THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 

 
 MRS. ALMA WHITE, A. 1'..
 
 TRUTH STRANGER THAN 
 FICTION
 
 By MRS. ALMA WHITE, A. B. 
 
 .... Author of .... 
 
 Looking Back from Beulah, Gems of Life, Golden Sun 
 beams, Demons and Tongues, The Chosen People, My Trip 
 to the Orient, The New Testament Church, (2 -volumes), 
 The Titanic Tragedy God Speaking to the Nations, and Ed 
 itor of -Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Fire Junior, London Pillar of 
 Fire, The Good Citizen, and The Metropolitan. 
 
 Q 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE PENTECOSTAL UNION 
 
 (Pillar of Fire) 
 
 ZAREPHATH, - NEW JERSEY 
 
 1913
 
 Copyright, 1913, by Mrs. Alma White, A. B.
 
 PS 
 
 PROV. 29:1 
 
 550302
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 BEGINNING OF AN INTERESTING STORY 
 
 My First Trip West Bannack, the First Capital 
 of Montana Early Western Architecture Cowboys 
 Stage Ride Features of Western Life Town Gos 
 sips A Special Call Trying Times How Fortunes 
 were Made Spiritual Conditions Tragedies near 
 Dillon. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 FURTHER LABORS ON THE FRONTIER 
 
 Holding up the Standard An Unfortunate Deed 
 The Powers of Darkness Enraged Suffering Re 
 proach Removal to Colorado and Marriage A Call 
 to Preach Healed of Physical Ailments Another 
 Call to Montana Difficulties in the Way Revival at 
 Dillon A Holiness Band Organized Opposed by 
 Preachers A Mad Methodist. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MY MISSION TO MONTANA 
 
 Let my People go The Plagues of Egypt Con 
 sequences of Rejecting God God's Hand upon the 
 People of Southern Montana "Grandpa" Bridwell 
 Translated His Preparation "Let's go Home."
 
 CONTENTS 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE LAMONT TRAGEDY 
 
 Blanch Lamont Foully Murdered Comments 
 from Newspapers Roger Lamont Shot in Breast. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE DEATH OF SOME OLD-TIMERS 
 
 Stricken with Paralysis Killed by an Engine 
 Thrown from a Wagon Died in New York An Old 
 Citizen Passes Away The Funeral Shot Himself. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 FURTHER ACCOUNTS OF SUDDEN DEATHS TAKEN FROM 
 DILLON TRIBUNE AND DILLON EXAMINER 
 
 Died of Diphtheria Another Sad Death Killed 
 in a Fight Death by Suicide Accidentally Killed 
 Fell from Wagon and Died Brewer Dies A Ver 
 dict of Manslaughter. 
 
 . CHAPTER VII 
 
 OLD CHURCH APOSTASY 
 
 Opposition to Holiness Church Machinery Re 
 vivals Opening of Bible School Butte, Montana 
 Preacher Mobbed at Dillon Fight Against Holiness 
 A Preacher's Guilt Object of a True Christian 
 Wild Beasts Again Aroused. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 
 
 Editor Dies Murdered at Salt Lake High 
 School Teacher Passes Away Young Man Murdered
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Mrs. Alma White Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Cowboys Mounting their Horses ----- 19 
 
 Mountain Express ------- 22 
 
 Miners Washing Gold ------ 29 
 
 Herd of Cattle in the West 34 
 
 American Bison 40 
 
 Squaw from Lemhi Indian Reservation 46 
 Beaverhead Rock -------53 
 
 Bluff on River Road Beaverhead Valley - - 62 
 
 Scene in the Montana Mountains 66 
 
 Main Street, Dillon, Montana 70 
 
 Churches of Dillon ._...- 78 
 
 Making Hay Near Dillon 84 
 
 In the Rockies 90 
 
 Flume Near Dillon - 94 
 
 A Camp In the Mountains 102 
 
 Beaverhead County Court House - - - 109 
 
 A Bucking Bronco 116 
 
 Stream Near Dillon 123 
 
 "They began Hurling the People in Every 
 
 Direction" 133
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 In the Hands of the Mob 
 
 A Herd of Montana Sheep - ... 
 Freighting in Montana jet- 
 Indian Girls Photo taken Near Dillon - - 163 
 On the Crest of the Rocky Mountains - - 170 
 Mountain Stream Snow-Capped Peak in the 
 
 Distance ----__ I7 o 
 
 Beautiful Valley in the Mountains - - - 188 
 The Arrest in Front of the Tabor Grand Opera 
 
 House I9 g 
 
 Pillar of Fire Missionaries in Prison -, - 203 
 
 In the Chamber of Death 2I2 
 
 "I'll Risk It" ------ 221 
 
 The New Denver Post-Office - - - - - 230 
 
 State House, Denver 2 ^ 5 
 
 Park Scene, Denver -----_ 2 ^ Q 
 
 Effect of the Earthquake, San Francisco - 246 
 View from Nob Hill, San Francisco, after the 
 
 Earthquake --.... 
 
 In the Business Section of Cincinnati During 
 
 the Flood - - 
 
 Street Scene, Indianapolis, During Flood - - 268 
 Buildings Wrecked by Flood, Dayton, Ohio - 274 
 Vaniman's Airship a few Minutes Before it 
 
 Exploded - 28^ 
 
 Zeppelin "L-2" after the Explosion - - - 288
 
 Truth Stranger than Fiction 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE BEGINNING OF AN INTERESTING STORY 
 
 It has now been more than a quarter of 
 a century since the writer first stepped on 
 Western soil. My ticket was purchased from 
 Millersburg, Kentucky, to Dillon, a small 
 town in Beaverhead County, Southern Mon 
 tana. Here I took the stage for Bannack, the 
 first capital, a little town down between the 
 peaks of the Rockies. Bannack, twenty-five 
 miles from Dillon, was the scene of the early 
 mining activities in a once famous gold mining 
 district. I found it almost deserted, having a 
 population of only two or three hundred peo 
 ple. 
 
 The town is inseparably connected with the 
 history of Dillon, as most of its early inhab 
 itants moved to Beaverhead Valley, where 
 they engaged in ranching and stock-raising. 
 Later, the Utah and Northern Railroad was
 
 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 16 
 
 built, and other leading citizens of Bannack 
 moved into the valley and became the princi 
 pal promoters and builders of the town of 
 Dillon. 
 
 On reaching Dillon, I stopped at the Cor- 
 rienne Hotel, named from Corrienne, Utah, a 
 famous shipping point before the railroad was 
 constructed. The supplies at that time for 
 different points in Montana had to be hauled 
 by freight wagons a distance of 450 miles. 
 The hotel was a rough, plain building, and had 
 been associated with many mysterious and 
 sensational events. If the gruesome history 
 of this hotel could be made known it would 
 make interesting reading. 
 
 While waiting for the stage I had the op 
 portunity of looking about and becoming ac 
 quainted with the architecture of the average 
 Western town. Frontier towns usually sprang 
 up much like mushrooms in the night. Most 
 of the dwellings and business houses were 
 made of rough logs and unfinished lumber, 
 with a square boarded front, extending as high 
 as the roof would permit. This added dig 
 nity to the appearance of the buildings, which 
 were erected with a view to being replaced by 
 more substantial structures when fortune had
 
 BEGINNING OF AN INTERESTING STORY 17 
 
 smiled more propitiously upon their owners. 
 
 The cowboys, as they made their appear 
 ance at different times during the day, were 
 the life of the town. They wore broad- 
 brimmed hats, leather chaps, red kerchiefs 
 around their necks, and high-heeled boots with 
 great spurs. Large revolvers were invariably 
 a part of their equipment. They halted at 
 the saloons to drink and to obtain a 
 supply of liquor to take with them ; and would 
 often become so intoxicated they were unable 
 to mount their broncoes. They could be seen 
 staggering along the street and winding their 
 way from one saloon to another, or heard mak 
 ing rude outcries. 
 
 Often they would ride through the streets 
 like a band of Indians, yelling and putting the 
 spurs to their horses, and apparently ready to 
 shoot anyone who might cross their pathway 
 or oppose them. 
 
 STAGE RIDE TO BANNACK 
 
 I was glad when the announcement was 
 made that the stage was ready to leave for 
 Bannack. It was the eleventh day since I 
 took the train at my home city in Kentucky. 
 There was one other passenger in the coach, 
 a strange looking man. I soon learned 
 
 TRUTH 2.
 
 1 8 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 that he intended to try to conceal himself for 
 a few days after reaching Bannack. He in 
 sisted on my not making known his identity. 
 
 A few minutes after we reached our des 
 tination he committed suicide by taking lauda 
 num. There was much excitement when the 
 news of his death was made known. 
 
 The same day a miner was found dead in 
 his cabin, who from all appearances had taken 
 his own life. Two days later I attended the 
 double funeral of these men. Such was my 
 introduction to the Wild West. After seeing 
 so much ungodliness on every hand, I would 
 have despaired of being able to live a Chris 
 tian life in such a place, had it not been that I 
 firmly believed the promises of God, who had 
 said that He would never leave nor forsake 
 me, and that His grace would be sufficient. 
 
 Sabbath desecration was another marked 
 feature of early Western life, almost every one, 
 without exception, seemed to be defiant of 
 God's word and law. People took all kinds 
 of liberties, simply because there was no power 
 to restrain them. 
 
 There was not a person at Bannack with 
 whom I could have Christian fellowship. The 
 people had become so depraved that, with few
 
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 2O TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 exceptions, they would mock at God's word 
 and iaugh in derision at one who professed to 
 have experimental religion. They predicted 
 that it would not be long until I would be like 
 others, attending balls, playing cards, break 
 ing the Sabbath, etc. But the more I looked 
 upon them in their revelry and lawlessness the 
 greater was my aversion to such a life. Their 
 consciences had become seared. Some of 
 them had at one time known God and His 
 power to save from sin, but they leaped over 
 the precipice into the dark current, and in their 
 recklessness were hastening to their doom. 
 
 They had no conviction of sin; they 
 wanted money and a good time, and it did not 
 matter much to them how they were obtained. 
 
 There were a number of town gossipers, 
 who gathered at the post office, the bank ex 
 change, or the store of general supplies, and 
 talked over things new and old. There were 
 certain ones among them who were looked to 
 as a sort of bureau of information, as Paul 
 said, who "spent their time in nothing else, but 
 either to tell, or to hear some new thing" (Acts 
 17:21). A statement was made by one of 
 these persons that the measurement of the 
 track of every woman who came to town was
 
 BEGINNING OF AN INTERESTING STORY 21 
 
 taken, and therefore the size of her shoes was 
 known. This may give some idea of the chan 
 nel in which their thoughts ran. 
 
 Annoyed by reports of this character I of 
 ten walked through the alleys instead of the 
 streets. It was no uncommon thing to hear 
 fathers teaching their children to use profane 
 language and putting them up to things that 
 would eventually lead them to acts of crimi 
 nality. It seemed a hopeless task to go into 
 the school room and try to undo the wrongs 
 that parents had taught their children. In 
 brooding over the situation my rest at night 
 was often entirely broken, for in doing what I 
 could against such things it seemed I was fight 
 ing a losing battle. 
 
 A SPECIAL CALL 
 
 When converted at the age of sixteen the 
 Lord made it known that He wanted me to 
 do a special work, but just where my field of 
 labor was to be and how I was to enter it re 
 mained for the future to unfold. Three years 
 later, when the opportunity presented itself, 
 through the solicitation of an aunt, for me to 
 go to Montana, I could see the hand of 
 God in it and had the promise that as 
 He was with Abraham so He would be
 
 BEGINNING OF AN INTERESTING STORY 23 
 
 with me. I did not know there was such 
 a promise in the Bible as Genesis 12:1-2, until 
 one night, while tarrying upon my knees until 
 a late hour, I heard these words, "Now the 
 Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy 
 country, and from thy kindred, and from thy 
 father's house, unto a land that I will shew 
 thee. * * I will bless them that bless thee, and 
 curse him that curseth thee." These words 
 lingered with me, and I would often ask my 
 self the question, Does God actually mean to 
 bless them that bless me and to curse them that 
 curse me? Knowing that His promises are con 
 ditional, I did all in my power to prove faith 
 ful and worthy of the calling. 
 
 Before leaving my home in Kentucky I 
 had done my best to keep in touch with God and 
 had the witness of His approval upon my 
 Christian life, and He alone knew how fierce 
 was the conflict and how great the victories 
 won. I had ample opportunity to prove Isaiah 
 59:19, "When the enemy shall come in like a 
 flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a 
 standard against him." While there was an in 
 ducement as a school teacher to go West, above 
 all, the desire of my heart was to be a worker in 
 the vineyard of the Lord, and as there was but
 
 24 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 little opportunity afforded me at home, I was 
 willing to undergo any sacrifice and suffer 
 privation to find the place where He could use 
 me. 
 
 He saw my purpose of heart, and as truly 
 led me forth as He did Abraham. It is no 
 small thing to be the object of God's favor 
 and blessing. When Hannah was lifted out 
 of the depths of humiliation in the gift of Sam 
 uel, she said, "Talk no more so exceeding 
 proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your 
 mouth: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, 
 and by him actions are weighed. * * * 
 The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he 
 bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth 
 up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich : 
 he bringeth low, and lifteth up. * * He will 
 keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall 
 be silent in darkness ; for by strength shall no 
 man prevail." 
 
 As I tried from day to day to let my- light 
 shine, I found but little encouragement from 
 any one. I knew that if God did not melt 
 people's hearts, all of my efforts to lift up the 
 Christian standard would be in vain. Against 
 much ill will and opposition I opened the school 
 daily with prayer and the reading of the Scrip-
 
 BEGINNING OF AN INTERESTING STORY 25 
 
 tures. In doing this I was exceedingly blest 
 and strengthened. I kept up this practice dur 
 ing the first term of school, but after two weeks 
 of the second term had passed I received no 
 tice from the School Board, advising me to dis 
 continue the devotional exercises, and was giv 
 en to understand that if I proceeded it would 
 result in the loss of my position. 
 
 I decided to drop the exercises for the rest 
 of the term, but this was a sad mistake and 
 caused me much sorrow and many regrets. 
 While the Lord did not leave me, His Spirit 
 was grieved. I promised never again to sac 
 rifice my convictions, whatever the cost, and I 
 kept my word. The School Board did not 
 employ me again as they promised to do. I 
 have no doubt now but that they would have 
 done so if I had been true to my convictions 
 and continued to read the Bible and pray at 
 the opening of the school each day, as I should 
 have done. It was a severe lesson and one that 
 was never to be forgotten. I was without em 
 ployment for months, when I secured another 
 school in Beaverhead Valley. 
 
 Here I met many of the old settlers of 
 Bannack. The school was only three and one 
 half miles from Dillon, which made it possible
 
 26 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 for me to attend the Sunday services at the 
 Methodist Church. I have no remembrance 
 of missing a meeting when I could attend. 
 It was my purpose to serve God first, whatever 
 the consequences might be. During my stay 
 at Bannack I heard the history of nearly all 
 the people of Beaverhead Valley, the most of 
 whom had formerly lived at Bannack. I knew 
 them almost as well as if I had been personally 
 acquainted with them for years. 
 
 Some persons, I was told, had made for 
 tunes by putting their own brands on other 
 people's cattle, some had worked other dis 
 honest schemes to accumulate wealth. I saw 
 the sons and daughters of these parents look 
 ing over the list of leading taxpayers and 
 boasting that their fathers' names were among 
 them. Their highest- ideal of life was to have 
 plenty of money and a good time. 
 
 I found it utterly impossible to turn the 
 thoughts of some of the young people in my 
 school into the right channel. They had no 
 conception of what constitutes liberty and true 
 manhood. 
 
 I watched the young people of Beaverhead 
 Valley grow up to the years of accountability 
 and knew that, with few exceptions, they had
 
 BEGINNING OF AN INTERESTING STORY 27 
 
 the wrong idea of life. They were chips off 
 the old blocks and the Scriptures plainly state 
 that the sins of the parents will be visited upon 
 the children unto the third and fourth gener- 
 eration. 
 
