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Show : RESENT PRAYER8 PUT I UP DY DOWIE1TES Zlcn City, III., April 29. Rioting I started hero late htls afternoon when .employees of Independent manufacturing manufac-turing concerns attacked a group of) 'Zlon men and women at a prayer meeting. Both men and women were beaten with clubs nnd blackjacked and a number wero seriously Injured. Tho fight came as a climax of a week of trouble between employees, of the Independent concerns, which I lecently hnvo begun operations here,! and the church people, formerly fol- j lowers of oJhn Alexander Dowle. Ab a protest ugnlnBt tho uso of tobacco to-bacco by employees of the manufacturing manufac-turing company, tho Vollva people have been having prayer meetings In the plants twice n dny. Elder Royal had Just called tho second meeting when a score of men ran out of tho plant, toro down or leaped over tho bars which had been erected nround tho prayer meeting nnd drove tho Zionists from thnt part of town. Immediately after tho fight at tho prayer meeting, Wilbur afen Vollva ordered or-dered tho large nlarm bell rung and moro than 1000 mon gathered at tho auditorium to discuss plans for resisting re-sisting further attacks by employees of Independent companies, who filled the streets tonight and threatened to : 'clean uut the town." A second clash between tho church pcoplo aud tho Independents was predicted. Vollva Vo-llva urged his followers to protect their women and children from tho 'tobacco-smoking curse." Elder F. M. Royal and Joseph Bishop wero tho most seriously lnjud ed at tho prayer meeting fight. Both were beaten until they were nearly unconscious and It Is thought Bishop's Bish-op's skull was fractured. More than a third ot tho 150 Zlon women In attendance at the meeting were beaten, bruised or trampled during tho clash by tho employees of tho Independents. Although Elder Royal and a number of his men resisted, re-sisted, they were outnumberd and finally swept from tho platform. At tho close of the meeting tonight, to-night, Overseer Vollva ordered his followers to reassemble at 6:30 o'clock In the morning to resume services ser-vices in the front yard of a factory, whose employees offend by using tobacco. "I would rather loose a hundrod men than bo defented In this fight," said Vollva. "It Is a battle to tho tin- I Ish and I am determined to win." I Two Zlonltes, Isaac Mill and John I Thorpe, were arrested after tonight's I rioting and later were released on I bond. Tho declaration of Vollva that I he would resume his meeting caused I a new body of special deputies to be I sworn In. |