The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-02
VISITED HEAVEN AND HE'LL.
EMMA JANE PERRYMORE TELLS
WHAT SHE SAW WHILE IN
a TRANCE.

Days, and Recovered Her Speech
at an Hour Named by the Spirit.
She Told the sinners at the First
Bryan Baptist Church Last Night
what She Saw in HeII-She Saw
Her Father and Brothers and "a Lot
of Friends There-she Also Visited
ence There to Christians Only
Thursday Night.
The First Bryan Baptist church
on Bryan street, near the Ogee-
chez canal, was packed to the
doors last night. 1t is not large
building. but there must have been fully
a thousand people inside of it,
The event was one of peculiar interest
to all the worshipers at that church and
their friends as well. Fer a month or
more a revival has been going on, con-
Quoted by the pastor, Rev G. w. Griffin.
The members have shown considerable in
terest, but sinners have been slow In APP
preaching the throne of grace. Interest
is at white heat now, though, and the
revival is likely to prove a rich harvest.
Some mention has been made of the
! queer actions of Emma Jane Perrymore,
a 16-year-old colored girl, who was re-
| ported to have gone crazy on account of
! religious excitement. One night about
two weeks ago there was a crowd at the
I mourners' bench, with the usual excite
| ment. Suddenly the Perrymore girl fell
/ forward and stiffened out like one dead
This is nothing unusual at these meet
ings.
! When the girl failed to recover and
come through" however, some atten-
ton was attracted to her. After the
meeting she was removed to her home
where she remained, so it is stated, for
three days and nights in the same condi-
ton, being in a trance, as she claims
After recovering from her trance she was
| speeches., and remained so for twelve
| days longer. She used a slate and pencil,
| with which she communicated with her
family. She said that God had told her
in her trance that she would recover her
speech at 5 o'clock Saturday afternoon,
| which she did Immediately after the strik-
| ing OF the hour by the clock She an
| nounced that she had visited heaven and
| hell and had seen many wonderful things
IL was decided to turn the meeting over
to her last night in order that she might
| relate her experience
A short song service was held first and a
collection taken up, the members coming
| forward and depositing their nckels and
dimes on the plate in front of the pastor
singing, such as Joel Chandler Harris and
other southern writer's on the negro like
to write of. The leader would sing one
| line and the congregation would respond
to htm. Al Field and Lew Dockstadter
could have gotten pointers from that con-
pastor pronounced a benediction and
turned the meeting over to Emma Jane
Perrymore, who took her stand in the
middle aisle in front of the pulpit. She
| IS or medium size and has a rather intel
| ligent face. She announced that she had
been in hell and had a message for the
| CONGREGATION and of her friends In
| particular She proceeded to- call for the
latter by name, calling out the names of
| were present None of them seemed to be
| around. They had probably been fore
warned. She announced that she particu-
| larly wanted them to hear her story as
| she had seen them chained together in
hell with the devil in front leading them
toward the pit. There were two pits, she
said, each $1,000 million miles deep and
| hlled to the top with boiling lead and
birthstone. This statement brought
| groan from the congregation. There was
large log across these two pits upon
| which her sinner friends were led, where
they were in imminent danger of falling
Lord have mercy on my soul" The girl
| started out and sung the refrain in a
weird tone, the congregation Joining in
Her experience, as she related it, was
sort of rude imitation of Bunyan's Pill
| grim's Progress, or Dante's trip to the
inferno She said that when she fell off
| the bench at the church two weeks ago
Sne dropped Immediately into hell, where
she remained twenty-four hours and saw
| the sights which she described. After
leaving hell she went to heaven, where
| she spent two days. She proposed to tell
| first what she saw in hell for the benefit
| of the sinners, after which she would re-
late her experience in heaven to Chris
Following her girl friends whom she
saw over the pit were her father, broth
ers and i sister; b Sne , erled out Lord am
piled, BE not afraid, for your home is in
yonder's lands" This was replied to with
groans and expressions of approval by
The devil tried to get her to partake
of his fare, offering her lead and brim-
| stone for breakfast and grasshoppers
| for dinner, which she declined. She was
| permitted to watch the sinners eating
their dinner of grassshoppers. She was
then taken over to the place where the
| liars were kept, and saw the same friends
| whom she had seen at the pit, with her
| father and brothers and lot more peo-
| pie in the congregation whom she knew,
| with their hands and feet chained and
| hung up by hooks through their tongues.
She Initiated the broken manner in which
| the liars begged for mercy, on account
| of the difficulty they had in speaking
while suspended by G{ the their ttong9ss and
| her father, whom she said was not as big
| a liar as some of the others, but stUl
| was bad enough to suffer the same pun
The oueer thing about the scene was
that the girls father was in the congrega-
/ She had various other experiences in hell.
| The devil who had finger nails foot long,
| tried to catch her, but the spirit of God
was with her and stood between her and
| the devil When she got ready to leave
I the devil threw big black ball at her,
| but ii missed her soul and struck her SINS
which were carried down into the bottom
less pit
Il want to say" she declared, that the
/ lowest and hottest pits in hell were filed
| with people who claim to be Christians
| and saw lots of members of this church
! there
| This was a dead-center shot and brought
| groans from all over the house. After
| finishing her story of her experiences in
| hell the young woman said that she had
| message to deliver TO Christians, which
| she had brought from heaven, and which
| she did not wish the sinners to hear
! Pastor Griffin called upon the sinners to
| leave in order that the Christians might
| hear the message sent especially to them
! The sinners, of whom there seemed TO be
! a large number in the house, made a great
show of getting up to leave, but it was
only a bluff, as nobody went out of the
/ door Their curiosity was excited and
/ they were determined to hear the remand
| er of the wonderful story, if possible
Some of the officers of the church at