 In the early days of the Methodist Church 
 of Dillon there were some signs of spiritual 
 life, there were a few persons who had a de 
 sire to serve God. One woman, Mrs. S , 
 
 who lived a short distance from town, bore 
 the fruit of the Spirit, but she was powerless 
 to restrain her ungodly household, and God, 
 seeing she was unable to stem the tide of op 
 position in her home and church, took her to 
 heaven. After her decease the Methodists 
 plunged into all kinds of worldliness. There 
 were a few who made honest efforts to over 
 come the spirit of the world, but were eventu 
 ally overpowered and gave up the fight. 
 
 An itinerant Methodist preacher Rev. Van 
 O , occasionally visited the town and commu 
 nity, and without a doubt he was a converted 
 man; but the deadness of the church was too 
 much for him, and he lost his influence for 
 good among the people. 
 
 When I last saw him, it was at a Method-
 
 28 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 ist Conference at Los Angeles, and oh, what a 
 change ! He had been promoted to the office 
 of presiding elder, and the light was all gone 
 from his face. His smiles and shouts of for 
 mer years were gone, and he was a mere tool 
 of old church apostasy, apparently unconscious 
 of what he had lost. 
 
 Rev. R , a presiding elder who visited the 
 town and community once a quarter was a 
 gifted speaker, and in many respects an inter 
 esting and agreeable man. But there were 
 stories abroad in regard to his ill-treat 
 ment of his horses, and also of his various 
 money-making schemes. I attended a reviv 
 al meeting that he conducted at the Methodist 
 Church, assisted by Rev. Van O . Brother 
 Van, as he was called, did most of the singing, 
 exhorting and praying, and Rev. R , the 
 presiding elder, did the preaching. There 
 were some conversions. This was my first 
 opportunity to assist in revival work. When 
 the preachers found that I would not refuse, 
 if called upon to speak or pray, they did not 
 miss an opportunity to press me into service. 
 
 On a certain evening I talked and prayed 
 with a seeker, she was very much distressed 
 and said that no one had been able to help her.
 
 2 
 i i 
 
 2 
 
 
 i i 
 
 d 
 
 c 
 o
 
 30 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 My efforts were rewarded by seeing her clearly 
 converted. A few weeks later she died a tri 
 umphant death. This encouraged me to press 
 the battle, and if I had understood the faith 
 life as I do now I should have resigned my po 
 sition as school teacher and given all my time 
 to the work of the Gospel. There never was 
 a moment that I entertained a thought of turn 
 ing back into the world. I had started to make 
 the race to heaven and was determined to do 
 so at any cost. I had been studying the Bible 
 for a number of years and knew that the Cal 
 vary route was one of separation and loneli 
 ness, and I now felt this loneliness. There 
 was a gulf fixed between me and most of the 
 members of the Methodist Church, and it con 
 tinued to widen. 
 
 They had erected a small church and most 
 of the professed Christians in town attended 
 their services. Later, an Episcopal church was 
 built and quite a number drew away from the 
 Methodists and went to it. Then began rival 
 church fairs, suppers and teas. The Method 
 ists plunged into these things and went to 
 their full length, and of course the last vestige 
 of spiritual life soon disappeared. The minis 
 ters that were sent to the charge fell in line
 
 BEGINNING >OF AN JNTERESTING STORY 31 
 
 with them and tried to outdo their rivals. 
 
 For eight months I taught school in a dis 
 trict in the vicinity of Dillon, but continued to 
 attend services at the Methodist church. Dil 
 lon was headquarters for all the school teach 
 ers in the county, with many of whom I was 
 personally acquainted. Some of them were 
 unbelievers, but regardless of this their serv 
 ices were greatly sought after by school boards. 
 School teachers of this character, in company 
 with members of the churches, were leaders 
 of the public dances. Often grand balls would 
 be given by the different lodges of the town, 
 sanctioned and participated in by Episcopal 
 ians, and some of the Methodists. The pro 
 fession of such persons I knew was a mockery 
 in the sight of God, and I stood out alone 
 against such hypocrisy. I longed to be where 
 I could have true Christian fellowship. 
 
 TRAGEDIES NEAR DILLON 
 
 During the early years of my stay in Beav- 
 erhead Valley there were a number of trag 
 ical events, which were demoralizing in their 
 effects on the public. A man was robbed and 
 murdered between Glendale and Dillon. The 
 snow was on the ground at the time the mur 
 der was committed and the murderer tried to
 
 32 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 burn the body of his victim in the night. He 
 succeeded in burning all but one limb. Day 
 broke and he had to make his escape. This 
 man was captured by an angry mob and hung 
 in the doorway of the Dillon jail. This and 
 other crimes prepared the soil in the heart: 
 of the Dillonites in which the seed was sown 
 for future outbreaks of lawlessness. It was 
 several hours before the body was removed. 
 
 It is impossible to estimate the evil effect 
 this act of criminality had upon the youths of 
 the town. 
 
 The following is reprinted from the Dil 
 lon Tribune, of March 10, 1885. 
 
 "JESSRANG JERKED, HUNG BY MASKED 
 MEN IN BEAVERHEAD COUNTY JAIL" 
 
 "While the resort to lynch law is regretted by all 
 law-abiding citizens, the summary hanging of the 
 wretched Jessrang will have a salutary effect in Beav- 
 erhead County. Since the days of the Vigilantes of 
 Montana there has been committed within the limits of 
 this county a large number of murders, and the mur 
 derers have not paid the penalty of their crimes. It 
 is thought the late necktie tragedy will be a warning 
 to murderers to go slow." 
 
 Lynching was thus publicly endorsed. 
 
 A few months later, while teaching a ranch
 
 BEGINNING OF AN INTERESTING STORY 33 
 
 school near the roadside in the valley, a can 
 vas-covered wagon passed. There were only 
 two persons in the wagon ; they looked out and 
 bowed as they passed. This was on a Friday 
 afternoon. Three hours later I reached Dil- 
 Jon. At the supper table of a private board 
 ing house a strange man and woman sat oppo 
 site me. The man was middle-aged, while the 
 young woman who accompanied him was but 
 fifteen. She said her name was E C , and 
 that she was the niece of the man, whose name 
 was Lewis. She had long, beautiful hair, 
 reaching nearly to the floor. They were 
 traveling about the country giving cheap 
 shows. The young woman claimed that he 
 was taking her against her will to perform in 
 the shows. This was the couple that had 
 spoken to me a few hours before while pass 
 ing the schoolhouse on the way. They camped 
 on the outskirts of the town. 
 
 The young woman also told that Mr. Lewis 
 had threatened her life. A few days later this 
 man was seen carrying the young woman 
 across a bridge with the top of her head shot 
 off. He claimed she killed herself, but it was 
 shown that the left hand barrel of the shot 
 gun had been discharged and the man Lewis 
 
 TRUTH 3.
 
 a 
 J 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 U 
 
 fa 
 
 o 
 
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 BEGINNING OF AN INTERESTING STORY 35 
 
 was left-handed. But he was acquitted. On 
 his release I remember his going rapidly to 
 ward a freight train that was just starting 
 south. He leaped on the rear end of the ca 
 boose and was soon out of reach of mob vio 
 lence. 
 
 Only lately the Lord has seen fit to bring 
 this horrible crime to the minds of the inhab 
 itants of Beaverhead Valley. Some persons 
 who were grading a road found the body of 
 the girl, and the whole story has been re 
 hearsed in the papers. 
 
 There were other tragedies in and about 
 Dillon during my stay there, the details of 
 which I do not remember well enough to relate.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 FURTHER LABORS ON THE FRONTIER 
 
 When leaving Kentucky for Montana I 
 intended to return in two years. As the time 
 drew near, I could scarcely wait. I left for 
 home May 13, 1884, after an absence of a little 
 more than two years. During this time I had 
 tried to be faithful in holding up the standard 
 of salvation, which caused hypocritical pro 
 fessors to despise and reproach me. But I 
 was comforted by Luke 6:22-23, which 
 says, "Blessed are ye, when men shall 
 hate you, and when they shall separate you 
 from their company, and shall reproach you, 
 and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of 
 man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap 
 for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in 
 heaven : for in the like manner did their fath 
 ers unto the prophets." Thus, in the midst 
 of persecution, the word of God formed a pan 
 oply for my soul. God's love burned in my 
 heart and He enabled me to keep my garments 
 spotless. 
 
 I profited by the experience at Bannack
 
 FURTHER LABORS ON THE FRONTIER 37 
 
 in many ways and thus the Lord turned what 
 might have been a curse into a blessing. I 
 wanted to be among the number of whom Jesus 
 will say, "Well done, thou good and faithful 
 servant: thou hast been faithful over a few 
 things" (Matt. 25:21). It was no small under 
 taking to live a Christian life among a stiff- 
 necked and rebellious people, but God's grace 
 was sufficient, it enabled me to prove to them 
 that the plan of salvation is a success anywhere. 
 
 After reaching home I found many 
 changes had taken place. It did not seem like 
 home and I felt that I was a pilgrim and a 
 stranger on the earth. 
 
 The following year I attended the Female 
 College at Millersburg, my home town. I had 
 some trying experiences, but came out on the 
 victory side. At the end of the school year I 
 was definitely led to return to Montana, reach 
 ing there July 2, 1885. On my arrival at Dil 
 lon I found the Methodist Conference in ses 
 sion. The Lord had been wonderfully blessing 
 my soul, and the opportunity was given me to 
 testify before the ministers of the Conference, 
 and I was rewarded by having my prayers an 
 swered and a way being opened for me to teach 
 a summer school on a ranch. The ranch be-
 
 38 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 longed to Mr. and Mrs. N A , who were old 
 residents of Dillon. Mr. A took delight in re 
 hearsing thrilling stories of adventures with 
 wild animals, Indians and desperate men on the 
 frontier. He seemed to be acquainted with al 
 most everybody in Southern Montana and 
 hosts of others in adjoining states. Of course I 
 heard the history of the pioneers, when it was 
 not particularly interesting to me. But some 
 things were fastened in my memory, never to 
 be forgotten. 
 
 AN UNFORTUNATE DEED 
 
 There was a young man about twenty years 
 of age, stopping at this ranch by the name of 
 H S , who a short time before had come 
 from Indiana. He had guns of almost every 
 description, and other weapons of warfare, 
 stacked up in his room. He seemed to think 
 that it was necessary to have them to insure 
 his safety in the Wild West. He listened to 
 stories of adventure by the host until he was 
 almost beside himself. Many times he became 
 so excited it was alarming. There was noth 
 ing bad about the young man ; he was kind in 
 his treatment of every one and always ready to 
 do a favor.
 
 FURTHER LABORS ON THE FRONTIER 39 
 
 Some time later a quarrelsome neighbor 
 came to the ranch and entered into* a contro 
 versy with Mr. A . Before they had come 
 to a settlement, H S , under great excite 
 ment, seized a gun and shot the intruder in the 
 back. The wounded man lived only a few 
 minutes. 
 
 The seed had been sown in the young 
 man's heart that caused him to commit the 
 crime. He was tried and acquitted. 
 
 A short time afterwards, Mr. A , the 
 man who had told so many blood-curdling 
 stories of frontier life, dropped dead while he 
 was getting ready to go with his wife to the 
 Methodist Church. 
 
 At the end of this term of school I went 
 to Salt Lake City to teach in a Methodist Sem 
 inary. The months spent in Utah were of 
 great profit to me. At the end of the school 
 year I returned to Montana, but not until after 
 all the schools in the county, with perhaps one 
 exception had been taken. Only God could 
 open a door for me, and this He did at Lima, 
 a railroad town fifty miles south of Dillon. 
 
 Before beginning this school the Lord 
 marvelously healed me of malarial fever and 
 encouraged me in many ways.
 
 FURTHER LABORS ON THE FRONTIER 41 
 
 At Lima the powers of darkness combined 
 against me, they were enraged because I 
 opened the school with prayer and the reading 
 of the Scriptures. The enemy Satan used 
 was the chairman of the school board, who 
 stirred up the most ungodly element in the 
 town to vote in favor of a man for school 
 trustee who would oppose me and employ an 
 other teacher. But his scheme did not suc 
 ceed, and in a most remarkable way God de 
 feated all Satan's plans in the combination that 
 had formed against me. 
 
 During the school year I made frequent 
 trips to Dillon, and in this way kept in touch 
 with things that were going on in and about 
 the place. If I walked down the street all eyes 
 were upon me and usually some remarks would 
 be overheard about my Christian profession. 
 It seemed my presence made people uncomfort 
 able. There were times when, to avoid com 
 promising, I had to rebuke those who claimed 
 to be my friends. I was called "Old Chris 
 tian ;" some would say, "She is too good to live, 
 she would better die and be done with it." Of 
 course such remarks were not pleasant, espe 
 cially when there was not one person with 
 whom I could have true Christian fellowship.
 
 42 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 At Lima I taught the children more than 
 forty hymns, without molestation on the part 
 of the Board of Trustees. I also prayed and 
 read the Bible. After my experience at Ban- 
 nack I determined to keep the smile of God 
 upon me regardless of consequences. 
 
 I started a Sunday-school and had the 
 Methodist minister from Dillon preach occa 
 sionally on week nights. Later, through his 
 efforts, a Methodist church was built at Lima. 
 Having gained a victory in the school elec 
 tion the Board very much desired my services 
 the next year, but having other plans I de 
 clined. 
 
 Following the close of the school at Lima I 
 taught a summer term at Red Rock, a station 
 half way between Lima and Dillon. 
 
 In the fall I went to Denver, Colorado, 
 feeling that if I ever returned to Montana it 
 would not be as a school teacher, but as a mis 
 sionary or preacher of the Gospel. The fol 
 lowing December my marriage took place to 
 Rev. Kent \Yhite, a ministerial student in the 
 University of Denver. I had met Mr. White 
 five years before at Bannack. I truly believed 
 that, after years of waiting, God had ordered 
 our union, and had no hesitancy in taking the
 
 FURTHER LABORS ON THE FRONTIER 43 
 
 step. Five years as the wife of an itinerant 
 Methodist preacher quickly passed, three 
 years and a half of which I was almost an in 
 valid. At last I was brought to the place 
 where I realized that my affliction had been 
 permitted for the purpose of bringing me to 
 see the carnal nature in my own heart, and de 
 sire its destruction above all things. There 
 was a gradual, yet sudden revelation of its 
 presence. I saw its loathsomeness, and longed 
 for purity of heart. I greatly desired the lib 
 erty of the Spirit, and had long been kept in 
 unwilling bondage. 
 
 Two years before, for a time, I lingered on 
 a sick bed between life and death. 
 
 During this time I had a definite call to 
 preach the Gospel, but hesitated because 
 of a feeling of unfitness. When life was al 
 most despaired of and I realized there was no 
 help but from above, my faith claimed the 
 promise and the Lord raised me up, never to 
 be the same person again. For nearly two 
 years I battled against the powers of darkness 
 and made every effort to keep from letting 
 down the standard. The enemy often came in 
 like a flood, but God's grace was sufficient even 
 then to keep me from throwing up my confi-
 
 44 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 dence. \Yith no one to look to for spiritual 
 help I was left to fight my battles alone and 
 when I seemed to be going down into the 
 fathomless depths of uncertainty I found my 
 feet were suddenly placed on solid rock. 
 
 Through many and varied experiences I 
 was finally led to the place where I was actually 
 delivered from the carnal mind, and oh, what 
 a flood of light penetrated the inner chambers 
 of my soul. The blood was applied the sec 
 ond time and I was sanctified wholly. All 
 doubts and fears were swept away. This 
 was the i8th of March, 1893, fifteen years 
 after my conversion. Nothing short of the ac 
 tual experience will enable one to realize what 
 it means to be delivered from the carnal mind. 
 The mists and shadows that hang over a per 
 son in the justified state vanish like clouds 
 from the top of a mountain. 
 
