The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-08-14
A So-CalIed Witchcraft Sect,
Hurting Bomb in Meeting.
OLD PURITANlC Way.
The Church Members Else to Save
Pembe,wick Hamlet, Conn.,, From
Il Hypnotist-Thc Mother of a
Youth Who Fell Under Evange-
lists Spell Leads Attack on the
House Where Meetings Were Held.

Raising the ominous cry of witch
craft, as did their ancestors when
they burned Ann hutchinson at the
stake three hundred years ago. mob
of Connecticut- farmers stormed a
house at Pemberwick Hamlet, Conn,
the other night. They threw bomb
at an itinerant evangelist within.
They accused him of mesmerizing the
neighborhood.
Henry Spilkins, the preacher, es-
capped death by miracle. as did the
little flock of "Pentecostals" he had
gathered about him. The country
side alleges they were saved by Black
Art hypnotism.
Three weeks ago Spilkins. swarth.
.thickset and eloquent, found his way
into Pemberwick and announced that
he would hold Pentecostal revivals
until he had converted the goddess
community"
The farmers for miles about, 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 a protract-
ed meeting in Alvah Woods hay
meadow at sunset, and Woods,
sceptic. sat on the rail fence forty
yards away, his only listener.
But next night Woods was there
with his two daughters and a neigh
Dor, whom he had told that Spilkins
put Np the consarndest interesting
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 thei- big farm house to live
and to preach. Hiram. Oldest son of
Mrs. Burtsell, who has the biggest
farm in the neighborhood, joined the
new Pentecostal revivers; the
country side suddenly became i'll
famed.
On Sunday the two regular minis
ters in the munity preached only
to the steadfast members of their
congregations who held offices in the
churches.
These rose up and denounced the
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, fifty farmers, their wives and
children. marched upon the Woods
farmhouse, where Spilkins and h.
little band of pilgrims sat in meet
Ing.
lie mob crept to the window and
silently watched for time the SER
vice that proceeded in the rustic kit
chen, Spukins was preaching. they
said afterward a weird sort of do
ctrine that no one. had ever heard be-
fore. His black, beady eyes. were
fixed upon the Burtsell boy and his
newest convert. Sarah Jellard, who
lay inertly with eyes half closed in
the chairs near the table pulpit.
Then, into the midst of the "revlv-
al" come one Of the mob threw q
bottle filled with dark admiXture
of 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 mesmerist's 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 it.
The District Attorney issued a war
rant for the arrest of Spilklns, and
the Wod girls compelled him to issue
another for David Norris. an "outsld-
er." The girls declare it was Norris
who threw the bomb.
Trials will be held lmmedlateiS'
hut the countryside is so wrought up
that the two religious fartions are al
most sure to clash.