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Show York and ' "save" that city. It was an i unique crusade. The newspapers in New York were filled with his pilgrimage. First Night In New York. ' j I was In New York at the time and li I remember the first night the cromdsl struggling to get Into Madison Bqyrce' Garden, flowed -back over Fifth a V to the Worth monument. The next itt' It was not quite so large "a crowdA third night a few, and then nobody. ew York, always cold and cynical, and al-' , ways clamoring for a new amusement,! simply laughed and forgot. The news; ' papers gave Dowle a quarter of a column and then a few lines, and forgot. The solicitors for money could not get into the-houses, for New York is not, Chicago. Theystarved, suffered with I the cold, and the gaunt-menacing shadow of suspicion that Dowle was not an instrument of God, streamed Into great, empty Madison Square Garden and pierced the hearts of the poor, dumb, driven human cattle. Back to Zlon City went the crusaders. i The murmurs of discontent grew and 'Dowle. firm in the conviction now thst he was Elijah the second, swallowed In-his In-his own gigantic egotism, movedon In his blasphemous, vituperative way and . could not see the scowls and could not hear the murmurs that were growing Into growls, and then the timid wife, who had been a meek and devout follower,; told the story of Dowie's falling by the wayside through love for younger women, and the reaction followed. It was the end of Dowle. Dowle died then not Saturday. DOWIE'S POWER BUILT ON GRAFT AND ABUSE; BEGINNINGS DOWNFALL BY RAYMOND A. EATON, In Denver Post. A man with a bald head, a full, long white beard, and with a voice of tremendous power, and clad in a white robe, stepped out to the front of the platform. Five thousand thou-sand people held their breaths. "The press! Its members are beer guzzlers and dirty stink pots I Am I right?" the man cried. "You are!" came as one voice from the 5000 persons men and women, apparently blessed with human intelli gence. "They are all going to hell! Am I right?" again criec the man. "You are!" came the resounding answer. "And all the doctors and the Catholics and Masons are going to hell! Am I right?" once more shouted th man. 1 And once more came the great volume in response: "You are!" where thousands of people followed him with blind adoration and faith, giving him all that they possessed and were reall7 willing, nay, anxious to law down their lives for him. One night in Oak Park, Dowie was in the midst of one of his tirades when the windows were crashed in by bottles of acid thrown by students. The bottles broke and the stench of the acids was frightful. With" the exception of his followers fol-lowers everybody rushed from the hall. Dowie shouted that the devil was at the bottom of the attack, and I have never seen a man so fearfully angry. His face became livid, his voice rose into a shout, the words cracking from his mouth, and within a few seconds there was a wild demand on the part of the audience for blood. There Dowie demonstrated his power. With his followers thirsting for bloodshed blood-shed he dropped his voice to a conversational conver-sational tone and spoke of the martyrdom martyr-dom of Jesus. Like oil on the troubled waters was his voice, and the audience, composed of men and women, patiently nd even smilingly sat and listened to him and his ridiculous (ridicuTous, If not blasphemous) songs with smiles, each imagining himself or herself a martyr to the new Elijah. It was 8:80 at night when the first bottles were thrown in. the mob held the streets without, and it waa not until 2 o'clock in the morning before a patrol wagon from one of the outlying districts of Chicago came down and rescued res-cued Dowie. Bescued From Angry Mob. At another time out on Sarah street, near Madison, the mob rushed the meeting meet-ing and Dowle was forced to flee. The prompt appearance of the police reserves re-serves saved him. In Evanston the fire department came out and with a hose dispersed the mob, in Englewood stones battered in the windows. The story of those early days of Dowie Is a repetition of these stories; continual riots. In the beginning reporters were admitted admit-ted and were assigned to a table Immediately Imme-diately in front of where Dowle spoke. Every night Dowie would launch Into a There followed then a flood of vituperative vituper-ative language, scurrilous words of defamation defa-mation of .the press, the doctors, secret societies and the clergy from the man, and It was, to the people, the words of wisdom of a new prophet sent to earth by God. This scene was enacted In a tabernacle in Michigan avenue, Chicago, and John Alexander Dowie was the speaker and the crowd was his deluded followers. It was not an unusual scene. It was a scene shifted every night from the tabernacle tab-ernacle to some other place In the city of Chicago or Its environs, and blindly groping through the darkness of fanaticism fanati-cism and steeped in the dregs of a powerful mind and a personality hyp- notlc to the poor people, these men and women followed Dowle, acquiescing in every wild and blasphemous statement he made with an ardor a normal person cannot understand. I I was a reporter on the old Chicago Record when Dowle was beginning his spectacular career and while he was in his senith. I followed him every night for more than six weeks and saw riots provoked by him, and saw him work himself in a paroxysm of anger In his denunciation of his three pet abominations: abomina-tions: the newspapers, doctors and Masonry, Ma-sonry, j Gave Him Blind Faith. j Dowle had boomed himself to the point denunciation of the newspapers, and standing over the reporters would shake his finger at the men. declaring them drunkards, foul men. "dirty stink-pots." and applying other foul epithets. The reporters finally refused to sit at the table, but would sit back In the house. Dowle knew the reason. Then he began cursing them individually and collectively, collective-ly, sandwiching In his opprobrious denunciations denun-ciations of the clergy and doctors and of secret societies. Dowie became more and more inflamed at the press, for at last he was treated as a huge joke. The Record was the first paper In Chicago to begin treating Dowle as a buffoon. The others followed. He knew that the Record was the originator origin-ator and every meeting he, devoted a half hour to that newspaper and, by his own system of spy work, discovered the names of the reporters so that several of us were openly denounced by him. Barred From Meeting. - My Identity finally became so well known that I was not admitted, and one Sunday afternoon Mr. Sliver, now of the New York World, was sent to the tabernacle. taber-nacle. Gladstone Dowle, "the unkissed man," knew Silver and, calling a guard, walked Silver down to the door where Sliver suddenly turned and knocking Qladstone down, ran for his life! Beyond this one incident, I do not recall re-call that any reporter so far honored Dowle and his adherents by assaulting one of them. I believe that, In common parlance, Dowie was an ordinary grafter in the be- f inning. He saw that he could appeal o the people and make money without working. His own success surprised him. As the people flocked to him, he became bolder and bolder, more aggressive and more vituperative. Success came, overwhelming over-whelming him. He began to believe himself him-self and did at lost really believe that he was specially ordained by Ood, and that he was the third Elijah. The poor, ignorant human beings forced this belief, upon him. Dowle did not become too big for his ob. The Job became too big for Dowle. Hia fatal error waa when he chartered JrXhrM. spaoiaJ trtfa H dwr W .-Wan; , 1 .- |