X sect With NJ
Name-LOOl5lng for a Mighty Revela
tiOn Through its Dead Leader
Ne,o York Sun, Jan. 1
An undertakeT's wagon ratified up II
! the door of n plain twO-story frame build
! ing in BrOwnville settlement, New Lots
/ yesterday afternoon, and two young men
J with lean faces, intellectual fOreheads, anC
/ in neat garb. helped a lOng-hearfed uu
\ dertaker carry plain coffin tn the wagon
They climbed up beside him when it wa:
safely aboard, and he whipped up hi.
/ horse and rolled away to the Cemetery
of the Eyergreens. The peculiar lOokins
men kept a dead silence during tht
( journey, and when tie wagon came
TO halt before an open grave in Mount
| Pleasant path they sprang to the GROUND
and stood by without word while the
coffin was lowered into the ground. The
earth was thrown back and packed down
and then, still without word of any kinC
over the dead, the two men drove back
with the undertaken to the plain frame
house at BrOwnville.
The proceeding they had thus strangely
conducted was announced as the funeral
of Robert j. Haynes, of New Lots, a man
mystery to his fellow tOwnsmen as the
two eccentric persons who witnessed his
interment.
Haynes died on December q. but had
been kept by his companions, in the be-
lief, so they said. that he was surely TO
rise again in flesh and resume his usual
mode of living. He was about 30 years
old, of fine appearance and OF considerable
education. He came from the West five
fo1 in 81,
his wife and five others. four men and a
woman. Their peculiar mode of living
began at once to attract attention. They
furnished the house plainly but neatly,
held strange religious services day and
night, and received and sent away an ex-
traOrdinary number of kilograms, letters
and pamphlets. These were all received
from and sent to Chicago, and they always
bore the inscription, SIN Faith" From
this circumstance Haynes and his com.
paniOns came tn be known a the Faith
Believers" But none of the townsDeOple
ever succeeded in finding out what their
exact mission in New Lots was.
Haynes fell sick early in the present
month, but he insisted that no physician
should be allowed to enter the dwelling
He asked his associates 10 pray for him
and predicted that a mighty miracle was
to be wrought by the Lord. His wife and
the others prayed almost constantly, and
waited fer the miracle even after he died
| On last Saturday, while the body was in
the house, his wife, who is described as
! an agreeable looking person, started fOl
Chicago, telling the others that she haC
received a message that Haynes would
join her there alive.
After her departure the rest of the
household dressed the dead body in min
isterial suit, drew boots on the feet, COW
cred the face with a sheet, and laid the
corpse upon an old fashioned cot on the
| second floor. Then they stuffed up ali the
cracks in the doors and windows with
rags, and two of the family, placing a cot
on either side of the dead man, slept neal
| it at night and knelt by il by.day, wait
/ ing for its resurrection. Three members
/ of their order who had previously died
no physician having been allowed to come
near them, had been similarly watched
and prayed over. When the body o.
| Haynes had lain unburied for eight days
/ Health Officer John 5. Andrews heard OF
J the matter and sent Police Captain Henry
/ French 10 investigate it. Capt. French
/ was received by the Faith Believers with
much courtesy, and was invited to view
/ the leader whose resurrection they eX-
! pected.
"Why, he's as dead as dead can be.
/ cried the Captain, who, however. was
amazed at the remarkable preservation O
the corpse from decomposition.
''NO, no." said the believers, protesting
''he's lying there as punishment for an
ImpiOus wish. He wanted to live, anC
/ the Lord has stricken him thus to teach
| him a lesson of the weakness of man com
pared with the Divine Being. He viii
return TO life in few days, when thai
lesson is learned. There is going to be 9
revelation to us through his experience
Capt. French sought to dIssuade them
! from this notion, but they'cut him short
by saying that they would send the body
on to Chicago if the resurrection did not
take place in New Lots IN day or two
more.
On Monday the two young men, with
| piOus mien and mysterious manners. rang
| Undertaken Earle up about midnight. and
asked him what it would cost to prepare
a coffin for Haynes so that he could be
| laid in vault.
1--WE have a message from Heaven re-
! garding him." they said, land don't want
! HIM buried in a grave.'
"There is no resurrection this side of
the tomb" said the undertaken. "You
may depend upon that. All religion
| teaches that
Then he gave them an estimate of the
cost of interment, and they left, saying
that they might return. Yesterday an
other Faith Believer came on from Chi
cago, paid the undertaken his bill, and or
| dered the interment. Directly after its
removal an associate of the two young
men, and VINO had waited with them un-
availingly for the resurrection of their
leader, took Haynes baby daughter and
two orphan children whom the Believers
had adopted and departed with them for
Chicago by the afternoon train.
A policeman conducted a reporter to
the frame house where the two young
men were still staying last night. They
politely invited both the policeman and
the reporter to come in to a table at
which they had been writ ne letters. A
small Bible with a black cover lay beside
the lamp on the red figured table-cloth.
The reporter tried to get the two men to
explain their religious belief, and their
mission in New Lots. 1t was like inter
viewing the Sphinx. The young men
folded their hands, smiled sweetly and
said:
"The time has not yet come te tell why
we kept Brother Haynes so long or what
our work is. We are misunderstood.
Everybody who ever walked in Christ's
footsteps has been misunderstood as He
Himself was. In His own good time God
will let the people understand us. We
believe in the Bible and its truths. We
believe in faith. We cannot speak OF the
future, or whittier we will go, or stay
mere anu nave announcer I6auer. our order
is established in different parts of the
country. We are bound together closer
than brothers. but we have no name. The
orphans that one OF our brothers took to
Chicago will be placed in the orphan asy-
lum of our order there. God is to work q
great revelation shortly"
Then the Believers rose. bowed the p0-
liceman and reporter meekly to the door,
said Goodnight; we're obliged to you"
and went back to their writing.
''They told Undertaken Earle last eve
ming that they felt lonesome since Brother
Haynes withdrawal, and that their home
was broken up. They wanted to negOti-
ate for the sale of their furniture. 1t is
probable they will 90 to Chicago them
selves in day or two. Mr.. Earle says
they have money and a strong Organiza-
tiOn there.
An Incident in the Mormon Country
"a L0tcysT' IN Chicago Tribune.
While l sat in a Mormon cottage one
day little girl Of 10 years tapped me on
the shoulder and whispered, Il know how
to make mamma mad"
"How?' l asked, seeing she had a twin