Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1907-08-15

Pemberwick Hamlet, Conn.,, From
Hypnotist-The Mother of 81
| Youth Who Fell Under Evanye-
lists Spell Leads Attack nm IN,
House Where Meetings We're Held.
Raising the ominous cry Of witch
craft, as did their ancestors whom
they burned Ann Hutchinson at tbo
stake three hundred years ago. n moh
OF Connecticut farmers stormed a
mouse at Pemberwick Hamlet. Conn
tne other night. They threw a bomb
a1 an itinerant evangelist within.
Ihey accused him of mesmerizipg the
neighborhood
Henry Spilkins, the preacher es-
capped death by miracle. as did tho
| little flock of "Pentecostals" he had
gathered about him. The country
SIDE alleges they were saved by Black
kArt hypnotism.
Three weeks ago Spilkins. swarth.
thlckset and eloquent, found his wav
into Pemberwick and announced that
he would hold Pentecostal revival.
until he had converted the goodies.
community
nv ioi IOT miles aDOnt all
prosperous, all orthodox and most of
them rigorous Baptists. Methodists or
Presbyterians. laughed at the SALIVA
ZIONIST, as they called him and warn
ed to leave at once
The first night he held protract
ed meeting in Alvah Woods hav
meadow at sunset, and Woods. n
sceptic. sat on the rail fence forty
yards away. his only listener.
But next night Woods was there
win his two daughters and a neigh
nor whom he had told that Spilkins
put Mp the consarndest interestinr-
est talk on religion he's ever heard,
From that time on crowds attended
the revivals. Farm lads took their
best girls; others went from curios-
ity; Woods and his daughters became
openly converted and took the evan
gelist to their big farm house to live
and to preach. Hiram, oldest son of
Mrs. Burtsell, who has the biggest
| larih IN the neighborhood. Joined the
| new Pentecostal revivers:" the
| country side suddenly became in
| famed
On Sunday the two regular minis
| ters In the community preached onIv
TO the steadfast members of their
| congregations who held offices i'm the
| churches.
These rose up and denounced the
intruder. Woods and his daughters
had been mesmerized by, Spilkins
they said 1t was the Black Art he
was using to win the little hamlet
away from the old Puritan beliefs
For the sake of the true religion he
must be put where he could do no
more harm
| Mrs. Burtsell Joined this faction.
Her son, she cried. already led astray
must be saved from the wizard.
| And so. led by woman. as wo-
men egged on their ancestors of other
| DAYS, hfty farmers, their wives and
children, marched upon the Woods
farmhouse, where Spilkins and his
| little band of pilgrims sat in meet
ing.
The mob crept to the window and
silently watched for a time the SER
wee that proceeded in the rustic kit
len, Spllkins was preaching, they
said afterward weird sort of do
ctrine that no one had ever heard be-
fore. His black. beady eyes. were
hXed upon the Burtsell boy and his
newest convert, Sarah Jellard, who
lay inertly with eyes half closed i'm
the chairs near the table pulpit
Then, into the midst Of the "reviv-
al, come one of the mob threw a
bottle hlled with dark admixture
lof liquids. which exploded as it struck
the itinerant preacher on the head.
A moment later and the whole
room was blazing, the converts, even
to the mesmerists principal victims,
flying out, Spilkins was badly scared.
Severala others who had been wor-
Shipping with him suffered serious
burns.
Some say woman threw the bomb
The other side complains that Spill
kins himself exploded il.
The District Attorney issued a war
rant for the arrest of Spilkins. and
the Wod girls compelled him to issue
another for David Norris, an "outsid-
err" The girls declare 1t was Norris
who threw the bomb.
Trials will be held Immediately.
but the countryside is so wrought up
that the two religious fartions are al
most sure to clash.