Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1903-11-06
ANGLES LETTER.
John Alexander Dowie.

| The third day comes frost, kliiihg
| frost.
And-when he thinks, good easy man
full surely
His greatness is repining,-nips his
root,
| And then he falls"
The most notable thing in current
events is the fact, that in spite of the
lessons in history, men of today, so keen
" intellectual, so shrewd as financiers,
and with such thorough knowledge of
human nature that they can not only |
amass millions in personal property, but
gain complete ascendency over the |
minds of hundreds of persons of an aver
age degree of intellect, and yet utterly |
lack that sense of just proportion that
could teach them just when to ''let well
enough alone" Among group of such
men who have achieved notoriety in this
last decade, the most interesting is John
Alexander Dowie, who is nearing the
end of a remarkable career.
Mr. Dowie-accordin to New York
iournal-in his early manhood emerged
, from an Australian prison-where he
: had expiated misdemeanor of nature
not sfated-hampered by the conscious
t ness of personal as well as an inherited
| disgrace. We like to think of him as
e immigrating to the New World full of
5 the determination to turn over a new
y leaf and write upon it an honorable rec
e ord. Mr.. Dowie through his wonderful
: financial ability amassed around nu-
l. cleus of one hundred dollars fortune
It of several millions. There is every rea-
j. son for believing that the greater part
IS of this fortune has been gained through
e shrewd investments in business, other
1T wise he never could have attained to the
honored position as founder of a model
J. city with eight thousand souls, who re-
IS vered him for the good that he had done
s, among them. A people who are GER
e tainly not "human misfits." Who
lie among all those who have so harshly
ID criticised Mr.. Dowie could point to a
id community of eight thousand prosperous,
al happy, earnest Christians, free in every
st case from the vices so prevalent in mos
j. of the towns and cities, especially New
or York, and say that is the result of my
he labor?
a This elimination of his career was
Sc certainly the proper limit to his ambi
to ton. Father of a city, where drink, to
ly bacco, and low pleasures were unknown
and with such supremacy over thu
of minds and hearts of his people that they
IN would have followed him to the land
on end. Could it be anything but all ali
"a CREATION of the mind that urged him tt
to disturb such peaceful, happy conditions
- and brave the ridicule and prejudic
'el that provoked such shocking exposur
es of the dark side of his nature? He is al
'e- old man who has endured much o
elf shame and sorrow, and besides has use'
re his brain, probably to the limit of endur
to ance. Is it not reasonable to suppos
Ia that his assumption of Divine power
Use an hallucination produced in part by tn,
ITS coincidence of prayers and subsequen
i'll recoveries? If this is fact it explains
m. and excuses all else; for from an hallu
of cination to other forms of insanity
ut but the difference of few degrees.
is AS to his failure as a speaker-hov
of easy it is to become eloquent in address
vn ing those who love and believe in us
lot and how very difficult to summon tn
he right words with which to change hosti
es ity, prejudice, rudeness and other dis
til heartening attitudes of the people in
lot to respectful attention. Divine powe
le- alone could have enabled this nervou
ng old man to triumph in the face of sue
ng pronounced scepticism. He had nc
til this power and hence the failure tina
OF presages an inglorious ending to use
it full life, an embittered old age, di'
in gruntled community. Such seems to b
pi- the inevitable result of an overweenin
Ia ambition.
ng But if Mr.. Dowie has not game,
res credit in the campaign neither have tn
Ter few clergymen who have so bitterly re
OF sented his unjustifable attack upo
no them. Here was lost an opportunity t.
ny show dignified forbearance and mag
Fly nanimity,-the attributes of their Mas
of ter And here we find DR.. Parkhurs
be using invective equally as coarse as tina
tic so offensive in Mr.. Dowie. The failur
ld of those concerned to rise to the require
m ments of the occasion, the more especial
in ly those whom no one can consider a
ne mentally unsound, seems inexcusable.
ty The whole regrettable affair greatl
le- strengthens the arguments of those VIII