The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-06-02
UNIQUE CHICAGO CHARACTER
DR. JOHN ALEXANDER DOW
IE.
General Overseer OF the "Christian
Church In Ziop.o

|
! Church In Zion"
DR. John Alexander Dowie, the sub
! ject of this sketch, is one of the unique
and very interesting characters of Chic
ago. He is the general overseer of the
christian Church in ion" The creed
of this religious organization is three
fold namely salvation, holiness and
divine healing" The membership Is
numbered by the thousands in Chicago
and elsewhere, and like all other similar
institutions is made up largely of apos-
tates who have been led astray by a
fanatical interest in faith cure. But,
| unlike like simmlar organizations,
Zion is wealthy. Dowie himself is re-
puted to be worth over a million dollars,
and it came through his connection with
this So-called church. Their are several
tabernacles in Chicago, brick block,
, with business offices rented out, hotel,
publishing house and sanitarium. DoWie
is the head and center of the whole in
| stitution. He exercises a sort of priest
" authority and his people seem to re-
verence him as they would a semi-di-
vine being. AS man Dowie is shrewd
| anu lcl -SttlllS Tie IloS q y
ed head for business. He dresses in an
up-to-date fashion, and so do the
members of his family. They ride in q
modern trap, with coachman and foot
man. and maintain three different es-
| Establishments. He has a Chicago home,
a summer residence, and a home in
Michigan. He planned to build Zion"
community near Chicago where the
faithful could dwell by themselves, free
from the communicating influences Of
the world, but a sordid and worldly
minded community objected and secur-
ed an injunction from the court re-
| straining him from building the COM
munity, on the ground that it would in
jure the value of neighboring property.
AS a religious teacher DoWie has a
vast amount Of the dogmatic self-asser-
tiveness and assumption of divine au-
thority that characterized Mohammed
and all the other false prophets of his
tory. And, like the false prophet of
Arabia, Dowie has drawn about HIM
self class Of credulous people who re-
ceive his dictums without question
The audacity of the man is something
astounding. 1t is the same kind of
egotism that characterized Nine. Bla-
vatsky and is now the chief element
of the character Of Mrs. Eddy. He
seems to compel belief in himself by the
assumption of power over the minds Of
his hearers OF course he lays great
stress upon divine power, but at the
same time His majesty, I, John Alex
ander Dowie." is very prominent. His
teaching is a combination of assertions
and buffoonery. He catches the crowd
by the embellishments Of his services
and by his course abuse of the opinions
and beliefs sacred to other people
A visit to his great central tabernacle
on Michigan avenue in Chicago is not
soon forgotten. 1t is a large substan-
tial structure, built of granite. Above
the main floor the galleries encircle the
entire building, that portion of the seat
ing space back of the pulpit stand be-
ing reserved for the choir The taber-
nacle viii hold three thousand persons,
and the arrangement of the seats is 50
good that the speaker can be heard dis
tinctly from the top gallery. This
tabernacle was packed with people on
Sunday. May 6. who had assembled to
hear this strange man preach on 'Zion's
conflict with Methodist apostacy.''
The first intimation that the perfor-
nance was to begin was the appear
ance of man who began taking the Oil
cloth cover off a huge bass viol which
was in the compartment back of the
pulpit with the big organ Then a
young man in vestments came in and
slipped behind a screen at the end of
the organ. He evidently furnished the
wind. few moments later a young
woman in vestmenta entered the organ
box and took her place on the organ
seat. She was followed by a young man
in vestments who proved to be the pre-
centor The organist played a few mo-
ments, and then boys in vestments,
carrying songbooks, slowly filed in from
stairWays on either side Of the pulpit,
up into the seats provided by the gall
cry They were followed by larger boys
They sang while thew marched. Soon
women in vestments were seen moving
along the lower aisle and up over the
ends of the pulpit platform to places in
the choir gallery. The men came last.
Like the boys they sang all the time
they were marching, When they were
all in place the vested choir was com
Continued on Twelfth Page.)