The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-10-14
DowIE,s DESCENT ON NEW YORK.

DOWIE'S DESCENT ON NEW YORK.
If anticipations are realized there will
he begun this morning one Of the most
spectacular crusades in the name of
religion ever undertaken in this coun-
try. John Alexander Dowie, who as
serts that he is a reincarnation of the
Prophet Elijah and calls himself Eli
jah H." is to leave Zion City, for
ty miles north of Chicago, with several
thousand of his followers and descend
on New York with the avowed pur-
pose Of converting that city to his So
called religion. He purposes to hold
great meetings in the Madison Square
Garden and to conduct a thorough cam
vass of the city, to gather into his
fold the lost and those who have
money to invest. At the time he first
announced his plans for an invasion
of New York he said he expected to
collect as much as 81, 900, 600 there, and
the probabilities are that he will not
be disappointed. New York will buy
more gold bricks than any other COM
munity on the face of the earth and
pay the highest prices for them. Dowle
has promised his prospective New York
converts that they will be given an OPP
portunity to get 1000 per cent year
on the money they invest with him.
The inducements Of free grace and l.
coo per cent. interest are inducements
well calculated to take New Workers by
storm, We expect to see the Dowie
religion flourish like green bay tree,
and the Dowie Golfers filled to over
flowing, as a consequence of his in
vasion of New York. The shrewd in
dividual who plays upon both religion
and cupidity is morally certain to be
a winner.
DoWie has been before the public for
ten or a dozen years, during which time
he has built a city between Milwaukee
and Chicago, half way between beer
and Babel" and has amassed a for
tune estimated to be from 100000 to
$4,000 He is bold and fearless
in his methods. He asserts his di-
vine authority, claiming to be a direct
agent and representative of God, with
power over life, death and hell, and
his followers believe in him implicitly.
The burden of his preaching is GIVE,
give, give!" He makes his people work
at wages that he chooses to give them
prizes. As a collector of tithes he has
probably no equal in the country. In
this particular, by the way, it is to
be remarked that sometimes in some
of the older religions the ability of
preacher to collect money is regarded
as the measure of his efficiency and
goodness. The most Successful"
preacher is often the one who is able
to make the best financial showing
Measured by that standard, Dowie has
been one of the most successful
preachers of modern times. When he
began to save SOULS heal bodies and
devise 800 and 1000 per cent. invest
ments some years ago he was, practi-
cally pennlless; now it takes seven fig
ures to enumerate his bank account.
He has been called a fakir and mounte-
bank. Those terms are very harsh
and should not be applied except in
extreme cases. The dividing lines be-
tween religion and fanaticism, and fl
naneiai genius and graft, are some
times so very thin that it is impossi-
BILE to detect just where they are.
The person whom we suspect of being
fanatic may be devoutly and sincere
ly religious, only his religion differs
from ours, and the man we believe
to be a CRATER may actually be a fl
nancial genius of the real Wall street
strain. 1t is not meet, therefore, to
be too severe on Dowie. That he is
a man of parts is shown by the num-
Der of followers he has gathered about
him and the amount of money he has
| collected.