The age-herald., 1901-06-30
The Peculiar Greed He Breaches and the Strong Hold He Has on His Followers = Owns Great Re-
 Igious city-ls Wealthy.

I heard John Alexander Dowie, head of the sect of Dowieites. speak to the chosen of his flock the other night in Chicago, his only appearance in public since his declaration that in him Elijah, the prophet, is reincarnated. writes Miriam Nicholson in the Philadelphia North American.
 A triek-set, well-groomed. vigorous man 55 or 60 years old is Dowie. with snow white full beard and very black hair ringing his bald head. with one cunning eye and one kindly one, with a good, strong, resonant, authoritative voice and a disposition to boast that he has been working twenty-six hours at a stretch, for superhuman strength is part of his pose as a more than human creature.
 He ran lightly up the steps leading to the stage-for the pulpit of the Dowieites' tabernacle Is more suggestive of histrionic affairs than sacred ones-twirling his glasses Jauntily as he pranced before his audience, savoring the hush, that dumb applause of hearts which is greater. more reverential than that of hands, and sank down upon one knee in silent prayer.
 A Typical Dowie Meeting.
 "Elijah" Dowie was late. The meeting had been called for 8 o'clock It was quarter past 10 before the General Over seer," the title which has hitherto con tented Dowie, arrived. Previous to his coming the next greater power in Chi cago's Zion, Overseer Piper, had conduct ed the meeting. A fat, tall man is Over seer Piper, given to unclerical pastures and informal colloquiaislns, with Ma poleonic long black lock across his fore head and a snooth-shaven, broad face, which sends stereotyped beams or in> diligence and encouragement down upon this or that member of the audience giving testimony"
 The audience is composed largely or those who are called in Zion, '-The Seven ties" These are bands of seventy work CTS, who go out, like those sent nearly 2o00 years ago, two by two. They are sent as missionaries to the saloons. to the downtown offices of the medical men, the politicians and the secret societies, and places whose vileneSs more tolerant peo- ple than Dowieites admit. They are un- uniformed Salvation Army people in way, wearing only a button with Dowie's shrewd old white-bearded face as a dis tinguishing mark
 Pale-faced, hysterical women, these are, for the most part, lacking the sonsy plumpness and optimistic good nature of the Salvation Army lassie The men are weak in chin and strong in diaphragm. Hairy-faoed, with ill-shaped heads. they sing the hymns with crude uncultured voices, with a weak, feminine, emotional throb in them. Zion. like better-estab- lished churches, is composed mainly of women, and there are many negro Dowie- ites.
 An Army of the Unfit.
 Above in the galleries-the Tabernacle stage is more in the center than the back of the house, the seats sloping up from it behind as well as on three sides-the official Dowieites sit. An army of the un- fit 1t is that Dowie has gathered about him. This one cripple, that on with | withered hand; woman here the pupil of whose eye is dimmed by cataract one beyond panting with the cold fever of consumption
 And yet, with such material as this, the genius of Dowie has in the thirteen years since he began to preach a new religion changed his position from that of penni- less prisoner in an Australian town to all that he is today.
 President of bank
 Owner of 100000 worth of property. Proprietor of the greatest religious city since the fan of Mormondom.
 Absolute czar of a faith whose cult 10000 people profess, the more ardent giv- Ing up one-tenth of their incomes to their
 
 Head of college.
 Publisher of a newspaper.
 Owner of hospital
 The dean of medical faculty, deriving It's powers from himself, which cures mi raculously by prayer and the laying-on of hands. And now-to the 4O,OOO Dowieites-he is Elijah himself with God-given authority
 Dowieism a Queer tumble.
 'The Prophet as a Business Man." Car lyle would have entitled a chapter or John Alexander Dowie, a Scotchman himself, well educated, an ordained min ister once, now head of the Dowieites. a sect that proscribes the eating of pork as vehenently as the practice of adult cry, that holds in equal detestatfon to- bacco and thievery, whisky and atheism, belief in medicine and non-belief in a per sonal devil.
 something of the theory of the Christian Scientist. some of the practice of the Salvation Army, a hint of Methodism and communism, and a late revival of the primitive tyrannical old religions that attempted to regulate the minutest de- tails of living.
 The reason Of its success?
 The reason lies in the weakness of hr- man nature, in it's reckless seeking after new gods; in it's pitiabie susceptibility to miracles; in the necessity which some patures know of being martyrs; in their thirst for persecution: in their longing to suer for a cause, to be different in their religion.
 It Is a phase in the great religious re- bellion, which becomes a revolution at times, yet never a stable one, for there Ire always new rebels from rebellian it. self. But the prime reason is it's union of the two things which from all eter- nity to all eternity mortafs covet-health while heret spiritual happiness hereafter
 Feetier Fakirs Could Win.
 The creed which combines these two, which promises in one breath both hearts desires, would flourish and prop agate itself were it taught by even fee bier fakirs than Dowie and his lieuten- ant, with his vulgarisms, his empty little
 ARE YOU AN IMMUNE?
 The human system, while very compli-