Milford chronicle., 1903-10-30
DOWEE SPEAKS
OF LIFE SECRET
SAYS Te is Not the Son Of John Mur'
ray Dowie, Of Iowa
DENOUICES ALLEGED FATHER

Now York. Oct -. - In a broken
voice. witl tears streaming down Lis
face and his body shaiing with emo. .
tion, Johl Alexander Dowic stood or .
the platform in Madison Square Gar
den before 2n audience of 10000 per .
sons and announced that in truth Ee .
was not the son OF John Murray
DoWie. of Essex. Ia, from whom he
takes his ratronymic, but that his IA .
ther was a British army officer OF high .
family by a scotch marriage He .
heaped viHiication and denunciat!on
upon John Murray DOwie, whom he
declared had made his mother/believe /
her marriage to Dowie's father was
shameful. ard. the army officer having .
been taken away by his relatives, his .
mother. in the first flush of ner shame .
had sought to give her son a name by .
marrying John Murray Dowie.
The revelation was made at the end
of an hours trade against the press
of this city, its treatment OF his wori
and himself being styled conspiracy
Of folsehood," the reporters denounced
as yellow dogs, poisonous reptile5
who have wrecked Thousands OF home
and brcEen thousands OF hearts
He led up to the publication Of ex-
tracts from letters passing between
himself and John Murray Dowie, i1Gt
eating Dowies renunciatiOn OF the lat
ter as a parent, and which were re
sponsible for the general overseers
partial exposition OF the great secret
of his life.
Shouting at one moment in ff
of violent rage at the newspapers, TIT
Dowie would the next moment speab
in the most gentle voice OF his mother
and wife. The great audience was
moved by his evident emotion. Wo
men wept, and at times bursts Of ap
plause greeted his declarations.
Dowie announced that just one year
ago ne had addressed a meeting in Chi
cago. at which he had told Of an at
tempt to blackmail by a man writing
from Boston, who claimed to have GER
tain letters which had passed between
himself and John Murray Dowie.
That man wrote me- said Mr..
Dowie. that the letters if Published
might cause me annoyance, and in the
generosity Of his heart said that for
$1,000 he would turn them over to me
instead Of to a Chicago newspaper.
Garbled extracts from these letters
were published in a paper in this
city. l challenge taht paper to
~ ryh NJ
was printed being only misrepresent-
ing extracts, distorted quotations and
largely pure concoction, obtained either
from the man who tried to blackmail
me a year ago, gotten by him from
John Murray Dowie, Of Essex, Iowa,
( or else John Murray Dowie poor, wick
ed man. was so far lost to me as to sell
/ the letters Of him whom he falsely said
was his son. These letters have come
either by robbery or a sin much deeper
and more wicked, the basest of all
sin"
Mr. Dowie was becoming greatly eX-
cited and tramped the platform with
nervous steps, his frame quivering
with the intensity of his emotion.
THE best proof that John Murray
\ Dowie was not my father" he shouted.
lis that he has given up my letters to
him, rebuking him fer the most terri
BILE crime a man could ever commit, in
my judgment Were it all against my
self, I would not care, but there is one,
the dearest. sweetest, purest woman
that ever was. who is now 10 years,
thank God. in Heaven-my mother.
Il Il dsnOunce the publication Of those
letters because they are false in many
parts, large extracts being omitted,
thereby distorting the meaning Of the
rest
Il want to say that I never wanted
this story to come out. but Il is known
!, that am not the son of the miserable
ssoundrel, who. in order to strike at
me, sold the letters in which l re-
preached him to the vile press of New
! York"
Dowie burst into invective Of the
bitterest type against the press for
publishing the letters. He ragged like
a man crazed by the enormity Of in
jury done him, and then. as If spent
by the exertion Of his TRADE, broke
down and wept He said he was glad
his wife and soH were away. 30 that
he bear the humiliation al ne. He
likened himself to David and Solomon,
but added that he did not consider he
was illegitimate.