The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-01-06
THE DOWNFALL
OF A PROPHET
How New York, the Relentless, Shattered
BoaStful DoWie
BY Henry Underwood.

q SNAPPED llht di open idii win 40 RON--
resting down on the platform. The
prophet was pleased, too, sby the rev
e erent and earnest attitude of the
]. throng of visitors.
o AT first it seemed as if he would
II. speak to the people, but we who were
close to him, and could study the ex-
}. preston of his face, saw caution come
v to his aid and dictate that it would
g be safest and surest still further to
soften the hearts of the strangers with
another hymn. So the prophet turned
| and gave an order to his chief must
clan, and soon the air was vibrant
with another hymn, whose appeal to
religious emotion was perfectly voiced
by the vast choir.
There could be no mistaking the feel
. ing of the crowd. Surrounded by the
enthusiastic hosts of Zion, their souls
moved by the splendid, inspiring hymn.
one could see by one glance at the
rapt, devout faces that the throng
was ready to be persuaded, over
whelmed by the prophet who had or
dered these things.
by Jove, he's got 'em!" one of the
reporters excitedly whispered to his
Ineighbor. Look, will you? They are
his already"
"No-o-o," replied the neighbor.
aThey are under the influence of the
music now. But Dowie won't hold
them. He isn't sincere. You'll see. If
this were Dwight L. Moody, you'd see
some wonderful enthusiasm. But Dowie
I-no,'
| At the close of the hymn Dowie as
cended the pulpit and began to read
Y r,annla
short, squat, podgy old man whose
pink face was framed in long white
| hair and beard His age had been adj
vertised as flfty-seven years. but he
looked fully ten years older. His sharp
little eyes cleaned with cunning from
beneath shaggy black brows slightly
tinged with gray.
The voice of Dowie was a shock. AS
he uttered the first words of psalm
one felt a thrill of disillusionment run
through the congregation. The voice
was harsh, shrill, metallic, grinding, the
expression of a bullying spirit that will
not tolerate 9. suggestion of opposition
or criticism. The very first sound of
it suggested scolding. 1t grated upon
the sensibilities. Having read a few
verses, Dowie descended to the plat
ner was that of the dictator, not the
kindly spiritual teacher. He returned
to the pulpit, read a few more verses
and again descended to expound. His
explanation of the meaning of the text
was commonplace and didactic, not in
formed by any suggestion of Christian
charity. He seemed rather to regard
his hearers as his unworthy servants
whom it was his agreeable duty to
chastise. And the rasping, clanking
voice was an affront to every ear.
Instead of being cowed the New
Workers were bored. Very gently and
quietly men and women arose singly
orr in little groups in various parts
of the Garden. In the arena alone
estimated that between eight hundred
and a thousand visitors were tiptoeing
their way out with great decorum.
They were too polite to whisper, but
every face expressed the idea: well,
is that the wonderful Dowie? What in
the world can any one see in him?"
And poor old Dowie, drunk with DOW
er, his judgment drowned by years of
adulation, made at the moment the
mistake of his life. His beady eyes
became fiery points that darted the
lightning of his wrath upon the de-
parting ones.
sit down!" he yelled. you must
sit down. You shall not go OUT
But the people placidly continued on
their way. Dowie roared at them, his
voice rising almost to a shrek. What
was most impressive in the crowds
demeanor was that they did not even
turn to look over their shoulders at
the I.If little old yvhn
hurting billingsgate after them. They
had come TO tie Garden to see and
hear the wonderful Dowie. Well, he
wasn't wonderful at all, merely COM
monplace and abusive. So they were
going as decently as possible out into
the pleasant air and clean sunshine.
stop those people!' Dowie shouted.
Captain OF the Zion Guard, I command
you not to let one of them go out!"
The captain drew up his Zion Guard
in thin blue line, but the departing
New Workers were now in such great
mass that the Guard was swept away
without struggle. Their captain ran
to Smiling Dick Walsh, the police in
spector in charge.
stop them!" he painted. They
mustn't go out
"Hm!" unused Walsh, as he smiled
and stroked his blue chin. ''If you
can show me any statute they're
violating. I'll make arrests. But it
| isn't against the law to leave the Gar
| den, you know" And the crowd, hav-
| ing stopped to listen to the colloquy,
began to laugh, all the more amused
because Dowie was now yelling Con
spirators," ''loafersi' "ruffiansi" and
unprintable epithets after them.
| That was the beginning of the end
of Dowie. Within twenty-four hours
the newspapers were calling him "Old
Doctor Dowie,' and the laughter had
run all over New York. The expedi-
ton cost the prophet 100000, and its
only effect was to make him a butt
of worldwide ridicule. His desperate
efforts to regain the ascendency over
his distllusioned people, his failure cui-
minating in madness and physical coll
| lapse. are recent and familiar history
| If only Dowie had controlled his
temper that day-who shall say what
a chapter he might have written in
| the history Of marvellous rseudo-reli-