The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-12-23
FEAR A GREAT FLOOD.
= RELIGIOUS SSECT in VIRGINIA READY
WITH THEIR ARKS.


WITH THEIR ARKs.
They Have Four Prepared, Fashioned
Just Like Old Noah's-Deluge to
Continue Sixty D.ys-Food Stored
Away.
| NORFOLK, Va, Dec. 1S.-Floatiug
about the placid waters of Currituck
sound, near the mouth of the Chowan
river, are bargelike house boats. There
are $50 men, women and few chill
dren on these boats. and they are all
looking towards Christmas, not with
the merry anticipation of the rest of
the world, hut with dread.
The people on these boats ell them
selves Sanc!i6cationists, and hey ex-
pact second flood to deluge the earth
on Christ's birthday. The four boats
they call arks, and the leader of the
strange band styles himself Noah. He
is religious fanatic Of a peculiar type,
and claims to have had a vision in
which he was warned of the coming of
the food. H appears to be deeply in
earnest ana firm believer in the truth
of his peculiar representations. His
real name is Joseph Lynch. Heisabout
55 years old, is tail, thin and gaunt,
and is a common type of the poor
white On the Eastern shore Of Virgin
ia and North Carolina.
Before he became the modern Noah
he was poor farmer, like others of
his class. Ofeducatioa he has practi-
cally none, but he is shrew6er than
the others, and, moreover, he possesses
a rude eloquence which seems to have
given him great power over his igno-
rant neighbors. In some way he has
gathered peculiar medley of Biblical
information and this he has cunning
~ distorted to serve his ends.
a tride less than year ago he sold
his farm and purchased an old barge.
which he renodeled on the lines of the
pictures Of the original ark. He made
lit haoita bic, and then set about the
work OF making converts. Just what
means he adopted is not known, but
he was surprisingly successful, con-
sidering the absurdity Of his claims.
Men left their wives and children to
begin life in the ark, and wives de.
serted husbands and families. In a
short time it became necessary to Sc
cure a second ark, and later on third
and then fourth.
There is no knowing how large
feet Noah Lynch would have gathered
about him had not the sensible people
of the surrounding country risen in
their might and with shotguns, rifles
and pistols descended upon the four
barges. The rattle of bullets against
the sides Of the arks showed that the
reformers meant business. One of the
women On Noah Lynch's boat had the
hardihood to poke her head out Of one
of the windows to argue with the reg-
ulators, but the next instant she feIS-
essseH5Ss 5Ss&6, with foUEr S94lls5 koTes in
her head. The men in that country
shoot surprisingly straight, but had
they known that their target was a
woman her life would have been
spared. The attack of the regulators
was made in the night time, while a
big revival was going on, and as they
were shooting from some distance
they did rot know until next morn
ing that it was a woman they had
killed.
This attack had the effect of check
ing the alarming growth Of the Sane
ti6cationists. Noah Lynch ceased
much of his activity in making new
converts and many OF those who had
joined the band thought better OF it
and returned to their homes. The
arks, which had been anchored close
to the bank of Chowan River, Tor the
convenience of communicating with
those on shore and to afford an easy
method for intending converts to par
ticipate in the revivaIs, were moved
out in.o the broader waters of Curri
tuck Sound. Here the Sancti6cation-
lists were comparatively sale from fu.
ture descents by the regulators. The
attack Just described took place last
July and since then Noah Lynch and
his band kept very quiet until within
the past two or three weeks, when
they renewed their activity.
Visitors to the revivals are taken
out to the barges in rowboats, and new
converts are being added to the band
every few nights, as the ignorance of
the country people is not proof against
the terrific word pictures, drawn by
the crude eloquencs of Noah Lynch,
Of the food which is to devastate the
earth on the 25th Of the month. Many
of the converts seem to honestly be-
lieve that Lynch is the modern Noah,
and profess faith in the certainty of
the prophesied flood.
Others Of the converts, and the bulk
of them, are mere shams. Life in the
ark is very easy and much more at
tractive to inGolent minds and bodies
than the drudgerJ Of farm work.
Each new convert contributes all Of
his or her worldly wealth to the COM
mon fund, the surrounding waters
abound with fish, and vegetables can
be had from the farming folk in the
vicinity for next to nothing. The
women on the boats perform the bulk
of the work, and this consists almost
wholly of preparing the meals, which
are models of simplicity.
The regulators Of last summer would
never have been called into life had it
not been for the fact that Noah Lynch
and his cohorts were making particular
efforts to induce young country girls
Ito become converts, and in several
cases had succeeded. One of the last
converts of this kind was the daughter
of a family famed for its respectability
in the vicinity, and although the faith
az op5 ,ooo+bnr ayarteJ ctren1IOI1S Of