Show FUNNY SIDE OF ZION CITY Dowie Himself Has a Name as a Humorist The Pun His Favorite F Form Form of Wit Chicago Tribune There T lere are few places s In the world w where wit and humor are more highly appreciated than in the stormy little city of the and The absence abs of or the theatre dance hall hail and other forms of entertainment the in interdIction interdiction of or cards billiards pool and other games the disfavor in which newspapers and comic periodicals have been held and perhaps moat most of all the natural reaction from frequent and longwinded solemn so assemblies seems to o have created it a humor hunger among these people The Tho most successful leaders of these devoted followers have been who could make them laugh loudest and longest As all aU the world knows John Alexander Dowie has a canny Scotch temper Besides he has a broad humor and an inimitable drollery that have sometimes brought his audiences to the verge of hysterics As for Voliva many of or his partisans think that if he should be ousted from his uneasy throne he could forsake the ministry and make good as a comedian Judge V V Barnes almost universally loved and respected In Zion City and a man whose influence among these peculiar people cannot be overestimated is a charming storyteller and his anecdotes anecdotes anecdotes dotes are arc so popular that ripple of mirthful anticipation sweeps sw eps through the he audience every time he rises to speak Overseer Daniel Ddniel D niel Bryant who made a great gre t record as a Zion leader in South Africa and who is just now dear dearo to o the hearts of at headquarters caught a big audience on his first appearance after his return from South Africa by b doubling them up with laughter over a humorous description of his tussle with mal de mer on his departure from Cape Town H Dr Dowies favorite form of wit is the pun With it he ho is often quick and sometimes makes double or triple plays pays payson on words that are ingenious to say sa the least For example he was once examining one of his hi witnesses to di dl divine dIvIne vine healing before a large audience The subject told a harrowing story of ofa a surgical operation he had undergone during his illness JUness What doctors operated on you 1 asked the preacher Dr Griffin Dr and Dr Hyde H de was the response Hh observed the noted scoffer at medical science dryly if that Griffin had done to you you would not have had any Hyde left As is well vell known to those who have heard him frequently the modern Eli Elijah Elijah Elijah jah is one of those who hold that a good jOke j Improves with age and hard usage He has a stock of and that never fail fall to get their hearty laugh from his au audience audience audience The naive air all of ot pleased an anticipation anticipation anticipation with which he springs a pun for the time is much funnier the quip itself ever was It is said in Zion City that there are few sermons of the reverend doctor within the memory of ot the oldest in which he has not declared that those who drink champagne at night get real pain in the morning 4 v He was preaching in Zurich Switzer Switzerland Switzerland land in 1904 before an audience of people his address being through an interpreter In the course of ot his sermon the good old pun about the champagne was as trotted out with all the doctors usual gleeful relish reUsh of a good laugh The interpreter gave a literal translation and of course the play on the words was entirely lost The audience sat stolid The prophets bewildered surprise was worth seeing He repeated r the sentence laying great stress on the words on which the joke turned Once more the interpreter none too familiar with English struggled struggled struggled through the translation The peo people people pie hearing only the emphatic repetition repetition repetition tion of a commonly accepted fact added polite mystification to their sto stolidity stolidity stolidity Again the strenuous founder of Zion City got off his pet pun This time he fairly shouted it then turned to the interpreter and said sotto voce with some irritation Dont you see Champ ine sham pain sham means not real rea Perspiration broke out all aU allover over the floundering linguists face as ashe ashe ashe he bravely plunged into an attempt to carry the pun bodily over from Eng English English English lish to German When he had finished and breathless the of the audience was complete Then one of the general overseers party on the platform whispered a few words in his ear Suddenly he saw a great light and joined heartily in the laugh at his own expense The unquestioning acceptance of their leaders every evory ever utterance by the faith faithful faithful faithful ful often led to laughable blunders At every baptism service that he conduct conducted ed it was Mr Dowies custom to have all candidates fill out what were called baptism cards These he told them over and over again so so that no one might misunderstand must bear the full name n me residence age occupation etc of each of their signers Speaking in his well weB known broad Scotch accent he pronounced the word full as if it had boon been spelled fool After one of these services a letter was received from a woman who had received the ordinance of baptism asking why her name had been omitted from the pub published published list I wrote my fool name on the card just as the general overseer overseer told me tp 9 Several ludicrous blunders of Dr Dewies Interpreters on his foreign trips have become classic in Zion City During one of the doctors meetings in Paris his remarks were being done into French by bya a young oung Parisian who had studied English a few months mouths in London In the course ourse of his address the prophet of Zion City got on the trail trall of the unspeakable hog Among other things he had against the porker was his immunity from rattlesnake poison polson The word rattlesnake was a anew anew anew new one to the interpreter but this was no time for consulting dictionaries Something had to be supplied and that immediately In desperation the young man used the French word for flea He had read somewhere that swine were bothered by these festive Insects so he put in the word and hoped for the best The following is isa a free English trans translation translation lation of what that astonished Parisian audience heard the interpreter say for forthe forthe forthe the famous preacher from fronI America The pig Is so 50 poisonous himself that he does not suffer any harm from the bites of a flea There is Js an island in inthe inthe inthe the Detroit river in the tile United States that was once infested with fleas that tha thano no one ono dared to go there It was jas a beautiful island and the owner own r wanted to reclaim it so he introduced pigs These filthy animals luxuriated there among the fleas When a flea would bite one of the pigs the pig would just jus j laugh at it turn around and eat the flea from snout to tall tail Finally the pigs all the fleas clearing the island j of or them Then the pigs were sent to Chicago and made Into hams the hams were werd sent to Paris and you ate meat from swine fattened on fleas and thought it good goodIn it itIn In Lausanne Switzerland the gener general al overseer had as interpreter an Eng English English lish Ush gentleman who had spent many man years in France and was fairly well versed in the French language on some of the tine fine points as is shown by bythe bythe I Ithe the following There are several cot col colleges Ce leges of medicine In and about Lau Lausanne Lausanne Lausanne sanne and there were many medical students at the lecture It was for their benefit that Dr Dowie was telling the experience of a certain newspaper newspaperwoman newspaperwoman newspaperwoman woman in New York City went to five different physicians for tor consulta consultation tion when she was in perfect health and returned with a diagnosis anti and pre prescription for a different disease from fromen each en h This is i the English of what the audience heard from froni the interpreter She went to the first He looked l at ather ather her tongue He thumped her chest He listened to her heart He took her temperature Ho felt her chicken At this point poin t the story was interrupt interrupted ed by a shout of laughter from the stu students students students dents The interpreter had said poule meaning hen or chicken instead of meaning the pulse |