Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-01-05
DOWIE is A PUZZLE.
SUCH AS NO ONE HAS YET BEEN
ABLE TO EXPLAIN.
His Followers Seem Like Sheep and
Meek1y Accept His Abuse, Giving
Their All to Him-His Power TO Heal
the Sick.

NET AL 10 us AoWCE 10 AASlt
the Sick.
A Chicago writer who has made a
careful and close study of John Alex
ander Dowie at first hand says that
perhaps the most remarkable thing
about him is his own belief in him
self. He truly believes that he is a
reincarnation of Elijah and that pow
er and prophecy have been delegated
to him. His home life 10 beyond criti-
cism. Mrs. Dowie is pure, sweet. re-
fined woman with an unshakable be-
lief in her husband and they are and
have been in the utmost accord In
figure he is very short and stout and
far from dignitied, but If you were TO
sit and talk to him with a table be-
tween you and only his face and Shout
ders in view, you would be impressed
at once with its strength and certain
nobility of expression that compels you
to feel we'll disposed toward him.
But whatever sentiments of this
character Dowie may arouse, however
much we may be compelled to admit
that his followers are honest, Clearly,
morally pure and peaceably disposed
people, and that his creed contains
nothing to offend, with the exception
of his own unique claims to prophetic
mantle, it is impossible to overlook the
fact that the vast majority of those
who have cast in their lot with his are
fanatical in their devotion and have
not only given up all their worldly
goods into his keeping, but have sur
rendered their right to think or speak
or act for themselves.
A visit to Zion City will bring you
away with one thought uppermost.
You may be impressed by the growth
of town where few years ago there
was nothing but a swampy lakeside
tract, by the number of industries that
have sprung up, by the quiet and order
of the place and the peculiar novelty
of seeing a large community that has
no theater, no drug houses, NO saloons
and no cigar stores But the thing that
will impress you most is the fact that
nearly every one of the men that lives
there, in a home he does not own, on
land he never can own, has ambition.
initiative and force of mind about
equivalent to that possessed by a
sheep.
Devotion Is Pathetic.
Those among Dowie's followers who
have marked intelligence or who
have a certain amount of independence
about them are not to be found among
the body of the flock. They are the Of
fcers, choir leaders. assistant healers,
elders, or travelling representatives, and
being given high-sounding titles and
d small amount Of executive power in
their little departments are held safe
~ within the ranks. But among nearly
all of the 10000 that form the popu-
lation of Zion there is blind devotion
that will take them to the end with
Dowie, whether the end spells utter
ruin for them and their families or con-
tinued giving the tithes and all their
other available assets as soon as they
are earned.
Many have striven to ridicule this
devotion, but it is rather pathetic than
ridiculous. 1t is q startling thing to at
tend one of Dowie's meetings and see
1000 or 5000 men and women in an
age like this sit meek and approving
under a storm of his melodramatic in
vective that falls little short of pro-
family; to watch them silent and sub
dued as the man to whom they have
given up every dollar they possessed
in the world calls them dirty dogs"
Swine" thieves and vile cattle" for
not giving more.
Dowie is fond of saying he has been
lied about every day. That is true. But
it is not lie to say that in one breath
he calls his people my well beloved"
and in the next denounces them as
robbers of Cod" "plunderers of the
holy temple" shameless hussies" and
"puny brutes of men. :And through it
all they sit still, nod their heads in ap-
proval and then go out and mortgage
or sell more of their property in the
vain attempt to satisfy his money hun
ger.
Nobody who knows Dowie will ac-
cuse him of desiring to appropriate
these funds for his own personal profit.
To be sure, he lives comfortably, but
the amount he spends on himself is
very modest when we consider the
time and energy he puts into his work,
his immense capacity for labor and the
&I0A tv,<1 10 =
solute control at regular intervals.
Nor will people believe any more
than his own followers believe, that
Mrs. Dowie has been made the means
of carrying out of Zion large sums of
money for investment or deposit else
where. That all of the money Dowie
can scrape together will be used for
the greater glory of Dowie is certain.
But he will not horde it away in pri-
vate channels. His tastes run more to
such spectacular distributions of cash
as the New York invasion.
With his prophetic eye he already
.Nees another invasion of the same city,
this time in 10 large steamers, Of
course with his own flagship at the
head and himself on the bridge as he
enters New York harbo- Then he
has dreams of other cities of Zion scat
tered through the United States.
His latest vision of self-glorificatlon,
actually announced while the receivers
were going through the papers of his
bank and the whole community was in
custody of United States officers, is to
lead his sheep In body to Jerusalem,
purge that city of its filth and reign in
the holy land as the only original and
genuine modern prophet.
Dowie Is In his 57th year. He spent
20 years of his life In Australia, most
of this time In Adelaide, where. after
some years of work in large shoe
house he was ordained Congregation
al minister. From the first his pasto-
rate was a peculiar one, and before he