The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-10-08
NICOTINE vAPoRs
IN ZION CITY
DoWeites Hope to Purge Their City by
Means of Supreme Court
Decision.
by United Press. !

| ZION CITY, ILL.,, Octs 8.-Dowieites
and anti-Dowieites in this city founded
by the prophet, John Alexander Dowie,
are primed for the battle to be fought
before the state supreme court at
Springfield this month, by which Over
seer Voliva hopes to purge Zion City
of the vapors of nicotine.
Voliva will seek to GUST the F. B.
Cook electrical company and It's to-
bacco smoking employees from Zion
City on the ground that they violated
their contract with the Dowieites by
railing to employ the number of men
specified in their contract, and by be-
ginning operations twelve months after
the specified date. This will be the
technical objection raised by Voliva to
the presence of the company on Zion
City land The real motive behind the
light Is the fact that the electrical
workers employed by the Cook COM
pany have persistently defed the
Dowfeite authorities In the enforce
ment of the ordinance forbidding to.
bacco smoking in Zion City.
For fifteen months, the elders of
Zion City have sought in vain to con-
vert the heather" electrical workers.
They erected little platform across
the street from the plant and held
two religious meetings daily, regard.
less of weather conditions. Street pa
rades were an additional feature, the
Dowieites descending upon the plant
by hundreds, and several riots oc-
Cured. Two of the elders were beat
en- and lay at the point of death for
several weeks but the daily meetings
continued. The official press-agent for
Oyerseer Voliva paints the following
picture of the daily meetings:
There is a humorous and pathetic
side to this whole affair. Humorous
when one sees the persistence of a
handful of men and women against a
hundred and more workers, and pa
thetic when one hears the prayers of
the old people on the verge of the
grave as they stand there with up
turned faces, crying to the Almighty
to drive the wicked men from their
midst and to restore to them the build
ing which was part of the city which
they came from all parts of the world
to build. More than once has the cry
gone up How long, Oh God, how
long and day after day they trudge
down to their place of meeting across
the street from the factory. like the
Jews at the Weeping Wall at Jerusa-
lem, and the sight would wiring the
heart of an ordinary mortal"
Diotaphone evidence promises to
play an important part in the trial. If
the court is inclined to let down the
bars and permit the whole row to be
aired. The Cook people rugged up
giant dictaphone, with a huge funnel
and placed it in such a manner that
the horn collected the prayers and
comments of the Zion elders, preaching
across the street These were trans
mitted by electric wires to stenog-
rapher employed by the Cook company.
The Cook company stenographer
caught the word "stink-pot" addressed
to single worker in front of the fac
tory several weeks ago. The company
promptly obtained an injunction. The
court held that the Dowie elders might
address the whole of the tobacco-users
as "stink-pots" but that 1t could not
single out the Cook employees and ad.
dress them by that name, If they hoped
to preserve the peace.