Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1903-12-04
DEsTITUTIoN IN "zIoN." +"

John Alexander Dowie will be put on
the stand before Bankruptcy Referee Sid
ney @. Eastman in Chicago, and, under
oath, will be required to answer all ques-
tions regarding the financial affairs OF
Zion City. While the date for the in
ouiry has not yet been set, Judge Kohl
saat yesterday afternoon entered the or
der which requires the overseer OF the
Christian Catholic Church to submit to
an examination. That Zion City's two
chief industries-the laceworks and
candy factory-are not paying expenses
was officially disclosed yesterday in an
examination of the plants by Chief Gus
todian Redieske.
After questioning closely the managers
of both concerns Redieske said: I'll
Dowie relies on the industries OF Zion
CITY to pay his Indebtedness, the town
will still be in the hands of receivers
wear from now. Neither the laceworks
nor the candy factory is on paying bas-
is. In the case of the laceworks I'M
derstand that lack of raw material Is 10
blame. No one seems to know what Is
the matter with the candy factory"
Investigation yesterday showed that
the fuel supply OF many families in Zion
CITY is reduced almost to nothing. The
extent to which the people of Zion City
have beggared themselves is shown by
trip through the town. 1t would be a
bleak desoIate place in winter even II
the houses were tightly built and warmly
heated, because the settlement rambles
over an unprotected prairie that slopes to
the marshy shore of Lake Michigan and
is open to the full sweep of the winds
that come from the north or east from
over the water. Many of the poorer
people, the men and women who work
in the factories, live in houses fiimsy OF
construction and unfit to live in through
Chicago winter. The walls of some
are merely strips of tarred paper nailed
on wooden frames. Other houses are
tents made of canvas, while still others
are combinations of tents and sheds.
Not few are partially constructed of the
earth upon which they stand, something
after the fashion of dugout. From the
chimneys of four out of every iive OF
these houses not speck of smoke could
be seen rising. Hardly single one OF
these shacks, in which DOwie's poorest
followers exist, is stocked with
half ton of coal or half cord of wood
1t is the custom there to keep the coal
or wood piled against the outside OF the
novels. and the size Of the woodpile or
the coal heap can be seen by all passers.
A shovelful of coal or dozen or two
sticks of wood comprised the entire
visible fuel supply of most ofthe people
from whom Dowie is asking $500, 600.
Others. still less fortunate, possessed
neither coal nor cordwood. In several
instances the occupants had gone back
to stumps and roots and piles Of dried
grass and straw as the sole protection
against freezing. To such straits have
some of the Zionites been that instead Of
chopping down trees they dig them up
by the roots, so as to have additional
fuel.
"All who have not Zion in their
hearts cannot come into Zion," was the
order promulgated yesterday by Dowie
through his chief of police. The order
to the ''Zion Guards" the police force
of the Dowieite town ofZion City, con-
tinued as follows: "From now on ar
rest or escort to the city limits every
person who either is not of the faith or a
United States official. We will bow to
the government alone"