 After many hours of fasting and prayer 
 and waiting upon the Lord, suddenly the 
 change came. There was a complete trans 
 formation. My spiritual vision became 
 clear, there was no difficulty in telling where 
 others stood. With this new vision I could 
 pierce to the depths of the carnal heart and lo 
 cate false professors. I did not know how far
 
 FURTHER LABORS ox THE FRONTIER 45 
 
 the churches had drifted from the old land 
 marks until after I was sanctified. I knew 
 that the power that moves the universe, and 
 which will bring all things into subjection to 
 Christ, had taken possession of me and claimed 
 my heart as the temple of the Holy Spirit. To 
 be the temple of the living God was almost be 
 yond my comprehension, yet I dared not doubt 
 it, when His word plainly says, "Know ye not 
 that ye are the temple of God, and that the 
 Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (i Cor. 3:16). 
 And also, "What? know ye not that your body 
 is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is 
 in you, which ye have of God, and ye are 
 not your own?" (i Cor. 6:19). I had met 
 the conditions and actually received the Holy 
 Spirit, and had the assurance that from thence 
 forth I should have divine wisdom and help 
 such as I had never before experienced. I 
 lived every moment with a realization of God's 
 actual presence in my heart, and while within 
 myself I knew that I could do nothing, with 
 Paul I could say, "I can do all things through 
 Christ which strengthened me." 
 
 I could no longer enjoy the services in the 
 M. E. Church, knowing how far they had 
 drifted from New Testament principles.
 
 SQUAW FROM LEMHI INDIAN RESERVATION
 
 FURTHER LABORS ON THE FRONTIER 47 
 
 Three weeks after I was sanctified I 
 sought definitely to be healed of physical ail 
 ments and was enabled to lay hold on the 
 promises of God for deliverance. Every one 
 who had known me marveled at the change. 
 God's Spirit was manifested in our home, in 
 the meetings and in fact everywhere I went. 
 When special anointings came upon me to 
 preach, space seemed to disappear and I felt 
 as if I were in touch with the upper world. 
 My hands often would be cold and circula 
 tion hindered, even the laws of gravitation 
 seemed to have but little power over me. 
 
 Hard-hearted men and women were 
 brought under conviction, and often yielded to 
 God and obtained mercy. 
 
 Meanwhile the battles grew fiercer and 
 the 'attacks of the enemy more violent. At 
 times it was nothing less than a pitched battle, 
 but I was brought out more than conqueror. 
 I had my household duties and two children to 
 care for, but did not permit my hands to be tied 
 by "these things and continued in active work. 
 Persons would knock at the door before break 
 fast in the morning, desiring spiritual help. 
 Often they had spent sleepless nights, and find-
 
 48 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 ing no relief had come to be prayed with and 
 instructed. 
 
 The holy fire spread over other states and 
 many were inquiring the way of life. 
 
 After receiving the Holy Ghost the Lord 
 gave me another definite call to Montana. I 
 left the children at home in the care of their 
 father, my mother and others. I was ac- 
 panied by my youngest brother, then a Method 
 ist preacher in Colorado. 
 
 For more than a year, Ray, our youngest 
 child had been sick. He had been given up a 
 time or two by the physicians to die. But each 
 time his life was spared in answer to prayer. 
 For months he had been a constant care and 
 often looked more like he was dead than alive. 
 He was just beginning to recover from his 
 long illness when God called me to make an 
 other trip to Montana. To leave him in care 
 of others was almost like taking a mother's 
 heart from her body, but the Lord had spoken 
 and it would have been perilous to disobey. It 
 was no more than He required of others, and 
 why should I have any controversy. 
 
 A picture of lost souls at Bannack and Dil 
 lon w r as brought before me and I realized in
 
 FURTHER LABORS ON THE FRONTIER 49 
 
 part what perdition would be for those who re 
 fused to accept the message. 
 
 Before leaving Kentucky the first time, 
 as before stated, the Lord had said to me, 
 "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him 
 that curseth thee." My work was not yet ac 
 complished in Montana and there was still an 
 opportunity for the people to accept Christ 
 through the ministry of a child of God. In 
 and about Dillon I had many relatives, a 
 brother, sister, aunts, nephews, nieces and 
 cousins, and some time afterwards my father 
 came, and later, a nephew, a son of my eldest 
 sister, who had died some years before in the 
 triumphs of the Christian faith. She left a 
 husband, four sons and three daughters. She 
 was not a Christian in name only, but had ex 
 perimental religion, with a real heart interest 
 in the spiritual welfare of her children, and be 
 lieved that in some way God would take care 
 of them. Her greatest struggle was to leave 
 them in a godless world without a mother's 
 care, but during her illness became perfectly 
 submissive to the will of God. Before she 
 passed away her face lighted up with the glory 
 from the upper world. She had the assurance 
 
 TRUTH 4.
 
 50 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 that the Lord would undertake in behalf of 
 her family. 
 
 My uncles and aunts, residing in and about 
 Dillon, were brought up on my grandfather's 
 farm near the Bethel M. E. Church in Lewis 
 County, Kentucky. It was impossible for them 
 to get away from their early Christian in 
 fluences, and if God did not answer prayer it 
 would be useless to advocate Bible salvation. 
 The most of these relatives were apparently 
 indifferent to their souls' salvation, but God 
 reined some of them up and caused them to 
 repent of their sins and change their ways of 
 living. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY 
 
 In preparing to leave Denver for this 
 trip I had some very trying experiences. 
 The enemy tried to hedge up the way of my 
 brother's going, but we succeeded in getting 
 off. 
 
 Somewhere in Wyoming our train came 
 to a sudden stand: till. There was much ex 
 citement over what might have been an awful 
 collision. Our tram had come within a few 
 feet of colliding with a freight train on the 
 main line. We thanked God and took courage 
 knowing that He had spared our lives to min-
 
 FURTHER LABORS ON THE FRONTIER 51 
 
 ister to the needs of the people of Dillon and 
 Beaverhead County. I felt the responsi 
 bility of this trip and the importance 
 of being true to kinsfolk and others. As I 
 thought of the baby at home, at times the sep 
 aration seemed almost unbearable. But God 
 had promised that His grace should be suffi 
 cient, and I stood firmly on His word. 
 He would not have required me to leave the 
 children if there had not been great things in 
 volved. There are no great achievements 
 without a corresponding sacrifice. 
 
 On reaching Dillon we met some of the 
 members of the Methodist Church, the pastor 
 being absent on a vacation. There were at 
 least eighteen or twenty constituting the nu 
 cleus of the Church, who unanimously voted 
 for us to hold a meeting for them. They had no 
 idea their pastor would object, knowing that 
 I was a Methodist and that my brother and 
 husband were both members of the Colorado 
 Conference in good standing. The members 
 of the Church, however, were ignorant of the 
 powers that swayed and ruled the Methodist 
 Church, and at. once wrote to their pastor and 
 asked his consent. His reply was that it was 
 not an opportune time for a revival in the
 
 52 
 
 Church, and that he was not in favor of the 
 meeting. Before his answer came, the 
 Baptist preacher of Dillon was negoti 
 ating for union services, he wanted us to 
 occupy his church a part of the time, but 
 when he found the Methodist pastor was not 
 favorable to the meetings, his attitude was 
 entirely changed. 
 
 There was nothing else to do but to send 
 for our Gospel tent and put it up for services. 
 It was the latter part of September and the 
 weather was likely to get cold at any time. 
 But what else could we do, there was no church 
 or other building to be secured and God had 
 sent us. We wrote to Colorado for the tent 
 and had it put up on the lot next to the Baptist 
 Church. It was necessary to have stoves in 
 order to keep comfortable. But the Lord hon 
 ored our efforts; and gave us a wonderful 
 meeting. People of all denominations in the 
 town and country attended. Before many 
 days the members of the Methodist Church had 
 their eyes opened, many of whom I had known 
 years before when I was a school teacher 
 among them. 
 
 At one time eighteen leading Methodists 
 including nearly the entire officiary of the
 
 FURTHER LABORS ON THE FRONTIER 53 
 
 Church were at the altar; some seeking sanc- 
 tification, others to be reclaimed. Their 
 pastor had returned and become so alarmed 
 he was a regular attendant at the serv 
 ices. He made excuses for closing the church 
 
 BEAVERHEAD ROCK 
 
 door against us and tried to make the people 
 believe that he was in sympathy with our 
 preaching. But at heart, we knew that he 
 was a bitter enemy. His own mother-in-law 
 was among those who took an active part. 
 She acknowledged that she had lost the joy
 
 54 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 out of her soul and was an earnest seeker at 
 the altar. She claimed to get sanctified, and 
 a few weeks later "died very suddenly. 
 
 Before opening the meeting we spent a 
 few days at the home of my sister, Mrs. V. 
 E. Metlen, on a ranch near Red Rock, 
 where our eldest brother had been stay 
 ing for some time. He was in a backslid 
 den condition and we had prayed earnestly all 
 the way from Denver for the Lord to touch his 
 heart and bring him into the fold. He con 
 versed freely on religious subjects, but showed 
 no signs of repentance, and was planning 
 to go on a long prospecting tour. It was sad 
 to see him start on this journey and miss what 
 might be his last opportunity of getting back 
 to God. I followed him to the wagon with a 
 Bible and two holiness books, and insisted on 
 his reading them. He tried me with his in 
 difference, saying that he would take them 
 along, but did not expect to read them. To all 
 appearances his case was hopeless. While he 
 did not manifest a bad spirit, he drove away 
 without as much as saying good-by. 
 
 For two or three days I prayed almost in 
 cessantly for him, asking the Lord to let some 
 thing happen that would turn his face home-
 
 FURTHER LABORS ON THE FRONTIER 55 
 
 ward, so he could attend the services. After 
 the revival had gotten under headway he made 
 his appearance, and admitted that he had been 
 a Jonah and that he had had no peace of mind 
 since the day he left. He also said that he and 
 his partner had had a falling out, which was 
 the immediate cause of his returning. 
 
 The same evening without having him in 
 mind I took Jonah for my text, and he ar 
 rived in time to receive his portion. After at 
 tending two or three services he left for my 
 brother-in-law's ranch, but God was on his 
 track, and he found no rest until he prayed 
 through and returned to tell what wonderful 
 things the Lord had done for him. He testi 
 fied as to how he had given up his tobacco and 
 had received the joys of salvation. 
 
 An unsaved uncle living in the town 
 opened his home and entertained us during the 
 meeting. Before it closed he and other mem 
 bers of the family were seekers at the altar. 
 In fact, the whole town was reined up and 
 made to see what the consequences would be if 
 they did not repent. The terrors of the law 
 were thundered, and men and women were 
 brought face to face with death, hell and the 
 Judgment. The Spirit of God was brooding
 
 56 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 over the place and mightily pleading with men. 
 The things that were happening in the meet 
 ing were the subject of conversation every 
 where. Many were getting their last call, 
 especially the old-timers, but they hardened 
 their hearts and avoided the issue. 
 
 The ministers did much to ease their con 
 sciences ; their advice to their people was to not 
 take the meetings too seriously, and in this way 
 they checked the tide that was sweeping souls 
 into the kingdom. 
 
 At the close of the tent meeting we organ 
 ized a holiness band, consisting mostly of mem 
 bers of the Methodist Church. The meetings 
 were conducted weekly, in homes of members 
 of the band, and, in accordance with our advice, 
 independent of the churches. This stirred up 
 the preachers and the wild beasts determined 
 to rend and devour the flock. 
 
 The Methodists especially were feeling 
 keenly their loss and left no stone unturned to 
 undo all the work we had accomplished in the 
 place. Two years passed after unceasing and 
 persistent efforts before they found a person 
 (wolf in sheep's clothing) to accomplish their 
 wicked design. Rev. E. G. Catermole was sent 
 to the charge. He attended the cottage meet-
 
 FURTHER LABORS ON THE FRONTIER 57 
 
 ings and succeeded in making members of the 
 band believe that he would have holiness meet 
 ings at the Methodist church, and that they 
 could have all the liberty they wanted there and 
 continue to preach and teach as they had been 
 doing, the only requirement being that they 
 would allow the meetings to be under the super 
 vision of the pastor. After unceasing efforts 
 and many fair promises he succeeded in getting 
 them to drop the cottage meetings and come to 
 the church, where they believed, according to 
 his word, notwithstanding that they had had 
 many warnings, that no restraint would be put 
 upon them and that they could go forth with 
 the same freedom they had during the two 
 previous years. 
 
 He captured the leaders of the band first 
 and they persuaded the rest to take the advice 
 of the pastor. After the first few services at 
 the church, the Rev. Cat-or-Mole began to 
 draw in the reins and the result was they were 
 soon completely under his control. It was all 
 done so quickly the members of the band 
 scarcely realized what had taken place. They 
 were neither allowed to lead the meetings nor 
 to testify to the experience of holiness. Out 
 siders of course took sides with the preacher
 
 58 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 and the result was a complete collapse of the 
 work that had cost us so much to get started. 
 In the wake of these spiritual disasters 
 came the judgments of God upon the town and 
 surrounding country. But it was not until 
 everybody had opportunity of taking sides for 
 or against the truth. They deliberately chose 
 their master. It was not long until there were 
 rumors afloat of Mr. Catermole's unchristian 
 and immoral conduct with women. The fol 
 lowing was printed in the Dillon Tribune : 
 
 A MAD METHODIST 
 Rev. Euster after the Scalps of Revs. Mills 
 
 and Catertnole 
 
 Rev. W. T. Euster, pastor of the First Methodist 
 Church of Cireat Falls is on the warpath. He makes 
 many charges against two Methodist ministers who 
 are well known and highly esteemed in this city. Elder 
 Mills has been known to the people of Beaverhead 
 County for nearly twenty years. Rev. Catermole was 
 pastor of Grace M. E. Church for several years and 
 has a host of friends in Dillon and Beaverhead Coun 
 ty. * To friends of these men the charges of Mr. 
 Euster seem ridiculous. The affair will be investi 
 gated at the next annual conference, which is to be 
 held in Missoula. 
 
 In an interview, Euster said, the following charges 
 presented by members of the Conference against Elder 
 Mills will be presented to the Conference in August:
 
 FURTHER LABORS ON THE FRONTIER 59 
 
 Corrupt Administration, Negligent Administration, 
 Partisan Administration, Imprudent Conduct and Un 
 christian Conduct. The Rev. E. G. Catermole who 
 succeeded me at Anaconda will be confronted with 
 three charges: Corrupt Administration, Imprudent 
 Conduct and Unchristian Conduct. All of these 
 charges are abundantly substantiated and in preparing 
 them no legal application has been overlooked. Nei 
 ther of these gentlemen has either mental, moral or 
 spiritual ability. Elder Mills is independently 
 wealthy and has an ungodly ambition. He works by 
 the power of money and wants to run the whole state. 
 He hobnobs with rich men regardless of whether they 
 are religious or not and is guided by them in the 
 management of church work. 
 
 The charges against these men, the Tri 
 bune says "are ridiculous," and "they have a 
 host of friends in Beaverhead County." It is 
 the same old story, "Crucify Christ, and release 
 unto us Barabbas." 
 
 While our tent meetings were in progress 
 a well-known druggist was present for a few 
 evenings. The last meeting he attended the 
 subject was "The Rich Man in Hell," taken 
 from Luke 16. This man, to all appearances, 
 was under great conviction. I had known him 
 for a number of years and had tried to induce 
 him to give his heart to the Lord. When I
 
 60 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 left the tent on this particular evening I told 
 my brother that the druggist had received his 
 last call. 
 
 A few weeks later this man while in good 
 health, so far as any one knew, went out to 
 bring in a bucket of coal. His wife wondering 
 what kept him so long went to see and found 
 him lying dead between the coal house and the 
 back door.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 MY MISSION TO MONTANA 
 
 God's purpose in my going to Montana 
 was similar to that of Moses when he was sent 
 to deliver the children of Israel from Egyptian 
 bondage. No doubt while preparing for the 
 work, especially during the forty years he spent 
 in the desert, he suffered many hardships and 
 spent days and nights in prayer. God was 
 preparing to give birth to a new nation in which 
 His promise to Abraham was to be fulfilled. 
 Moses, under most peculiar circumstances was 
 chosen to be the leader of His people. 
 
