Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1890-12-24

The Kansas City Nsssoss aud Their
Ghost Dances.

kASsAs CRY, Dec. % What was at
frat source Of amusement to Chief of
Police Speers has become 4 matter of seri-
Gus consideration. Early last week = num-
Der Of eolored men called upon the Chief
to ask permission TO hold ghost dances. say
ing that they had new Messiah who would
lead them TO the promised land. The Chief
granted their request and considered the
whole matter huge joke. The craze has.
however, assumed the proportions Of some
thing more than joke, and is now rapidly
spreading among the more ignorant classes
of colored people throughout the city.
Some ten or fifteen years ago q tall,
gaunt man as black as coal. made his az
pearanee in what is known IS tHelrs Half
Acre in the pscking-ho house district and an
nousced himself as the Messiah sent to save
the colored race. This man was Reuben
Carter and he came here from Pomeroy,
Kas.. where he had long been knoxn as
Cranky Rube." He went among the ne
groes and gradually drew converts to his
ideas and at last accumulated quite fol-
lowing among the negroes in the West bot
toms.
Garter has been talking about the de-
s,ruction of the whole white race. and says
the calamity is to occur next spring, and
warns the blacks to follow him if they
would escape the general destruction. He
tells them that all who remsln with the
whites will suffer their fate. but those who
60 with him to the promised land will be
placed in power, aud the wealth of the
world will be theirs. His story is sort of
revised edition of the Indisn craze, and he
has evidently been reading of what is going
on among the red race.
He claims that the promised land is in
Oklahoma. and Gays be will lead all the be-
levers there in the spring and they will
then see that he possesses miraculous pow
er. He promises that cities will rise up in
a night for the occupancy of the people
who follow him, and these cities will be
made by the angels of God who will be
sent TO serve him. He enters into minute
description of the cities, and it tallies ex-
aetly with the description of the city de-
scribed in the Revelations of the Bible,
He says the city will be called the New
Jerusalem and will be built of gold and
precious stones.
The permission granted by the Chief
Of Police for holding ghost dances has been
fully taken advantage of, and the colored
people in the districts mentioned have been
holding nightly revels which they call reli-
Rious dances, but which are now beginning
to assume the appearance of idolatrous
orgies. As the dancing continues the ne
groes appear to go back to their ancient
savagery. and their movements now resem-
bic the iucanta,ions of the Voodoo dancers
of the South. Men and women join in the
craze. and they ara becoming wilder and
wilder every night, until now the Chief of
Police is seriously considering the revokinR
of his permission and stop the dancing.
Carter has disappeared, and the followers
say that he is is in retirement until New
Years Day, when he will appesr in all his
glory, and show his wonderful power by
signs and miracles. The dancing, which
heretofore has been public to any one who
desired to witness it, is now done in secret.
and ad mission 10 refused to all who do not
believe in the power of the Messiah.