Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-09-18
OUTSIDE POINT OF VIEW
!. or the imes-Republican.


1t has often been told that some in
mates Oh our insane asylums easily fig
ufe Out why they are deprived OF their
liberty. Simply because they are in the
minority Ii the majority looked at
certain questions thru detrimental eyes,
NhV they would be free and the other
crowd shut up In walls of brick and
stone. All this and more is sueges ted
by press dispatch dated at Winnipeg
Manitoba. on Aug. so. 1t says thar
adNlces were received here today by
an official to the effect that the Do1nin-
ION government will interfere in tae
case of the DoulShobohrs, who are suf-
fer!ng from religious mania. The for
el2ners are making no provision for the
winter. Five thousand are now affected
and the mania is spreading. They have
discarded the use of horses and cattle,
saving they are gods, and have let them
run wild on the prairie. They will rot
eat the flesh of any animal. and live on
bread, water and a few vegetables. A
lew weeks ago they decided not to wear
leather shoes or wooden clothing. fol-
lowing their strange beliefs. 1t is feared
that thousands will suffer If the mania
N'DNs'
not act soon in some way. The Douk-
hobohrs eXiled themselves from Russia
because their principal tenet forbids
war and conflict in any cause.
The reader at once pronounces them
crazy. True, if the verdict is pro-
nounced from a majority standpoint.
Let's see: haven't we read in the Bible
somewhere of individual cases where
the food eaten and raiment worn was
very much like the present craze of the
Doukhobohrs? Where did they get this
idea from, if not from the Scriptures?
Mistaken ideas? Yes. But how about
Christian Science? The reader and
writer do not adopt this religious ma
na.' We know. or think we know,
that certain diseases and many surgl-
cal cases can only be cured or helped
by medicine or the knife. But the fig
ures are close to the million of human
beings with as good mental faculties as
we possess who know that Christian
Science has and does cure diseased
bodies simply by prayer, present and
absent. Fortunately we are still in the
majority.
Now the writer is not as old as he
hopes to be, but in his short span of life
has seen, some "crazes' hard to UNDER
stand. That is. hard from his point of
view to understand the extraordinary
growth of the same. For instance, spir-
itism or spiritualism. He knows of
many honest: well-informed persons
who believe they have had direct COM
with the dead. It is far from
the province of the writer to be able to
call these people FOOLS insane, cranks
or dupes. BY thousands they are as
we'll mentally equipped as any of us.
the Latter Day Saints,and
both Of the, Brigham Young and Joe
Smith followings, have grown into re-
ligious organization of millions, this
since the writer had observing powers.
Can any one visit Utah and Salt Lake
City and doubt that the leaders Of this
have the possessionof brains?
And has well-informed person, judg-
ing them by life and action, right to
claim they were all impostors and their
followers all dupes?
And again, how abtflt the present
craze of Dowieism, right here in our
midst, of only a few years growth, but