 When he appeared before Pharaoh and 
 asked him to let the children of Israel go and 
 sacrifice to God, Pharaoh said, "Who is the 
 Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel 
 go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let 
 Israel go" (Exodus 5:2). But in spite of all 
 his efforts to hold them he had to submit to 
 the fiat of the Almighty. The judgments of 
 God broke his arm of power and left his king 
 dom in desolation. The scourge of death
 
 62 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 passed over the land and the firstborn in every 
 Egyptian home was slain. God's hand was so 
 heavy upon him he was urged by his own peo 
 ple to let Israel go, lest they should all be dead 
 men. 
 
 Plague after plague was sent upon Egypt, 
 
 r.u FF ox RIVER ROAD BEAVERHEAD VALLEY 
 
 but Pharaoh continued to harden his heart. 
 There were two mighty forces operating in the 
 contest, but Omnipotence prevailed and a won 
 derful miracle was wrought, when two and a
 
 MY MISSION TO MONTANA 63 
 
 half millions of people escaped from Egyptian 
 bondage through a path in the sea. 
 
 The Egyptians were presumptuous enough 
 to think that they could follow, but their chariot 
 wheels dragged heavily through the sand. The 
 Lord looked through the "pillar of fire" and 
 troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off 
 their chariot wheels. They said, "Let us flee 
 from the face of Israel ; for the Lord fighteth 
 for them against the Egyptians" (Ex. 14:25). 
 When the people of Dillon were shown the 
 awful consequences of rejecting God, a few of 
 them heeded the warning, and for a time their 
 lives were changed. But most of the people of 
 the town and valley treated the message with 
 indifference and hostility. They were much like 
 Pharaoh, they said, "Who is the Lord? We 
 know not the Lord ; we worship silver and gold, 
 the gods of these mountains and valleys, and 
 will not be disturbed." 
 
 But the same God that spoke through 
 Moses and through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 
 was speaking to them through lips of clay, and 
 they knew Him not. They lifted up their arms 
 of rebellion against Him and suffered the aw 
 ful consequences. Oh that men could know 
 the day of their -visitation and the
 
 64 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 power of Omnipotence that would save them if 
 they would only meet the conditions! \Yith 
 Him there is no variableness nor shadow of 
 turning. When He speaks He must be obeyed 
 and every tongue put to silence. 
 
 He is tender and compassionate with those 
 who heed His voice, but terrible are His judg 
 ments upon a rebellious and stiff-necked people. 
 
 There were more than a score of my own 
 relatives in and about Dillon who were the sub 
 jects of many prayers. To be true to His word 
 God must answer prayer, and it often has to be 
 done through judgments. He plagued Egypt. 
 and it is not strange that His wrath should be 
 visited upon a modern city, where His word 
 had been scorned and His messengers rejected. 
 Those who will not accept mercy must suffer 
 His judgments. The Psalmist said, "He will 
 not always chide: neither will he keep his anger 
 forever." The time comes when His wrath 
 will be turned aside, but not until after He has 
 accomplished His purpose. 
 
 Moses continued His visits to Pharaoh 
 in behalf of the children of Israel, but the heart 
 of the idolatrous king became more and more 
 hardened, and so it was with the people of this 
 little city in Beaverhead Valley, with perhaps
 
 MY MISSION TO MONTANA 65 
 
 less than two thousand inhabitants. There was 
 great destruction in the wake of the plagues in 
 Egypt, so much so that the people of many 
 centuries have profited by the history of the 
 things that took place. 
 
 Coming generations will read this book 
 and profit by the rod of correction that was laid 
 upon a people that refused to hear those who 
 went to them with a message from the Lord. 
 
 Considering the population, the scourge 
 of death has been far greater than it was when 
 the firstborn of the Egyptians were smitten in 
 Egypt. 
 
 To say that God's hand has not been upon 
 the people of Beaverhead County of Southern 
 Montana during the past few years would be 
 to deny His existence and to make prayer and 
 the Bible a farce. 
 
 The writer has made so many trips to that 
 section of the country, the route has become 
 as familiar as the road leading to her home 
 town. In each one of these visits the Lord has 
 had a specific purpose. To some a quarter of 
 a century might seem to be a long time, but 
 with Him it is only a passing moment. 
 
 At the close of the meeting held in the tent 
 at Dillon, my father, at the age of seventy, ar- 
 
 TRUTH 5.
 
 MY MISSION TO MONTANA 67 
 
 rived from Kentucky. He had always been 
 an orthodox believer and years before was con 
 verted in Lewis County, Kentucky. In Mon 
 tana he was apparently unable to stem the tide 
 of indifference and worldliness in the church, 
 and lost his grip on spiritual things. He was 
 the subject of many earnest prayers, lest he 
 might die unprepared. There were times 
 when I had real travail of soul for him and I 
 prayed that he might be saved at any cost. The 
 assurance was received that if I was faithful 
 my father would be brought into the fold. 
 In due time the Lord brought him to our 
 Training School at Denver, where he was re 
 claimed. 
 
 After spending three years with us, he 
 departed this life, November iQth, 1907, in his 
 83d year. The following account of his death 
 written by my brother, Rev. C. W. Bridwell, 
 was published in the December 4th issue of the 
 Pillar of Fire. 
 
 "GRANDPA" BRIDWELL TRANSLATED 
 
 "My father, William Moncure Bridwell, 
 has just been called from earth to heaven, and 
 our hearts are left in loneliness as we sit in 
 silence and long to hear his on-coming foot 
 falls. He has gone from us, not as the birds
 
 68 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 go away in autumn to return again in spring; 
 not as the ship goes over the sea to return again 
 after a pleasant voyage; but he has gone to 
 return no more forever. He has made a voy 
 age on the sea that sends back no passengers, 
 but blessed be God, he has gone with a Captain 
 who has never lost one, and he has reached the 
 eternal harbor where ships go out no more! 
 We thank God for a land where there are no 
 more storms and shadows and sunsets, where 
 sickness and sorrow never come and where 
 'no grave digger's spade shall ever cleave the 
 sides of those eternal hills,' and whose guests 
 are kings and priests to God forever. 
 
 "Father was born in Virginia, April 16, 
 1825, and departed this life in Denver, Nov. 
 19, 1907, having lived more than twelve 
 years beyond man's allotted time. The greater 
 portion of his life was spent in Kentucky. 
 where with my mother, Mary A. Brichvell, he 
 labored hard, passing through the struggles 
 of the Civil War, and reared a large family of 
 children ; nine are still living, among whom are 
 Mrs. Alma White and the writer. Twelve 
 years ago he went to Montana to live with a 
 married daughter and remained there until 
 about three years ago, when he came to
 
 MY MISSION TO MONTANA 69 
 
 Denver, and has since been living in the Bible 
 School. Here God has made him a special 
 blessing to all the students and workers. He 
 was a great lover of children, and the young 
 people were drawn to him naturally and made 
 him their friend his grandchildren especially 
 will miss him, among them my own two little 
 ones to whom he was strongly attached. 
 
 "\Ve had no idea that his end was so near 
 at hand. He had contracted a severe cold 
 about two weeks before, which settled on his 
 lungs; through careful nursing, a hopeful 
 crisis was reached and he became convalescent. 
 None of us anticipated any serious results until 
 Sunday morning, when we found that there 
 had been a relapse. As some of us gathered 
 around his bedside for a season of prayer, the 
 thought swept over the writer with startling 
 effect that Father was not long for this world. 
 We saw that he was gradually growing 
 weaker. The end came on Tuesday morning 
 when his heart ceased to beat, and his soul went 
 home to be forever with the Lord. 
 
 HIS PREPARATION 
 
 "Father was converted when a young man 
 and knew something of the life and power that 
 characterized Methodism in that day. Owing
 
 MY MISSION TO MONTANA 71 
 
 to the many evil surroundings and to the fact 
 that he had very little Christian help, his early 
 Christian life was vacillating. Still there was 
 generally a family altar in the home and the 
 children were brought up to fear God and keep 
 His commandments. From his earliest child 
 hood, my father believed the Bible to be the in 
 spired word of God and never failed to express 
 himself as to the eternal verities of the Chris 
 tian faith. He taught his children that to 
 commit sin is to take the track that leads to 
 despair and death. As a father he was always 
 affectionate and did his best to instill in his 
 children the principles of integrity, honesty and 
 benevolence. No one was ever turned away 
 from his door having been refused hospitality. 
 While holding revival meetings in Montana it 
 was our privilege to see him renew his covenant 
 with the Lord and to enter again with renewed 
 energy into His service. 
 
 "He came, in the providence of God, to the 
 Bible School, and while receiving much soul 
 help, he was made a great blessing to the rest 
 of us. As the months passed by, we saw him 
 ripening for the spirit world. Frequently 
 he would write a brief article on some religious 
 subject and hand it to us for inspection; we
 
 72 TRUTH. STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 have a number of them that have not been 
 printed which we may -ome time publish. 
 1 hiring his last hours he had an increasing de 
 sire to depart and be with Christ, and when we 
 would express our unwillingness to see him go, 
 he never failed to encourage us and to cheer 
 our hearts with the wonderful prospects lie 
 held in view. 
 
 "1 Hiring all of the last night we remained 
 by his bedside singing, praying and conversing 
 with him and doing what we could to minister 
 to his needs. At times he seemed to suffer 
 greatly, but he told us that if he was suffering 
 he did not know it. Never before did the Lord 
 in so precious to me as when we sat by his 
 bedside and saw the life force- ebb away. 
 .\bont midnight, as we prayed we felt a cri-is 
 was coning; suddenly calling me to his bed. he 
 told me his limbs were getting cold. \Ve called 
 in other members of the family and with them 
 gathered around him and sang and prayed and 
 shouted until he had crossed over. Never -hall 
 1 forget these hours of waiting when the very 
 doors and window- of heaven were opened 
 above n- and the gate- of pearl were almost in 
 view. As we sang some familiar hymn, my 
 father's face would light up. and as long as he
 
 MY MISSION TO MONTANA 73 
 
 was able, hallelujahs broke forth from his 
 lips; then when he was too weak to talk, he 
 would wave his handkerchief and in other 
 ways express his triumph. About two weeks 
 before, Mrs. White had written a song, enti 
 tled, THE SKY is CLEAR ABOVE/ which the 
 Lord had designed for this occasion : 
 
 'The sky is clear above me, my path is shining bright, 
 \Yhile trusting in my Savior, He gives me wondrous 
 
 light ; 
 Xo more the mists and shadows are hanging o'er my 
 
 way, 
 
 \Yhere Beulah's sun is shining, the shadows flee 
 away. 
 
 CHORUS : 
 
 'The angel bands are coming, I hear them far away, 
 
 To take me to that city, w^here all is perfect day ; 
 
 The sky is clear above me I hear their harps of 
 gold 
 
 I soon shall join their number and see the gates un 
 fold. 
 
 'My heart is light as springtime, the sky is clear above, 
 My days are full of sunshine, I'm resting in His love ; 
 All nature sings His praises, since in my heart He 
 
 lives, 
 And peace that passeth knowledge, to me He evrr 
 
 gives.
 
 74 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 'I heard the old, old story, how Jesus saves from sin, 
 When all I yielded to Him, the light came streaming 
 
 in; 
 I knew not how to love Him, my heart was dark and 
 
 cold, 
 Until I heard the story the prophets long foretold. 
 
 'I know a band of angels to earth will wing their flight, 
 And take me to that city where Jesus is the light ; 
 He promised to be with me until this life is o'er, 
 And then beyond the portals I'll dwell forever more.' 
 
 "As we sang over and over the verses of 
 this song, his imprisoned soul appeared to 
 catch visions of the heavenly city, and as we 
 repeated the chorus, he evidently saw and real 
 ized the presence of the angels in a deeper 
 sense than the rest of us possibly could. At 
 one time he reached out his hand as if he had 
 gotten a glimpse of departed loved ones, or a 
 convoy of angels. While singing another 
 hymn about 'Going Home/ he glanced at the 
 nurse and asked her if she was going too, and 
 about the last words he spoke to the writer 
 were, 
 
 'LET'S GO HOME.' 
 
 "How blessed it is to realize that our real 
 life begins at death and our real home is not 
 earth, but heaven ! A number of times he took
 
 MY MISSION TO MONTANA 75 
 
 our hands and said we would meet again in 
 the long tomorrow and live together forever. 
 He remained conscious to the very end. The 
 final moment came and he breathed his last, 
 we saw not the angels, neither did we hear the 
 rustle of their wings, yet we were conscious 
 that they were there and that his immortal 
 spirit was being carried by them to the city of 
 God. 
 
 "We laid his body to rest in Fairmount 
 Cemetery to await the arch-angel's trump, 
 when the corruptible bodies of those who sleep 
 in Jesus shall be changed and made like unto 
 His own glorious body. There is no significance 
 to the Gospel if the resurrection be eliminated. 
 The New Testament is luminous with this glo 
 rious hope and affords the child of God comfort 
 in the darkest hour. The body is to be raised 
 incorruptible, and 'it doth not yet appear what 
 we shall be ; but we shall be like him.' The glo 
 rified body will not be subject to disease and 
 decay, but will flourish in immortal youth. 
 Sorrow and care that have sat on the shoul 
 ders, bowing the form down to the earth, will 
 have no place in the resurrection. 'It doth 
 not yet appear what we shall be,' but with a 
 glorified body the soul shall sweep on and on
 
 76 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 in its tireless flight, keeping pace with the eter 
 nal years of God. The curse of sin shall have 
 been forever lifted and all earthly restrictions 
 and limitations will be gone forever. \Ye have 
 read of the white albatross of the S< uihern I 'a 
 cific Ocean which has the power- to float on 
 the air for one solid week without perceptibly 
 moving its pinions. On and on she goes, sail- 
 the upper deep, impelled by a strange puwer 
 within. This is a faint picture of the onward 
 trend and upward sweep of the soul as it enter- 
 upon immortality. Reader, the time is not far 
 distant when we shall be called to another 
 \\orld. If this life has been a preparation for 
 the departure, then death will be the begin 
 ning of an endless triumph. 
 
 'On the cold cheek of death smiles ami roses are 
 
 blending, 
 And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.' 
 
 May God grant that it may be so."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE LAMONT TRAGEDY 
 
 In the spring of 1895, following the tent 
 meeting held the previous fall, the whole coun 
 try was stirred over the Durant murder case 
 in San Francisco. The body of Blanch La- 
 mont was found in the tower of a Baptist 
 church. The news of the murder was her 
 alded around the world as one of the most 
 sensational tragedies on record. 
 
 Blanch was the daughter of David La- 
 mont of Dillon, who died suddenly about three 
 years previous to her death. I was acquainted 
 with him before he brought his family to Mon 
 tana. He was superintendent of the Meth 
 odist Sunday-school. I supposed he was a 
 converted man, but he left the Methodist 
 Church and helped to organize a Presbyterian 
 Church. There were only a few persons in 
 the place that were interested in spiritual 
 things, and certainly not enough to divide up 
 into different factions. His family seemed to 
 be the leaders in this move at that time. To 
 all appearances, the Methodist Church was too
 
 THE LAMONT TRAGEDY 79 
 
 humble a place for them. They needed more 
 room for the display of worldliness and pride. 
 Every member of his family, including rela 
 tives, was utterly ignorant of salvation. They 
 wanted to be leaders in society, and while they 
 had but little of this world's goods they made 
 a desperate struggle to keep up appearances. 
 I knew a family of this character in my 
 girlhood days in Kentucky. They were great 
 church folk, but pride, like a cancer, gnawed 
 at the vitals of their lives and defeated all good 
 that they might have accomplished. Jesus 
 said, "Every one that exalteth himself shall be 
 abased," and truly God's word has never failed. 
 "The proud he knoweth afar off." 
 
