Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-07-17
CHILDREN PARTICIPATE
IN RELIGIOUS ORGY
cRAzED GIRLS IN ARMS OF BLACK
MEN
Residents in Vicinity Of Camp Meeting
Describe Scenes Enacted Nightly
as Wild Sacriegious
SaturnaIia

cousin from the devil, who had made MIN
a cocaine fiend, we'll dressed woman OF
Intelligent appearance worked herself
into a frenzy at the camp meeting OF the
HOLY Rollers in the arroyo yesterday
afternoon, and closed her passionate al
dress with a prayer to the congregation
to Join her in an appeal to God to save
the man from the habit that Is running
his life.
The scene was dramatic On the plat
form sat a negro one of the eXhorters.
Al his feet was a white girl, probably not
16 wears old. who was swaying to and fro'
moaning as though in pain and mutterlng
unintelligibly. One arm was raised ABOVE
her head and was kept in motion lnces-
sanity. Her muscles twitched, as though
she were a sufferer from st. Vitus dance.
Near by was an elderly woman, Grip
pie, who had been wheeled into the meet
ing in an invalids chair. She, too moaneu
and cried. varying the performance from
time to time with loud shouteu
jahs."
Farther to the rear was another young
woman. with her husband. They looked
like bride and groom. The girl wire was
in q paroxysm of religious frenzy! From
time to time she would rise to her rect
and call out exhortations to the delty'
Once she became so excited that she
would have fallen to the ground hao not
her young husband supported her. Her
face twitched and her eyes stared in I'M
seeing gaze, straight ahead.
Sounds Of Bedlam
A man rose to testify. His under jaw
ierked spasmodicaly. His voice came
with difficulty and finally he became
wholly unintelligible. 1t may nave oeeh
that this was the gift of tongues.
Negroes and whites fraternized to-
gather. Once. when a young white girl
lost control of herself and shouted Wildly'
a big negro approached to quiet her He
nIaced one arm around her and drew her
close to him. The girl became calner,
but as soon as he left her, again resumed
her shouting.
assembly tent came loud voiced exhorta-
tions. shrieks and meanings. A placard
on the door announced that this was the
'ITpper House" From the outside 1t
like the upper house" of bed
lam.
From the children's house, two or three
hundred feet distant. came the voices or
little ones, high keyed and strained IN
prayer So far as they could they aped
the antics of their elders.
It was a religious orgy; nerve racking,
terrifying, a scene to be remembered.
From the hills surrounding the arroyo
came strange sounds of lamentation and
moaning. Investigation proved that
children, youths and young girls were
here praying to be delivered from the
devil and to be shown "the bride of
Christ" s+
Travesty on Religion
beneath the trees they shouted, moaned
and cried aloud in a frenzy of excitement.
At the top of their voices they pro-
1. \ lat InN
lives and redeemed them from sin. Even
the littIest tots gave this testimony
children Of kindergarten age. not old
enough to know the meaning of the word
and whose only sin. If sin had touched
them. must have been an inheritance from
mentally diseased parents or ancestors.
Last Sunday at the main meeting 10
year-oId boy is said to have been endowed
with the gift of tongues" Yesterday
there was none Of this. From the plat
form II was explained that strangers
were IN the audience. and more than once
one Or the other of the exhorters, white
OF black. left his place to quiet too ex-
cftzbIs follower.
An alisnfst would have found much to
interest him in that large audience.
NaIformed heads, Inconsistencies, every
where the mentally deficient. The scene
was at once a traversty and tragedy;
man nature. II was both farcical and
pitiful. but pitiful most of all.
Neighbors Express Indignation
Around the camp played little boys and
girls whose parents were inside giving
themselves to Christ" One woman, her
body swaying with emotion and her face
twitching nourished an infant at her
breast. A negro, at her side, called upon
the Christ to save all sinners. In front.
a young girl, blonde and good looking, APP
parently not yet affected by religious
neurasthenia, eyed the scene with indif-
ference and chatted confidentially with
youth during the prayers. She, too, how
ever, was a camper
Residents in the vicinity of this tent city
of religious maniacs express widely di-
vergent opinions of the sect there holding
forth Some few say they believe the
meeting is doing a good work. Others ex-
press intense Indignation that little chill
dren should be compelled to witness such
scenes of mental unbalance as are hourly
enacted at the place.
One woman said she had been told that
babies frequently had been obliged to go
without food for a day at a time while
their parents attended the meetings She
come under her personal observation.
Sacrilegious Orgy
The Holy Rollers tents extend along
both sides of the arroyo for distance of
perhaps half a mile There are hundreds
of them. The tents themselves are well
kept and comfortably furnished In them
live negroes and whites. side by side.
There are hundreds of Holy Rollers"
here encamped, and hundreds of little
children, scores of them already obsessed
by this curious mental disease, masque-
rading as religion.
One pretty little girl, about 10 years old,
yesterday advised two.of her little COM
panions to tell visiting Christians" what
they thought of them.
"They come down here" she said, Just
to watch us. We don't want them here.
feel like telling them to go and get
Christ in their heart and then to come
back and join us. Next time I am going
to be brave enough to do it. You ought
to. too"
The others looked at her in awed in
dorsement of what she had said.
The principal address at the afternoon
meeting yesterday. under the main tent
was of character that forbids>its publ
cation. To the ordinary man it woult