The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-01-21
A Curious Sec

80 WIN ueIreS IHdt Xix Atc " Dill
-'overcomer"-a sect which has for its
head one Mrs. S~pafford, now in Jeru-
salem-is all roses, and that the set
element is a marvel Of goodness.
AT No. 6003 Throop street, thirteen
men and women are now waiting for
the assistant prophets to lead them
into the promised land, otherwise a
clump of houses outside the walls OF
Jerusalem, on the old Roman road lead
ing to Damascus, presided over by
-iMother"SpaffoTd.
John B. Adamson, of No. 1914 West
Lake street, is the gentleman who
speaks slightly of the Spafford colony
in the oriental domain. He declares
that the thirteen living in the Throop
street houses are the most unlucky
thirteen in the world, only they don't
know it. Mr.. AdamsOn claims to have
buZZed about the ears Of the c~~TertS
intent on going to live in the he. land,
begging them to fOrSake their project
and relating, in support Of the plea, his
own experience during a year past with
the strange sect. He claims that the
people wishing to go are fanatical and
will not listen to reason. when out
siders can get near enough to fire it at
them.
They'll go before many weeks, as
near as l can discover" said Mr.. Adj
amsOn, in ~bewailing the fact, IAN Will
reason for themselves when it is too
late, for Mother SpaffOrd and her
right-hand man, Jacob Efihu, are will
ing enough to have a mans or woman's
property turned in for the cOmmOnweal
but objects to returning any Of it, as l
have cause to know.
Adamson is in favor Of almost any
T-;nI &c n RrL pr+L;1L rr;I Iya1p tho do
1uded colCnists from crossing the
ocean to the land where there is a lit
tie to make life worth living.
ooh j know all about it," declared
the ex-overcomer. II was publishing
a pape CALLED THE Voice of the reap
er, when Mrs. Spafford came back to
Chicago after a long absence and be-
gan to proselyte. / have always been
a church worker of an independent
sort, have studied the Bible and always
took a great interest in religious mat
tiers. She lectured and eXhorted at a
hall in Madison venue in April OF 18-
sc. She told Of the holy life-holier
thar any oGher life on this sphere-of
the peace and love existing among the
members of the sect, not working for
themselves, but for the good Of others.
Wen, / fell a victim to her persua-
SfOnS; my wife was never the enthuS-
last I was, but | won from her the
half -hearted consent ito Join the party
about to return to Turkey. We sold
our property and gathered about S1O0,
(which was turned into the general
fund. "A boat sailing from Philadelphia
took seventy of us over, and soon we
had entered upon the new n strange
life. Mrs. SpaffOrd had founded the
religion and it's home sixteen years be-
A. CI-- - l. - 4lo I-;1A OF
Christ, and declared that she had been
instructed by God not to ALLOW her peo-
pie to work for sixteen years. When
we arrived sine made a new
1ment to the effect that, the sixteen
years being UP, the overcomers must
go to work, with the exception OF her.
self, who was to be the spiritual head
of the house.
II was told to go forth and work i'm
the vineyard. 4 obtained an axe after
discovering that the vineyard was a lot
Of roots to be chopped UP, and put in
a year ait hard labor. The sufferings
undergone by the people was in many
cases intense, and Consul Wallace,
representing the United States in Je-
rusalem, did much to aid those who
were we1lnigh helpless. w. A. Rudy,
Mother SpaffOrd's financial agent, is
now in Washington attempting to Sc
cure the recall OF this nObl man, be
cause his report of this noble sect are
far from pleasing to the head of it.
1.-THE life led by many is far from
being holy. las many as twelve peo-
pie sleep in one room, and even those
Turks and Bedouins who rave lived
in ignorance of soap all their lives pity
the eXiles and condemn the life they
lead. My eyes were o o opened, and
friends in Chicago aided me in return
ing to America. An awful howl went
up from Mother Spafford and her man,
Jacob Elihu-this is his angel name;
4 dom know his true One-when I re-
fused to turn what money 1 had made
into the public eXchequer.
Mother Spafford' came to Chicago
when she was FOUR years Did. She was
brought up by HOratiO Spafford, a Chi
cage lawyer of many eccentricities
who wished to educate a wife to his
own. ideas. They were married, and at
the age of seventeen she and her u
band originated the sect which is now
working so much injury among those
who are blinded by their own longing
for perfect holiness. Each wanted to
be chief of the works, but the woman
worked a coup by having a message
from God commanding her to be the
general executive, Legislative n judi
cial power of the crowd. This was toe
much for Spafford, and, after playing
second fiddle for seven years, he sue
cumbed to the grim destroyer. One CT
the Mothers alleged commands, re-
ceived about the time of her suber-
natural ordination, was to go forth in
ITO the garden and dance before the
Lord. She danced in a potato patch un-
It'll exhausted. She has made severa,
trips to America on PROSECUTING tours
and, being a fair talker, she had fail
success"
The man who tells this story is sixty
years Old. IA beard streaked with gray
hides his chin, and he speaks like one
in deadly earnest when discussing
ways and means of preventing others
from joining the strange white colon!
under the star and crescent.
Largest Canal in the World
The Chenab irrigation canal, in thu
northwest provinces, India, is 200 fe
broad. 1t is doubtless the largest ana