 Mr. Lament was a sociable, congenial 
 man, and was capable of doing much good in 
 any community. He served in the Civil War, 
 and no doubt at one time had salvation. 
 He worked hard to make a living for his fam 
 ily, and to keep up their social standing. At 
 the time of his death he was postmaster at 
 Dillon. 
 
 At the time of our Gospel meeting, his 
 daughter Blanch had just recovered from a 
 spell of fever in which her life had been almost 
 despaired of, but she and other members of the
 
 So TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 family, living only a short distance from the 
 lent, failed to make their appearance. Evi 
 dently it was pride that kept them away and i i 
 they had yielded to the solicitation of the Holy 
 Spirit, Blanch would have never made the trip 
 to California which resulted in such a shameful 
 and tragical death. 
 
 The following appeared in the Dillon 
 Examiner, of April i/th, 1895. 
 
 FOULLY MURDERED. BLANCH L AM O NT'S 
 BODY DISCOVERED IN THE TOWER OF 
 
 THE IMMANUEL BAPTIST CHURCH. 
 A MOST REVOLTING CRIME. 
 
 The mystery connected with the disappearance of 
 Miss Blanch Lamont from the house of her aunt, Mrs. 
 Dr. Nobles, of San Francisco was cleared up on 
 Easter Sunday by the discovery of her body in the 
 Immanuel Baptist Church in San Francisco. 
 
 Miss Lamont was last seen two weeks ago to-day, 
 hut her mother in this city (Dillon) was not notified 
 until a week ago to-day. This Immanuel Baptist 
 Church has been the scene of two of the most atro 
 cious murders ever committed in the state. Saturday 
 the mutilated body of Minnie Williams was found in 
 the office of the library. Sunday the body of Blanch 
 Lamont was found in the tower of the same church. 
 * * * W. H. Durant, Librarian of the church and 
 Secretary of the Young People's Society of the 
 church, also Assistant Superintendent of the Sunday-
 
 THE LAMONT TRAGEDY 81 
 
 school, is suspected of both crimes. Miss Lament 
 disappeared April 3d. * * * She came from Dillon, 
 Montana several months ago, having been sent to San 
 Francisco for her health and at the same time to 
 attend the Normal School to equip herself as a teacher. 
 On making a thorough search of Immanuel 
 Church the * * * body of Miss Lament was found 
 concealed in the steeple. Death had been caused by 
 strangulation. The body was lying just inside the 
 door of the tower room. * * Around the neck were 
 streaks, the marks of fingers that had been pressed 
 deep into the tender flesh. The features were badly 
 distorted, the mouth being drawn down at one corner 
 and the lips swollen and blood-stained. The nose was 
 the only feature that retained its original shape. * * 
 The girl's light brown hair was matted with dirt and 
 hung loosely abot^t her shoulders. The body was in 
 the first stages of decomposition. 
 
 The following are comments taken from 
 the Dillon Tribune. 
 
 Miss Blanch Lament, the news of whose foul 
 murder is so deeply agitating this community has been 
 a resident of this city for fourteen years. * * * She 
 was born in Rockford, 111., twenty-one years ago. She 
 was the daughter of Captain David Lament, post 
 master of this city at the time of his death nearly two 
 years ago. She was unusually bright and attractive, 
 a great favorite in social and religious circles, a mem 
 ber of the Episcopal Church. * * * The remains will 
 be shipped to Dillon for interment and will be received 
 TRUTH 6.
 
 82 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 by a delegation of the Masonic Lodge. * * * The 
 funeral will be the largest and most impressive ever 
 held in this city. 
 
 Editorial Comment of The Examiner. 
 
 A HORRIBLE TRAGEDY 
 This community is profoundly shocked by the 
 news of the crime whose horrors have seldom been 
 surpassed in the history of the civilized world. Miss 
 Blanch Lament, the young lady, pure and noble in 
 mind, of amiable disposition and spotless character, 
 and endowed by her Creator of every other attribute 
 that commends the respect and friendship of those by 
 whom she was known, has been made the victim * * * 
 of as black a monster in human form as the annals of 
 crime has any record of. 
 
 Why should the victim of this tragedy be 
 from Dillon, Montana ? Why should the faces 
 of the friends and acquaintances of this fair 
 young woman be blanched with horror at the 
 details of her untimely death? The answer 
 is apparent. The innocent suffered for 
 the guilty. God had a purpose in it. The 
 scripture says, "Be not deceived; God is not 
 mocked: for whatsoever a man (or town) 
 soweth, that shall he (or it) also reap." 
 
 The town of Dillon sowed the seed of law 
 lessness and murder, and a harvest must 
 follow. Parents often have the fairest
 
 THE LAMONT TRAGEDY 83 
 
 one of the household snatched away in order 
 to bring them face to face with God, who is 
 merciful enough to give them a chance to es 
 cape the fires of perdition by visiting them with 
 1 judgments. This is His last recourse after 
 they have broken His laws and trampled His 
 word under their feet. 
 
 The writer knew Doctor and Mrs. Nobles, 
 the uncle and aunt of Miss Lament, when they 
 resided at Dillon. They were intensely de 
 voted to the Baptist creed and helped to build 
 the Baptist church at Dillon. They seemed to 
 be totally ignorant of real salvation, and the 
 Baptist creed was to all appearances their god. 
 The worship of this creed was no doubt the 
 direct cause of their niece's being thrown into 
 the company of a murderer, who occupied at 
 least three different official positions in the 
 church of their choice. 
 
 Another member of the Lamont family 
 came to a sad end, about September, 1904. 
 The following is an account taken from the 
 
 Dillon Tribune, September 2d. 
 
 TERRIBLE ACCIDENT TO DILLON BOY AT 
 LAKE VIEW YESTERDAY. ROGER 
 
 LAMONT SHOT IN BREAST 
 The news was telephoned to Dillon yesterday
 
 THE LAMONT TRAGEDY 85 
 
 afternoon about 5 o'clock that Roger Lament was 
 probably fatally shot at Lake View. With Harry 
 Graves and Wilbur Gilbert he left Dillon about two 
 weeks ago for a trip through the National Park and 
 the party was just returning. Few particulars were 
 phoned to the family here. About all that could be 
 learned was that he was shot through the right breast 
 with a 44 calibre revolver, and that it took Harry 
 Graves two hours to ride in to Monida from the place 
 where the accident occurred that he might notify the 
 family. Mrs. Lament and Miss Grace Lamont, B. M. 
 Stephenson, and Dr. Poindexter, took last evening's 
 train to Monida. 
 
 LATER 
 
 A telephone message this afternoon from Monida 
 says that relatives, Drs. Poindexter and Stephenson, 
 had arrived at the bedside of the wounded boy. * * * 
 When the messenger left Lake View all hope of his 
 recovery had been given up. 
 
 In a later issue an account is given as to 
 how the accident occurred. 
 
 The three young men, Roger Lamont, Harry 
 Graves and Wilbur Gilbert were returning from a 
 trip through the National Park. Thursday afternoon 
 they passed the Blake home and when about a quarter 
 of a mile past the house toward Monida, Roger leaned 
 over to look out behind the wagon. The revolver, a 
 44 calibre Smith & W'esson, which he was carrying 
 in a holster, dropped from the holster and in falling 
 was discharged by striking the side of the wagon bed.
 
 86 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 The ball severed one of the lines, just in front of 
 Wilbur Gilbert's thumb, and entered Roger's right 
 1reast just beneath the right shoulder blade. The 
 wounded boy turned and asked each of his compan 
 ions if they were shot, and they told him they were 
 not. Then one of the boys asked him how about 
 himself, and he answered "Yes, I am shot through the 
 lung." The team was qu ; ckly turned and he was 
 taken to Mr. Blake's house. Harry Graves mounted 
 a horse and rode to Monida, a distance of twenty-four 
 miles in two hours, where he telephoned the news of 
 the accident to Dillon. * * * The body was brought 
 to Dillon Friday night and the funeral took place from 
 the home Sunday afternoon at 2:30. * * The many 
 seats placed on the lawn were filled and hundreds. of 
 sighing friends stood round about. * * * The bier 
 of the young and loved deceased was followed to 
 Mountain View Cemetery by a procession of sorrow 
 ing and sympathetic friends, half a mile long. * * * 
 Roger Lament was born in Dillon and was seventeen 
 years old at the time of his death. * * * The sadness 
 which his untimely death brings upon the family who 
 has suffered more than its share of sadness touches 
 the hearts of all and the bereaved family has the 
 deepest sympathy. 
 
 Harry Graves, the young man mentioned 
 above, is the son of Fielding Graves of 
 Bannack, who was a member of the infidel 
 board of trustees who refused to permit 
 the writer to read the Bible in the opening
 
 THE LAMONT TRAGEDY 87 
 
 exercises of the school, an account of which is 
 given in Looking Back from Beulah. Clay 
 Graves, the uncle of Harry, was killed 
 by the discharge of his gun falling out 
 of the buggy into the road while he 
 was carrying a bag of gold dust, in company 
 with Gus Graeter, an old-timer, from Bannack 
 to Dillon. 
 
 The Psalmist said, "The steps of a good 
 man are ordered by the Lord," but nowhere 
 do we find that the steps of the wicked are 
 ordered by Him, or that they will be protected 
 in their undertakings. "The angel of the 
 Lord encampeth round about them that fear 
 him, and delivereth them" (Psalm 34:7). 
 
 Fielding Graves, the father of Harry, was 
 a tall, slender, delicate man, with piercing, 
 black eyes. He had a store of general mer 
 chandise at Bannack and was a member 
 of the School Board when the writer taught 
 at that place. His aversion to God's word was 
 well known. He was the principal factor in 
 opposing my opening the school with devo 
 tional exercises, and employed another teacher, 
 after promising the school to me. 
 
 His wife used to tell me with tears in her 
 eyes that her husband was very exacting and
 
 88 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 hard to get along with, and the only way that 
 she could live with him was to submit to his 
 dictation and decisions in everything. I 
 looked upon his little children, among whom 
 was Harry, as they romped and played, and 
 wondered if they would ever come to any good, 
 knowing that the Bible says that the sins 
 of the parents are visited upon the children 
 unto the third and fourth generation.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE DEATHS OF SOME OLD-TIMERS 
 
 The following are some of the events that 
 have occurred in and about Dillon as related 
 in part by one who has been a resident of 
 Beaverhead County for many years. 
 
 Joe Crow, after helping his wife with 
 some domestic work, walked over to a 
 lumber yard and fell under a stroke of paral 
 ysis and died within three hours. This man 
 left a wife and children in the East and came 
 to Montana and married again, after which 
 he took a trip back to his old home and intro 
 duced his second companion to his first wife, 
 the mother of his children. She was 
 so stricken with grief and astonishment she 
 almost collapsed. After Mr. Crow's death, 
 wife number two, while attempting to law the 
 property away from the rightful heirs, was 
 stricken with total blindness. She is now 
 looking in vain to Christian Science and other 
 kindred heresies in hope of recovering her 
 sight. 
 
 Mark 10:11 says, "Whosoever shall put
 
 THE DEATH OF SOME OLD-TIMERS 91 
 
 away his wife, and marry another, committeth 
 adultery against her." The divorce evil is 
 rapidly increasing in the land. The displeas 
 ure of God is upon any one that marries an 
 other while the former companion is living, 
 whatever may have been the grounds for sep 
 aration. Divorced and remarried people are 
 enemies of the Cross, and the children of par 
 ents living in unholy marriage bonds will have 
 to suffer for the guilty unless mercy inter 
 venes. Exodus 20:5 says, "I the Lord thy 
 God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity 
 of the fathers upon the children unto the third 
 and fourth generation of them that hate me." 
 The scriptures on divorce and remarriage 
 are plain. The seventh chapter of Romans 
 leaves no room for controversy. People who 
 are divorced and remarried are living in 
 adultery and God's judgments are sure to fall 
 upon them. 
 
 Dillon Tribune. 
 
 S. V. Nielsen, a prominent tailor, was struck by 
 an engine of the Irish mail near Herman's brickyard. 
 * * * His left shoulder was horribly mangled and 
 several of his ribs broken. Early Wednesday morn 
 ing he died. Nielsen was 66 years old and had re 
 sided at Dillon for a number of years. The inquest 
 was held over the remains before acting Coroner
 
 
 92 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 Holclen. In the verdict the jury exonerated the rail 
 road company from all blame. 
 
 Philip Shenon an old resident of Beaver- 
 head County died after a brief illness. He 
 was a wealthy cattleman, much older than 
 his young wife, whom, it was commonly 
 reported, was forced by her parents, to marry 
 him for his money. He separated from her 
 and married again. The following is an ac 
 count of his death, from the Dillon Tribune, 
 Jan. 2d, 1903. 
 
 Phil Shenon a pioneer of Montana died * * * 
 Wednesday of this week, aged about 70 years. . Mr. 
 Shenon was thrown from a wagon recently while 
 pitching hay and sustained a dangerous strangulated 
 rupture. An operation was performed and the in 
 jured man was apparently doing all right when com 
 plications developed and he died. 
 
 He came to Bannack in the early sixties and was 
 engaged in mining and ranching for a number of 
 years. * * * His estate is supposed to be worth a 
 hundred thousand. He is survived by a wife and two 
 children. ' * * Mr. Shenon's first wife \\.i- Mi-- 
 Mattie Z. Mulkey, from whom he was divorced a 
 number of years ago, and she later married Mr. Far- 
 rington and now resides in California. She still owns 
 a ranch on Red Rock. 
 
 Charles Bliven was shot and killed in his 
 saloon. He said that he did not like the saloon
 
 THE DEATH OF SOME OLD-TIMERS 93 
 
 business, that he had been brought up differ 
 ently, but had no other way to make a living. 
 
 James Eddy and Avifc started to Scotland 
 on a visit. He died suddenly in New York. 
 The wife brought the body back to Dillon 
 to be buried. This couple let old George 
 Brown, a noted drunkard, make drunkards out 
 of all their children and teach them profanity. 
 Brown was the rich uncle of the children, and 
 the parents would not protest lest the boys 
 should be cut out of his will. Four of these 
 young men died within a few months of one 
 another. The widow was left in poor health 
 with two children, one an imbecile, plenty 
 of wealth, but not able' to enjoy it. 
 
 Dick Reynolds, a well known ranchman liv 
 ing near Dillon, was thrown from a buggy 
 and fatally injured. His first w r ife was a 
 prominent church worker, and preachers were 
 often entertained at their home. The writer 
 visited their home and gave her testimony 
 as to what the Lord had done for her, but 
 found it difficult to interest Mr. Reynolds 
 in the subject of salvation. He was very self- 
 righteous. He was hospitable, but this an in 
 fidel could be if he were so disposed. The 
 preachers enjoyed his hospitality, but let
 
 THE DEATH OF SOME OLD-TIMERS 95 
 
 him slip through their ringers into perdition. 
 I was told that his second wife was a skep 
 tic. No Christian would yoke up with an un 
 believer. From the information I could get 
 from some of his friends, Mr. Reynolds idol 
 ized horses. He took much pleasure in a fast, 
 well-groomed team. It was whik driving a 
 team of this kind that the accident occurred 
 which proved fatal. The horses were making 
 a sharp turn in the road and threw him out. 
 Duke Davis, a nephew of the writer, helped to 
 carry him into the home of J. E. Morris after 
 the accident occurred. The following account 
 given in the Tribune is deserving of commen 4 - 
 No doubt that Mr. Reynolds was an hoiK ' 
 business man and worthy of any good tha. 
 might be said of him in this respect, but to give 
 a person a passport to heaven simply because he 
 has many friends and worldly admirers, is di 
 rectly contrary to the teachings of God's word. 
 
