New-York tribune., 1921-03-07
The Coming ower
THE LORDS CHILD
I was tho savonarola of Adamant, Mi

thousand,
On the Kaw River Here in the Bridge
Street Church
God Numbered in my voice,
Failed in my thrashing arms, turned
my dark eyes
| To ivid Goals.
The pool halls and the motion picture
shows,
The dances at the Elks' Club,
And a painted Jezebel of horrd name
Blew high before my preaching, even
as barns and windmils
From Kansas cyclones.
After my sermons women hurried home
To burn their husbands cribbage boards,
To empty vile cider jugs and vlcr
whisky TASKS.
One talk in which called spade a
spade
/ Addressed to women only)
Caused three divorces and no fewer
than ten broken engagements.
Here was my secret:
Tho hrc-tippcd words
Which scotched iniquity, sent maids and
matrons
In tcardeugcd repentance at my feet
Caught spark from smoudcring Satanic
flames
In my own nature. wise Providence
transformed this baser matter into zeal
TO lead holy war against the devil
Thus swept all before me-cleancd out
root and branch
/ The sin Of Adamant
And sat one morning, dreaming Of new
worlds,
OF wilder Babylons.
And blacker-soued Gomorrahs.
Could | not save the damned
OF Omaha, Texarkana, Kalamazoo, Osh
kosh, Topeka,
And Dubuque especially Dubuque.
IN the rich state of Iowa, where live
My wlfc's relations? On bendcd knee
! asked for guidance. AS if in answer
The door swung open softly and be-
fore me.
Pink and white, budding,
Delicate as twig Of plum blossom,
Stood Linda Marsh, just turned eighteen,
One of my latest converts.
When she stammcred her crrand
About repairing hymnbooks for the
choir,
| could not hear her for a crashing
Beating within me like thousand Gym
Saying: yield. Yield!
HOW can you hope to pluck lost souls
from hell,
To wipe out the red Ninevehs
Of this great nation,
Unless you know, first hand, the pitch,
heart of sin ?"
She lifted slow, gray eyes, warm lit.
She raised her arms,
Short -sleeved, lace-ruffled, and brushed
back her hair,
Smiling. | caught her. AS she fed
The kiss | had intended for her mouth
Trailed off and disappeared under her
Scarcely could it be called kiss at all.
Linda contided in a girl who went drag
ging the tale to Japhet Marsh,
hardware merchant who owned a.
cretly
A rooming house of which
I'd made short shrift.
Japhet was Linda's father.
lie brought suit against me for ten
thousand dollars,
Saying the kiss had wrought precisely
So much damage
- i1iitd IuOIdlS.
Then began happenings in Adamant
Like to the scourges of the Trojan wars
1t was as though my roofing up of evil
Had left vacuum which abruptlv burst
Inc town divided in two camps-in ono
Inc devils Janlzaries led by Japhet
In the other
Women of virtue, a few godly men.
Myself and Unseen Hosts.
Wy trial opened at the winter term
vi circuit court; and | preached nightly
sermons,
Barring to the public view sin-reeking
lives '-'''s
OF well known citizens opposing me
The prairie roads
Iwinkled with autos speeding into town.
NY eloqucnce emptied three counties.
The hotels were jammed.
Inc streets eddied with crowds.
horses, mules, Fords. The papers wrote
me up.
| saw my picture on the second page
OF The Chicago Tribune. Those were
great days;
And God fought by me with fiery
sword
Japhet lost out He had to paw the
costs 'Ne
Ten thousand was too much. the iurv
FOR one kiss, under the ear, and given
largely e''e"
IN paternal spirit.
MY prosecutors thronged tho streets
=, that night in murderous mobs.
MASKED men rolled oil barrels against
the church. b = NOV
Inc snow-veiled landscape bloomed
ked like an evil passion.
AS tnlrsty, scarlet tongues sucked at
the very tip Of the white steenie
A woman's figure p'''
dropped from the railroad bridge be-
hlnd the church
Into the trc-fecked river.
Back there in Adamant
Some say Linda drowned herself
For love of me; and others law tho
blame '"e
On Japhet Marsh, who dragged her
through the courts.
But as for mo
still see Providence, all wise, all
loving, "'i
bringing forth good from evil.
'l Did not call on God to let me sec
Inc great State of Iowa?
To-day l am whizzing through Iowa
In neat little roadster
Canvassing for an illustrated WORK
on ane a "nIte slave traffic. I got the
because publisher in East st. Louis
Learned from the papers
W Linda $ wet death in the lev river.
ne saw my photograph read my inter
views