 Dillon Tribune, Jan. 15, 1904. 
 R. A. REYNOLDS WAS DRIVING TOWARD 
 HOME WHEN THE SHOCK (PARAL 
 YSIS) CAME UPON HIM 
 His Wife Was Waiting for Him at Her Sister's 
 
 When She Saw the Horse Pass 
 While R. A. Reynolds was driving up Idaho 
 street Tuesday morning, near the school house, he
 
 96 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 \\as stricken with paralysis, and losing control of his 
 team it began to run. * * * The carriage struck a 
 telephone pole and Mr. Reynolds was thrown out, 
 although not with much force. The team broke away 
 from the rig, and one horse went home to the ranch, 
 while the other was captured near Mountain View 
 Cemetery. Several people living in that neighbor 
 hood * * * hurried to the assistance of the unfortunate 
 man. When they arrived Mr. Reynolds was uncon 
 scious and said something about the horses not being 
 at fault and that he could not see where they were 
 going, meaning that the stroke of paralysis caused him 
 to lose control of the reins. A man named Dolby 
 saw Mr. Reynolds leaning toward the outside of the 
 carriage as the horses charged up the street. * " 
 Mrs. Reynolds who had been waiting for him at H. \\ . 
 \Veeninks, recognizing one of the runaway horses, 
 started at once to find her husband. She got to Mr. 
 
 M s' just as the party with Mr. Reynolds drove 
 
 up. He lived from Wednesday until Saturday. 
 
 The funeral services of "Uncle Dick," as he \\a> 
 familiarly known by every one, were conducted in 
 the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he was a 
 member. The church was packed to overflowing by 
 the admiring and sad-hearted friends who wished 
 to pay a last tribute to him. The body was taken t" 
 the lecture room of the church at 10 o'clock in the 
 morning and there lay in state until I o'clock p. m., or 
 the hour of the funeral, and during that space of time 
 hundreds visited the church to take a last look at all 
 that was mortal of "Uncle Dick." The casket wa-
 
 THE DEATH OF SOME OLD-TIMERS 97 
 
 almost hidden from view by the loads of fragrant 
 flowers and wreaths, the loving offerings of friends. 
 The whole front of the church altar was one bank of 
 floral offerings. He was a member of the Methodist 
 Church and a constant attendant at the services, and 
 always had his regular seat near the choir. This seat 
 was draped in white and unoccupied during the 
 funeral services. The services were conducted by 
 the Rev. A. A. Luce. Dr. Martin of the Presby 
 terian Church led in prayer and Rev. Stephens, pastor 
 of the Presbyterian Church at Twin Bridges, read 
 several passages of scripture. Rev. R. P. Smith of 
 Helena and Rev. J. W. Tate of Butte, both former 
 pastors of the Methodist Church here, followed with 
 short talks paying tribute to the model life of the 
 deceased, in which they referred to the good ex 
 ample of true manhood, Christian fortitude, patience 
 in affliction and trust in God over all, which will live 
 on as a monument in the memories of the people 
 here. * * * "Uncle Dick," was truly a good man, 
 if he had a single enemy among his host of acquaint 
 ances, no one ever heard, of it. Our community was 
 enriched by his honest life and square dealings with 
 his fellowmen. In the course of his remarks, Rev. 
 Smith truly said, "As England points with pride to 
 the life of Gladstone, and as the United States looks 
 with reverence upon the life of the great Lincoln, 
 just so does Beaverhead County hold sacred the life 
 of Richard A. Reynolds. He came here a poor man 
 and ere his death had become one of our richest 
 ranchers and stockmen, yet every dollar was made 
 TRUTH 7.
 
 98 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 honestly and squarely. * * * Interment was in the 
 Poindexter Cemetery to which spot one of the longest 
 funeral processions ever seen in this valley wended 
 its way. 
 
 Knowing his beautiful life and unwavering trust 
 in God those who looked upon his lifeless form for 
 the last time on Monday, did so with sorrowful 
 hearts, but with the thought 
 
 "How sweet his sleep where all is peace, 
 
 \Yhere sorrow cannot reach his breast; 
 Where all life's idle throbbings cease, 
 
 And pain is lulled to rest 
 Such balmy rest, where, peril past, 
 
 The weary wins a deep repose, 
 And the bruised spirit finds at last 
 
 A cure for all its woes. 
 How sweet that deep repose to gain, 
 
 And slumber in that deathless sleep, 
 From which he'll never wake to pain, 
 
 And never rise to weep; 
 For he's won his way thro' the tempest's roar, 
 
 And laid him down on the golden shore." 
 
 The funeral was held in the Method- 
 i-t church which was packed to over 
 flowing by the admiring and sad-hearted 
 friends. Hundreds visited the church to take 
 a last look at all that was mortal <>f "Uncle 
 Dick." 
 
 According to this Mr. Reynolds was quite
 
 THE DEATH OF SOME OLD-TIMERS 99 
 
 popular, not only with Methodists but with peo 
 ple of all denominations. The Calvary route 
 is not a popular way, .people who take this way 
 are despised and set at nought by the world. 
 Jesus said to His disciples, "If the world hate 
 you, ye know that it hated me before it hated 
 you. If ye were of the world, the world would 
 love his own: but because ye are not of the 
 world, but I have chosen you out of the world, 
 therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:18- 
 
 "The casket was' almost hidden from view 
 by the loads of fragrant flowers and wreaths 
 the loving offerings of friends. The whole 
 front of the church altar was one bank of 
 floral offerings." Any person with salvation 
 knows that saints are not buried in this way. 
 The very presence of this bank of flowers is 
 sufficient evidence that people of the world 
 were his friends. The scripture says, "The 
 friendship of the world is enmity with 
 God." Surely the devil smiled when it 
 took five ministers to conduct the serv 
 ice. The scripture says, "Let the dead 
 bury their dead," and this time they 
 conformed to the word of God. These minis-
 
 ters were spiritually dead, some of whom I 
 knew personally. J. W. Tate, was the identi 
 cal pastor who closed his church against the 
 writer and her brother, which resulted in our 
 holding a tent meeting in the town. 
 
 They said "Uncle Dick" truly was a good 
 man, "if he had a single enemy, no one ever 
 heard of it." The Word says, "Woe unto you, 
 when all men shall speak well of you! for so 
 did their fathers to the false prophets." "Our 
 community was enriched by his honest life and 
 square dealings with his fellow men." 
 
 "The moral man came to the judgment, 
 But his self-righteous rags would not do, 
 The men who had crucified Jesus, 
 Had passed off as moral men too. 
 The souls that had put off salvation, 
 'Not tonight; I'll get saved by and by, 
 No time now to think of religion ! ' 
 At last they had found time to die. 
 
 "And Oh, what a weeping and wailing, 
 When the lost ones were told of their fate ; 
 They cried for the rocks and the mountains, 
 They prayed, but their prayer was too late." 
 
 Rev. Smith certainly was stretching his 
 imagination when he made the comparison be 
 tween Mr. Revnolds and Gladstone. It
 
 THE DEATH OF SOME OLD-TIMERS 101 
 
 shows the extremes to which a so-called 
 minister of the Gospel will go when 
 he no longer seeks the approval of God, 
 and his only ambition is to please men. 
 He capped the climax when he said that Rey 
 nolds came there a poor man, but had become 
 one of their richest ranchers and stockmen. 
 Jesus said, "Again I say unto you, It is easier 
 for ja camel to go through the eye of a needle, 
 than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of 
 God." How could these ministers preach this 
 man into heaven and comment upon his riches 
 in the face of this scripture, and many other 
 passages in regard to riches that are even 
 stronger? "Go to now, ye rich. men, weep and 
 howl for your miseries that shall come upon 
 you. Your riches are corrupted, and your 
 garments are motheaten. Your gold and sil 
 ver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be 
 a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh 
 as it were fire." 
 
 I was acquainted with the religious history 
 of Dillon for twenty-one years previous to the 
 death of Mr. Reynolds, and never knew until 
 I read the account of his funeral that he even 
 made a profession of Christianity. 
 
 Dave Rinehart died suddenly at Dillon,
 
 THE DEATH OF SOME OLD-TIMERS 103 
 
 being sick only a few hours. He figured con 
 spicuously in politics and was once the Sheriff 
 of Beaverhead County. 
 
 John Yoe, one of Dillon's popular young 
 men, who often expressed himself as having 
 no use for religion, was found dead in his 
 room. He married Miss Anna Carter, an in 
 fidel school teacher. She and her sister Mary, 
 also a school teacher with a great aversion to 
 Christianity, were habitual card players, yet 
 they were popular in the social and religious 
 circles of Dillon. The members of the Meth 
 odist Church had no hesitation in putting their 
 children under the tutorship of these women. 
 
 Dr. Pickman, a popular physician of the 
 town, wished while suffering that Jesus Christ 
 had his sore foot. The Episcopal Church has 
 a memorial window in honor of him. Dr. 
 Larson, Earl Martin, John Hershman and Earl 
 Conger, all died yearning for spiritual help. 
 Some of their people were greatly opposed to 
 the cottage prayer meetings held at Dillon. 
 
 Mrs. Gray died suddenly after cooking a 
 Sunday dinner for company. Her hus 
 band, Robert Gray, was one of the members 
 of the noted school board, who refused to let 
 the writer read the Scriptures in the opening
 
 iO4 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 exercises of the school. He would take his 
 children to the public balls and dance all night. 
 He hated anyone with salvation. Mrs. Gray 
 arose on Sunday morning a'nd went about her 
 household duties. At n o'clock she was 
 stricken with paralysis. At 2 o'clock she sank 
 into a deep sleep and never rallied to speak to 
 or recognize her children or friends. 
 
 Mr. L. Hanson shot himself near Dillon 
 over family troubles. The following account 
 of his death was given in the Dillon Tribune, 
 Nov. 27th, 1903. 
 
 Dillon was shocked last Saturday by the news 
 being brought to town that Lars Hanson living two 
 miles northwest of the city had been found dead in 
 his house with the whole top of his head blown off. 
 The gruesome discovery was made by Mr. Charles 
 Peterson of Bannack, who was in Dillon that day and 
 had gone out to Mr. Hanson's residence to get a 
 horse. * * * Mr. Peterson arrived there about 11 
 o'clock and could find no one about the place, and no 
 answer came to his knocking at the front door. He 
 went to the pasture and got the horse, brought it to 
 the house and tied it. Then went to the kitchen door 
 to put a note under the door, from Mr. Mud to Mr. 
 Hanson, asking him to let Mr. Peterson take the 
 horse. When Peterson touched the door it swung 
 open revealing the ghastly sight of the deceased upon
 
 THE DEATH OF SOME OLD-TIMERS 105 
 
 the floor with fully half of his head missing, and a 
 double barrelled shotgun lying close by. 
 
 J. F. Bishop was just passing the house while Mr. 
 Peterson was tying the horse, and when the discovery 
 was made by Mr. Peterson he quickly mounted his 
 horse and rode after Mr. Bishop who remained at 
 the house, while Mr. Peterson went to town after 
 the coroner, Dr. Walker. 
 
 To all appearances, Mr. Hanson was the 
 victim of his own hand. Domestic infelicity 
 was the cause of his committing suicide. The 
 Sunday before his death he took his two 
 daughters and attended services at the Bap 
 tist church. The Tribune stated that 
 he was a devoted member of the Bap 
 tist Church. Of course he could obtain no 
 spiritual help there. What the man needed in 
 the hour of trial was some one that could point 
 him to Christ, as his burden-bearer, but there 
 was no one in the churches of Dillon to do this. 
 
 Owen Carrigan shot and killed himself 
 over financial troubles, leaving a wife and chil 
 dren. 
 
 Dan Chapman came from a lodge meeting 
 one night and died within an hour, while his 
 wife, the daughter of a prominent Methodist, 
 was entertaining company. Thus death
 
 106 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 struck him in the midst of church festivities. 
 I well remember one afternoon when 
 called upon to play and sing some 
 hymns in Mr. Chapman's presence, how 
 emphatically he expressed his distaste for any 
 thing religious. The young woman whom he 
 afterward married was present. I wondered 
 how she could have any respect for him. 
 
 Seven well known young men in and about 
 Dillon died yearning for spiritual help. 
 
 O. E. Morse, a well-known groceryman, 
 fell in the door of his store and lived only a 
 few minutes. I was in his store two days be 
 fore his death. While he was wrapping paper 
 around a basket of grapes I asked myself the 
 question, How long will God permit this man 
 to go on in his unrepentant condition, kn<>\\ 
 ing that he had been repeatedly warned 
 through the meetings held in the place.
 
 . CHAPTER VI 
 
 FURTHER ACCOUNTS OF SUDDEN DEATHS 
 
 TAKEN FROM DILLON TRIBUNE AND 
 
 DILLON EXAMINER 
 
 Dillon Tribune, April 23d, 1897. 
 
 DIED OF DIPTHERIA 
 
 The death of Mary Louise Harvey of Dillon, 
 best known as "Nellie," is one of the saddest events 
 we have had to record. Her death occurred at 6 
 o'clock Saturday evening of diptheria. Just one week 
 before she was the picture of health and strength and 
 was running and playing with her little companions. 
 * * * * Her death is especially sad, from the fact that 
 she was one of the brightest little girls in the public 
 school, of cheerful disposition and loved by her 
 teachers and playmates by whom she will be much 
 missed. 
 
 We are told that the parents of this child 
 denied themselves of the necessaries of life 
 in order to keep up with the social life of Dil 
 lon. After the death of this girl the real con 
 dition of the family was learned. 
 
 Same Issue. 
 
 MARY EDDIE DEAD 
 
 Mary Eddie, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
 
 io8 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 James Eddie, died at the home of her parents this 
 morning at 6 o'clock. Mary Eddie was born on 
 Horse Prarie, fourteen years ago. 
 
 Her uncle, George Brown taught her to 
 love the taste of intoxicants, and it is reported 
 that the physicians think she would have stood 
 a fair chance of recovery, had it not been that 
 her heart was weakened through the use of 
 strong drink. 
 
 Same Issue. 
 
 DEATH OF THOMAS TRITT 
 Thomas Tritt, a well-known rancher of Dillon, 
 died at his home in this city, April 2ist of paralysis. 
 * * * The funeral was held at 2 o'clock Thursday 
 afternoon. 
 
 Same Issue. 
 
 ANOTHER PIONEER GONE 
 
 Word has been received here of the death of Mrs. 
 Ellen R. Smith, widow of A. J. Smith, formerly of 
 Bannack. Mrs. Smith died at Denver, Colo., of heart 
 failure. 
 
 Tribune, Nov. iQth, 1897. 
 
 ANOTHER SAD DEATH. MRS. JOHN R. GIL 
 BERT PASSES TO THE GREAT BEYOND 
 
 Her maiden name was Jane Ann Bumby. The 
 family settled in Jefferson Valley in Madison County, 
 Montana, where they spent many happy days. In
 
 BEAVERHEAD COUNTY COURT HOUSE
 
 no TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 1895 the father was taken from them by death, leav 
 ing three sons, a widow and this daughter to mourn 
 his loss. In 1877 she was married to John R. ( iil- 
 bert, immediately removing to his ranch north of Dil 
 lon, where they continued to make their home until 
 moving to town some three or four years ago. 
 
 This union was blest by the coming of nine chil 
 dren into the home, six boys and three girls, all of 
 whom, with the exception of Jennie, whom we laid 
 away ten days ago, with the bereaved husband, are 
 left to suffer the pangs of their loss. She was saved 
 the suffering of knowing the departure of her mother 
 and daughter, and is now gone to join them in that 
 innumerable throng, which we hope are singing of 
 Moses and the Lamb around the throne of the Eter 
 nal. 
 
 Tribune, Aug. 9th, 1899. 
 
 A DAUGHTER OF ROBERT- ARCHIBALD 
 
 DIED OF DIPHTHERIA WEDNESDAY 
 
 AFTERNOON 
 
 This is the third member of the family succumb 
 ing to that disease within a month. 
 
 Tribune, Sept. 8th, 1899. 
 
 ALVIN DEWITT KILLS WILLIAM McINTOSH 
 
 IN SELF-DEFENSE. THE STORY OF 
 
 THE TROUBLE AS TOLD THE COR- 
 
 LR'S JURY, AND VERDICT RENDERED 
 
 MEN HAD TROUBLE OVLR A \VATLR
 
 OTHER SUDDEN DEATHS 1 1 1 
 
 DITCH ARE WELL KNOWN RESI 
 DENTS OF THE COUNTY. 
 
 Monday morning, Dewitt started cleaning out the 
 irrigating ditch. When he had reached a point near 
 the Mclntosh house, Mr. Mclntosh came out and or 
 dered him to stop work. He refused to do so. Then 
 a wrangle ensued during which a gun was drawn by 
 Mclntosh. This gun was soon afterwards taken 
 away from him and hidden by his granddaughter. 
 
 When the gun-play was made, Dewitt was un 
 armed save for a scythe which he had been using to 
 cut out the moss growing in the bottom of the ditch. 
 He told Mclntosh that he was unarmed and that it 
 was cowardly to shoot an unarmed man. He was 
 told to go home, get his gun, come back and they 
 would have it out at ten paces. More warm words 
 followed after Mclntosh had been disarmed by the 
 girl, and Dewitt finally left the place. After dinner 
 he went to a neighbor's and asked two men to go 
 back with him, saying that if he was again disturbed 
 that he would have Mclntosh arrested and that he 
 wanted witnesses. He also took his rifle with him, 
 a 30 calibre Winchester smokeless. When he re 
 sumed work at 2 o'clock, there was a repitition of 
 the forenoon's altercation. Mclntosh again ordered 
 Dewitt out of the ditch, and was told, "Go into the 
 house and mind your own business and I will tend 
 to mine." Then Mclntosh said, "You've got a long 
 gun and I've got a short one, I'll go into the house 
 and get my long one." A few minutes later, he re 
 appeared with his rifle, and wl^cn within 75 or ioa
 
 ii2 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 feet of his enemy fired, the bullet passing between the 
 two witness. Immediately Dewitt returned the fire, 
 without apparent effect. Mclntosh shot a second 
 time and once again Dewitt returned the fire. At the 
 crack of the rifle Mclntosh reeled and fell, the bullet 
 had passed directly through his heart and death was 
 instantaneous. * * The members of the Mclntosh 
 family and the hired man told a different story at the 
 inquest. Mr. Jackson says he heard two shots only, 
 both being fired by Dewitt, and he stoutly maintained 
 that he did not see a gun in Mclntosh's hands. 
 
 Tribune, March ist, 1901. 
 
 DAVIDSON IS DEAD. CORONER'S JURY RE 
 TURNED A VERDICT OF DEATH BY SUI 
 CIDE. HIS FRIENDS THINK HE WAS 
 MURDERED. A LETTER SUGGESTIVE 
 OF TROUBLE HIS WIFE ADMITS THEY 
 DID NOT GET ALONG WELL. 
 
 James Davidson, formerly of Dillon, died at 
 Denver, Colo., on Feb. 24th. Much mystery sur 
 rounds his death and it is thought by some people 
 here that he was the victim of foul play. 
 
 Mr. Davidson has been a resident of this county 
 for nearly twenty years. He was engaged in ranch 
 ing and stock raising until about a year ago, when he 
 sold his ranch for $10,000. He then went East to 
 his old home in Pennsylvania and was married to a 
 Mrs. Mattie Burke. * * Mrs. Davidson was not 
 satisfied to live at Dillon and last December they went 
 to Denver. * * Mr. Davidson drew $500 from
 
 OTHER SUDDEN DEATHS 113 
 
 the bank on his departure, and before his death had 
 drawn his entire account. 
 
 Frank Williams received two telegrams from 
 Mrs. Davidson, one stating "Jim" was dead, and the 
 other asking if he would send funeral expenses. * * 
 The following we take from a Denver despatch to the 
 Standard : 
 
 Denver, Colo., Feb. 27th. 
 
 The death of James Davidson, formerly of Dil 
 lon, Mont., is shrouded in mystery. Davidson was 65 
 years old and was found dead in his bed in his room 
 at 1653 Arapahoe street, Sunday morning. The gas 
 was turned on and the coroner said he had been as 
 phyxiated. 
 
 > m JfA 
 
 Dillon Examiner, Aug. I4th, 1901. 
 
 THOMAS NYHART SHOOTS HIMSELF FRI 
 DAY AFTERNOON AND SOON DIES. HE 
 WAS CARRYING A RIFLE WHILE MOW 
 ING AND IT WAS ACCIDENTALLY DIS 
 CHARGED. DEATH OCCURRED THREE 
 HOURS LATER. 
 
 Young Nyhart was running a mower on his 
 brother's ranch about a mile north from town. There 
 was an old coyote which for a year or more past has 
 made that field his hunting place. Seeing the animal 
 the young man decided to kill it and he brought a 
 49-90 caliber rifle from the house for that purpose. 
 Before he could get a shot the animal was out of 
 range. Nyhart then got on the machine, carrying the 
 rifle across his knees. His companions advised him 
 TRUTH 8.
 
 ii4 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 to take the cartridge out of the rifle as it was a dan 
 gerous proposition to carry a rifle in such a manner. 
 He declined to do so, laughing at the danger, and said 
 that the old coyote might show up again and he 
 wanted to shoot quickly. 
 
 He had scarcely gotten half way round the land 
 v hen a shot was heard, and young Nyhart walked to 
 the other men in the field a few hundred yards away, 
 told them he was shot and fell to his knees. * * 
 The wound was a mortal one and he died a few min 
 utes after six o'clock. * * The young man was con 
 scious to the last and suffered untold agony. Thom 
 as Nyhart was a native of Beaverhead Valley; he 
 was a sober, industrious young man and his untimely 
 end is mourned by all who knew him. 
 
 Dillon Tribune, Aug. i6th, 1901. 
 
 FORMER DILLON MAN SHOOTS HIMSELF 
 
 WITH A SHOTGUN. A SHOCKING CASE 
 
 OF SUICIDE AT BRYANTS RANCH 
 
 IN THE UPPER RUBY VALLEY 
 At 10:30 this morning, Charles Flynn shot him 
 self with a shotgun the first time in the shoulder, the 
 second time in the heart. Flynn was despondent be 
 cause of the condition of his wife with whom he 
 wanted to go to California, but w r as unable to do so 
 because of an operation of surgery which she recently 
 underwent. Financial conditions also were a factor. 
 
 Tribune, Nov. I4th, 1902. 
 
 FOUND DEAD IN BED. GEORGE LINKERS- 
 DORFER DIES OF HEART FAILURE.
 
 OTHER SUDDEN DEATHS 115 
 
 The friends of George Linkersdorfer were 
 shocked Monday by the news that he had been found 
 dead in his bed. The news came as a great surprise, 
 from the fact that he was apparently in the best of 
 health when last seen by his friends at 3 130 "o'clock 
 Monday morning. * * Chris Snyder who helped 
 Mr. Linkersdorfer to bed went to his room about n 
 o'clock and found him apparently dead. He called 
 Dr. B and when the doctor arrived he found Mr. 
 Linkersdorfer had been dead some time. * * He 
 smoked a great many cigarettes and being afflicted with 
 heart disease this is supposed to have hastened his 
 death. 
 
 Tribune, Feb. 26th, 1903. 
 
 FELL FROM A WAGON. ANDY NELSON 
 
 DIED THIS MORNING FROM INJURIES 
 
 RECEIVED WEDNESDAY 
 
 Wednesday, Andy Nelson who has been working 
 for \Y. C. Brown on the Rattlesnake for a short time, 
 came to Dillon in company with some parties from 
 that section and proceeded to fill up on whiskey. His 
 friends tried to persuade him to go home in the after 
 noon, but he would not. But about 7 130 o'clock, he 
 consented to go. He was placed on the running gears 
 of the wagon and they started to leave town. While 
 going down Montana street Nelson suddenly fell over 
 into the wheel of the wagon and before the horses 
 could be stopped he was drawn down between the 
 wheels and the hounds of the wagon. When he was
 
 o 
 
 
 fc 
 o 
 
 si 
 55 
 
 O
 
 OTHER SUDDEN DEATHS 117 
 
 extricated from the position he was perfectly help 
 less. 
 
 It was supposed that he was dead drunk and he 
 was placed on a wheelbarrow by the officers and 
 lodged in the police station to sleep off his drunk. 
 He slept very soundly all night and next morning 
 when he awoke he called Officer Fordice to him and 
 told the officer he was unable to move and wanted to 
 know what was the matter. * * The man was re 
 moved to Froman's lodging house where all possible 
 was done for him, but he died this morning at 7:30 
 o'clock. 
 
 Same Issue. 
 
 DIED OF APPENDICITIS 
 
 Miss Christiana C. Morrison, a student of the 
 Normal school, after having undergone an opera 
 tion Wednesday for appendicitis, died. * * Her 
 recovery from the immediate effects of the operation 
 were much better than had been expected, but about 
 noon yesterday she began to fail and finally passed 
 away about 5 130. Miss Morrison was a little more 
 than eighteen years old. 
 
 Tribune, March 2Oth, 1903. 
 
 DEATH OF FRED SCHULER 
 Fred Schuler, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick 
 Schuler died at the Froman lodging house early Tues 
 day morning of a species of heart trouble. He was 
 well known throughout the country and had many 
 friends. He had been ill for more than a week be-
 
 n8 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 fore his death, but as he was a strong appearing man 
 nothing serious was expected and his death was a 
 great surprise to his many friends. 
 
 Tribune, June 29th, 1903. 
 
 FUNERAL OF LLOYD CALL. HE W AS 
 DROWNED IN THE CORNELL RES 
 ERVOIR LAST FRIDAY 
 Llyod Call, who was the youngest son of W. A. 
 Call of this city, in company with Philip Harding, 
 went, as their mothers thought, fishing. But in their 
 rounds visited the new Cornell reservoir, a reservoir 
 to supply the Cornell flocks. It is not a very large 
 body of water, but it is very deep and the banks are 
 steep. The boys went bathing and as neither could 
 swim they kept near the edge. Lloyd Call determined 
 to wade out as far as he could and in doing so he 
 slipped and fell and slid down a steep bank in the 
 deepest part of the reservoir. Young Harding at 
 tempted to reach him with a pole, but being unable to 
 do so fled to Dillon and reported the accident. The 
 reservoir had been built in a gulch and the body was 
 found in a trench that had been washed in the bottom 
 of the reservoir before the construction of the dam. 
 At this place it was about 18 feet deep. * * The 
 service at the Presbyterian church was a very impres 
 sive one. 
 
 Tribune, July loth, 1903. 
 
 GOOD CITIZEN GONE. CHRISTOPHER 
 BURFIEND PASSES AWAY WEDNESDAY 
 MORNING. HIS ILLNESS WAS OF
 
 OTHER SUDDEN DEATHS 1 19 
 
 SHORT DURATION AND HIS DEATH 
 CAME AS A SURPRISE TO THE COM 
 MUNITY. 
 
 Another of Dillon's pioneer citizens has passed 
 away. Christopher Burfiend died Wednesday morning, 
 with catarrh of the stomach. * * * He came to this 
 country in 1861. * * After five or six years resi- 
 defnce in California he went to ranching near Dillon 
 in partnership with his brother J. H. Burfiend, 
 following this occupation for seventeen years 
 and being very successful. Later they engaged in 
 mercantile enterprises and built the block now occu 
 pied by the Montana Mercantile Co. * * * The 
 Burfiend brothers owned the Dillon brewery until 
 four years ago when they sold it to J. L. Wiser. *** 
 Mr. Burfiend was one of the energetic and progressive 
 spirits of Dillon and did much to build up the town 
 and community. He was everywhere recognized as 
 a straightforward, honest business man, such as are 
 an honor to any community. * * * He was a mem 
 ber of the Lutheran Church and lived his religion in 
 his business and in his dealings with his fellowman." 
 
 Here is a German brewer who receives 
 the highest commendation, the startling state 
 ment being made that he lived his religion in 
 his business and in his dealings with his fellow 
 men. The scripture says, "Woe unto him 
 that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy 
 bottle to him, and makest him drunken also,
 
 I2O TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 that thou mayest look on their nakedness" 
 (Hab.2:i 5 ). 
 
 Tribune, July I7th, 1903. 
 
 JAMES MULANEY DEAD. DIED SUDDENLY 
 THURSDAY AFTERNOON AT DILLON. 
 
 WAS AN OLD RESIDENT. 
 James Mulaney died at Hart lodging house of 
 pneumonia. He was engaged in shearing sheep in 
 the Centennial Valley, where he contracted the fever 
 and was brought to town Monday. * * Thursday 
 he was brought by friends to the Hart lodging house 
 where almost unassisted he walked up stairs. This 
 was after i o'clock and before 7 o'clock he was dead. 
 He had accumulated quite a little property in this 
 section, owning several houses and lots in Dillon. 
 
 Tribune, Sept. 25th, 1903. 
 
 DIED THIS MORNING. ARTHUR JONES- 
 VICTIM OF A PAINFUL ACCIDENT. 
 SLEAVE CAUGHT IN RAPIDLY REVOLV 
 ING AUGER AND RIGHT ARM TERRIBLY 
 LACERATED BROUGHT TO DILLON 
 FOR TREATMENT AND WAS APPARENT 
 LY DOING WELL. 
 
 Arthur Jones, whose home was on Thompson 
 Avenue, died at 10:30 this morning from pul 
 monary embolsion the formation of a blood clot 
 on the right lung. He was brought in from Red 
 Rock on last night's 12 o'clock train, suffering with 
 a badly lacerated right arm. He and J. H. Palmer 
 were engaged in building a fence for James Selway
 
 OTHER SUDDEN DEATHS 121 
 
 near the head of Bloody Dick Creek and about II 
 o'clock yesterday morning, while they were operating 
 a steam post boring machine, Jones reached over to 
 clear the auger. His sleeve caught on the point of 
 the rapidly revolving auger and his arm was drawn 
 into the machine, making a badly lacerated wound 
 about six inches long on the inner side of the right 
 arm, just above the elbow. He was taken in a wagon 
 from there to Red Rock and from there brought to 
 Dillon. About 3 o'clock this morning his wound was 
 dressed and at 8 o'clock he was in good condition and 
 resting easier. No apprehension was entertained by 
 his physicians as to the accident resulting fatally, al 
 though they had some fears that he would lose 
 his arm from strangulation. * * * Mr. Jones was 
 a young man twenty-two years of age and leaves a 
 young wife and little child. 
 Same Issue. 
 
 STOPS RUNAWAY HORSES THEREBY PRE 
 VENTING BAD ACCIDENT. 
 Oscar Terry, a teamster in Big Hole Basin, 
 knocked down and run over by four horses and a 
 wagon loaded with wood last Saturday and now lies 
 in Murray and Freund's Hospital in a critical con 
 dition. 
 
 Tribune, Oct. 23d, 1903. 
 
 JOHN BRADWELL DIES OF PNEUMONIA 
 
 AFTER A BRIEF ILLNESS. 
 After an illness of a few days, John Bradwell, 
 aged thirty-four years, died at the home of his father
 
 122 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 in Argenta, Tuesday night, of pneumonia. John Brad- 
 well was well known in this part of the country, hav 
 ing lived at Bannack and Birch Creek for a number 
 of years before going to Argenta. 
 
 Tribune, Oct. 23d, 1903. 
 
 DROWNED SUNDAY. Al KENS' LITTLE 
 GIRL FELL INTO IRRIGATING DITCH 
 
 AND WAS DROWNED. 
 Virginia Ellen Ruby Aikens, the infant child of 
 Alexander Aikens, a threshing machine man, who 
 lives on Kentucky avenue fell into an irrigating ditch 
 which runs past the home of the family ami was 
 drowned Sunday. 
 
 Tribune, Nov. 2/th, 1903. 
 
 WAS MANSLAUGHTER. THAT WAS THE 
 VERDICT OF THE JURY IN 
 
 POLLACK'S CASE. ' 
 
 Of all men in the state of Montana, George Pol 
 lack, the murderer of "Dicky" Martin at Bannack had 
 the greatest cause to be thankful yesterday. The act 
 of one man shooting a fellow being in apparently cold 
 blood and escaping with a ten years' sentence in the 
 state penitentiary does not often happen. * * * 
 During the time Judge Parker was speaking Pollack 
 stood shifting himself from one foot to the other, 
 clearing his throat and coughing as he felt the sting 
 of the truth of the court's words. 
 
 When at last the court had finished and pro 
 nounced the sentence of ten years at hard labor in 
 the state penitentiary, which was the limit for the
 
 124 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 crime of manslaughter, Pollack turned and left the 
 court room with the sheriff, and as he passed down 
 the stairs through the hallway on the first floor of 
 the court house he had a broad grin on his heartless 
 countenance, and in a jesting way was holding up 
 both hands with his fingers spread out to show those 
 in the hall how many years he had.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 OLD CHURCH APOSTASY 
 
 During the three years after the Lord 
 sanctified me, He opened my eyes fully 
 to the apostasy of the old denominations. I 
 saw the Methodist Church, of which I had 
 been a member for nearly twenty years, like 
 a dead mother wrapped in grave clothes, the 
 fumes from the putrefying corpse Stirling ev 
 eryone that came in contact with it. The 
 picture was a most impressive and true one, 
 and I was thoroughly convinced that I would 
 have to separate from the old Church or lose 
 my soul. 
 
 When our friends and relatives die we 
 bury them, and the same principle holds good 
 with the old church mother. 
 
 During two years of aggressive spirit 
 ual warfare, I learned how bitterly the 
 preachers oppose the experience and doc 
 trine of holiness, and saw that it would 
 be impossible to please God and receive their 
 endorsement. For many years I had been at 
 tending the Annual Conferences of the M. E. 
 Church, and had seen many things that
 
 126 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 I knew were not consistent with vital Chris 
 tianity. But my spiritual vision was never 
 clear until I received the baptism of the Holy 
 Ghost. This wonderful anointing stirred the 
 powers of darkness everywhere I went. Peo 
 ple had to take sides for or against God. The 
 experience that God had given me was unfath 
 omable, and hidden mysteries of the Gospel 
 were daily being revealed to my heart. Iniq 
 uity in the lives of people was uncovered every 
 where T went, especially in the churches, where 
 ghastly skeletons of pride and corruption were 
 made manifest. To have remained silent on 
 these things would have been perilous. 
 
 The revival that my brother and I held at 
 Dillon, was used of God to show me the utter 
 futility of trying to preach a full Gospel and 
 live a holy life in the Methodist or any of 
 the old denominations. In that small town 
 there were a few people that wanted to do the 
 will of God, but, as it is everywhere else, they 
 were like lambs in the paw of a bear, and their 
 shepherds were all cowards. 
 
 The machinery of all the old denom 
 inations is operated much like that of busi 
 ness corporations, and if a preacher does 
 not serve their purpose, he will be caught in
 
 OLD CHURCH APOSTASY 127 
 
 the wheels and ground to powder. He must 
 obey those who Have money, influence and 
 power, regardless of their morals. Not to do 
 this is to commit ecclesiastical suicide. Those 
 who enter the work of the Lord with wholly 
 good intentions soon find themselves the vic 
 tims of bossism, which is not confined to poli 
 tics alone, and unable to stem the tide, they 
 sell out and become a part of the system. 
 
 I saw that I would have to work on an 
 independent basis, or lose my soul, and this I 
 could not afford to do. I had to warn the 
 people, and especially my own husband and 
 brother, of the danger of remaining in 
 connection with an institution that was 
 actually fighting the principles it was raised 
 up to defend. My husband and brother were 
 still members of the conference and subject to 
 the orders of Presiding Elders and Bishops. 
 
 After many months of prayer the Lord 
 t worked upon the heart of my husband and 
 made him willing to take a location, so 
 that we might be free to go and come as the 
 Lord led. We moved to Denver, and as we 
 had no salary or any income to lean upon, 
 this was a great step of faith. My husband 
 held back to the last moment before he would
 
 128 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 give his consent to go, but with persistent 
 efforts I succeeded in getting him to 
 make the arrangements for the transfer 
 of our household goods. While he was 
 doing this I went to Denver and found 
 a house. The Lord wonderfully led in every 
 step. In less than a month He had given me 
 a large Gospel tent, which was erected in the 
 heart of the city. Much of the history in con 
 nection with this tent is given in Looking Back 
 from Beulah. 
 
 Soon the whole city and surrounding coun 
 try was stirred by the preaching of the Gospel. 
 Within six months at least four hundred peo 
 ple professed salvation at our altars, and the 
 holy fire spread rapidly in different parts of 
 the state. Sometimes we had as many as 
 three open-air meetings in operation at one 
 time. At these meetings, under the mighty 
 spell of the Gospel, men and women would 
 often fall on their knees and cry for mercy. 
 
 The city officials, with but few exceptions, 
 were friendly toward us, and tried to protect 
 our services. There were one or two officers, 
 however, that threatened to arrest some of 
 the workers for blocking the streets. This 
 proved to be a means of grace, as it caused
 
 OLD CHURCH APOSTASY 129 
 
 them to pray more and to keep their Gospel 
 storehouse full of ammunition. 
 
 After a few months the Lord began to 
 talk to me about the enlargement of the work. 
 Our children had the measles and one took a 
 relapse and was in a delicate condition for six 
 weeks. During this time I was at his bed 
 side almost night and day. When all in the 
 house were asleep I had the opportunity to pray 
 and find out God's plans for the work. 
 
 Later, a meeting was held in a tent 
 at Longmont. This meeting stirred all of 
 Northern Colorado and people came for miles 
 to attend. Thousands listened to the Gospel who 
 declared they had never heard it preached in 
 its purity before. The work continued to 
 grow, and in 1899, we were compelled to open 
 a Bible School and Training Home for the 
 converts who wished to become missionaries 
 and preachers. The School was opened in 
 February, 1899, in a house on Twenty-second 
 street. Three months later we moved to a 
 better house at 2348 Champa street, where 
 we remained for five years. 
 
 The School was operated on a faith basis, 
 in connection with every night services in the 
 open-air and in a hall on Larimer street. 
 
 TRUTH 9.
 
 130 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 \\ hen everything was moving along in a 
 prosperous condition we went to Butte, Mon 
 tana, to open a mission. At this time 
 our School was full of students pre 
 paring for the missionary field, and 
 others were making application to enter. 
 Our annual camp-meeting was billed for Den 
 ver, and the success of this meeting for five 
 ye-irs had depended almost wholly upon my 
 own efforts. There were persons who had 
 acted in an official capacity that were mere 
 figureheads and some a real hindrance to the 
 cause. Nevertheless the Lord commanded us 
 to go. 
 
 In a most remarkable way the Lord pro 
 vided railroad transportation for my husband, 
 myself and two children. Much interesting 
 history might be written on the opening of 
 the work there, so wonderfully was God's hand 
 manifested in every undertaking. 
 
 A hall was secured and after some oppo 
 sition from the city officials we were given the 
 right of way on the streets, but not until our 
 faith had been tested to the extreme limit. A 
 more detailed account of the work in Butte 
 has been given in another book. We only desire 
 to show that Butte, a veritable Sodom, received
 
 OLD CHURCH APOSTASY 131 
 
 us, and for seven years our people preached a 
 full Gospel in that city, unmolested by city 
 officials and others. 
 
 But not so with the little town of Dillon, 
 largely made up of those who had an outward 
 show of morals and respectability, but who in 
 wardly were like whitened sepulchres full 
 of dead men's bones. There is a vein of 
 criminality running through the inhabitants of 
 Beaverhead County. More than once this 
 has been demonstrated by outbursts of vio 
 lence. 
 
 At the urgent request of some of our 
 friends living at Dillon my brother and his wife 
 were sent to hold meetings and take charge of 
 the work there for a time. They paid $20 a 
 month for a house in which to live and 
 hold services. A partition was removed and 
 the house served the purpose of a church and 
 parsonage. The straight preaching of the 
 Word did not fail to bring results. The whole 
 story is told when we say that he did not spare 
 sin either in or out of the churches. The cov 
 ering of false professors was taken away and 
 in their unhappy predicament they were left 
 exposed to the gaze of the public. 
 
 In the meantime souls were getting con-
 
 132 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 verted in the old-time way. This was God's 
 seal on my brother's ministry. 
 
 The churches of Dillon were no more than 
 religious club houses where people met to 
 gossip and display their finery and where the 
 tongue of the flatterer was always in evidence. 
 A Holy Ghost revival exposed their hypocrisy 
 and showed them up to a disadvantage. 
 Unwilling to repent and make their crooked 
 paths straight they determined to get rid of 
 the preacher. 
 
 Among those that had been converted un 
 der his ministry were a number of our own 
 relatives, some of whom are with us in the 
 work at the present time. 
 
 When the Gospel axe was laid at the root 
 of the tree and results were being seen, there 
 was a mighty stirring in the town and com 
 munity, followed by an outburst of wrath equal 
 to that of the Inquisition. 
 
 The meeting house was surrounded by a 
 mob while services were in progress. My 
 brother was begged by friends to make his es 
 cape, and did so through a back door and 
 found shelter in the house of a friendly neigh 
 bor, but the lion of Dillon which had tasted 
 blood on so many occasions was not to be
 
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 134 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 baffled now. The preacher was seized and led 
 a mile out of the city, followed by a jeering mul 
 titude. After repeated threats and warnings 
 to leave town, he was divested of his clothing 
 and covered all over with tar roofing paint, 
 and left to the mercy of his friends. With 
 difficulty they succeeded in removing the mix 
 ture fearing that the closing up of the pores of 
 the flesh would cause his immediate death. 
 
 Could any one who believes the verities of 
 God's word doubt that His judgments would 
 fall on such a place and people? 
 
 The following account is given by one who 
 knew the facts. 
 
 On Tuesday evening, when the holiness 
 people were engaged in their services at the 
 home of Rev. C. W. Bridwell, a mob composed 
 of about twenty young men gathered and be 
 gan to bombard the place. Without saying 
 a word they proceeded to smash in the win 
 dows and break down the doors. Entering the 
 house they began hurling the people in every 
 direction knocking down an old lady sixty 
 seven years of age, and striking a man on the 
 head with a club who attempted to check them 
 in their violence. 
 
 Later, they secured the leader, and taking
 
 OLD CHURCH APOSTASY 135 
 
 him nearly a mile out of town, gave him a coat 
 of roofing paint. After Jesus was scourged 
 He was led out of the city and crucified. A 
 fallen Church always persecutes God's people. 
 It was the fallen Church that crucified Christ, 
 that persecuted Luther, Wesley and others. 
 The Pharisees and scribes got the assistance 
 of the Romans to kill Christ, so the Church was 
 the power back of the Dillon mob. 
 
 The following was taken from an article 
 printed in the Rocky Mountain News, 
 of Denver. "About six months ago, 
 Rev. C. W. Bridwell, a member of The 
 Pentecostal Union of Denver, went to 
 Dillon, Mont., for the purpose of establishing 
 a branch of the work there. He was accom 
 panied by his wife and family, and so earnest 
 were their endeavors that the work moved 
 along flourishingly. The peculiar methods of 
 the Pentecostal sect did not suit the Dillonites. 
 The former persisted in holding its meetings 
 and singing and shouting the fervor of its re 
 ligious joy, while the oppositional feeling con 
 tinued to grow. Finally a mob of some fif 
 teen or twenty young men appeared at the hall 
 one night while services were in progress and 
 very effectually broke up the meeting. They
 
 136 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 took the preacher out, divested him of his cloth 
 ing and applied a coat of tar roofing paint. 
 
 "Before Mr. Bridwell became a member of 
 The Pentecostal Union he was a Methodist 
 minister. He built the church at Cripple Creek 
 and was pastor at Wray, Colo. He is a grad 
 uate of the University of Denver and is re 
 garded as one of the finest workers in The 
 Pentecostal Union." 
 
 I was in Los Angeles at the time and saw 
 an account of the affair in a morning paper. 
 Knowing my brother as I did my greatest fear 
 was that he would not leave when warned of 
 more trouble, for 1 knew the Dillonites well 
 enough to have some comprehension of what 
 would follow. It would have been going 
 against the Scriptures to have stayed among 
 them after such treatment. When a child of 
 God is in doubts as to what to do, there is al 
 ways recourse to the Scriptures. After 
 things had reached the state that they had 
 there could be no doubt that the time had come 
 for the preacher to shake the dust off his feet 
 as a witness against the town. 
 
 Some people refuse to stem the slightest 
 opposition, and back down, compromise and 
 lose their souls, when they should bravely
 
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 138 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 stand and make the figlu. I knew that my 
 brother was not a coward and he would have 
 to be convinced on Scriptural grounds, or in 
 fluence brought to bear upon him showing that 
 the welfare of others was involved, or he 
 would not budge an inch. 
 
 During the day I felt like wiring him to 
 go, but concluded after praying over the matter 
 to leave it with the Lord. Luke 10 : 10-1 1 says. 
 "But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they 
 receive you not, go your ways out into the 
 streets of the same, and say, Even the very 
 dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do 
 wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye 
 sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come 
 nigh unto you." 
 
 The conditions at Dillon were similar 
 to those on the island of Martinique before 
 the city of St. Pierre was destroyed by an 
 eruption from a volcano. Christian mission 
 aries had been shut out of their own hired 
 house and forced to leave the island only a 
 short time before the city was deluged. 
 
 In derision of Christ and the crucifixion, 
 on Easter Sunday they made a pig run the 
 gauntlet, throwing spears at it, and after 
 wards crucified it. There is a limit to God's
 
 OLD CHURCH APOSTASY 139 
 
 forbearance, which was shown by the destruc 
 tion of 30,000 inhabitants, after such indigni 
 ties were heaped upon the missionaries in Mar 
 tinique. And the long list of tragical and sud 
 den deaths following the persecutions of Chris 
 tians at Dillon, Montana, of which I shall be 
 able to give an account of only a few, shows 
 that the wrath of God has been provoked by the 
 inhabitants of Dillon and Beaverhead County. 
 Evil angels seem to throng the atmosphere 
 and God has permitted them to reap their 
 harvest. 
 
 The saddest of all is that the innocent 
 have had to suffer with the guilty, and the end 
 is not yet. "Be not deceived; God is not 
 mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that 
 shall he also reap." 
 
 There are those who presume that they 
 can mock at God's word, persecute His proph 
 ets, and thrust them out from among them, 
 and still escape His judgments. But at the 
 moment when they are least expecting it ca 
 lamity falls. 
 
 In the destruction of Jerusalem, when the 
 sins of the parents were being visited upon the 
 children, the inhabitants were crucified in such 
 great numbers there was no more wood from
 
 140 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 which to make crosses. There was a scene of 
 blood and carnage unparalleled in preceding 
 ages, and the curse of God is still resting on the 
 Jews, who took upon themselves the responsi 
 bility of the crucifixion. 
 
 After people have offended against God 
 they often have dark forebodings and some 
 times live in constant fear. They imagine 
 they are being pursued and are to become the 
 victims of some revengeful monster, and thus 
 the scripture is fulfilled which says, "The 
 wicked flee when no man pursueth." 
 
 Again, those who have been bold in their 
 defiance of the Almighty labor under the false 
 impression that there is no evil that can befall 
 them. They settle down in a state of carnal 
 security, even while the avenger is about to 
 overtake them. And just about the time when 
 they feel the most secure, and are comforting 
 themselves with the thought that the idignation 
 is past and they have escaped, sudden calamity 
 falls. 
 
 They may escape broken bones, instant 
 or tragical death, but it must be remembered 
 that disaster comes in more ways than one, and 
 what some people might not consider a very 
 great calamity may be indeed the greatest of
 
 OLD CHURCH APOSTASY 141 
 
 all. When people strive with their Maker 
 and the Spirit of God leaves them, there could 
 be no greater calamity. To be left where re 
 pentance is impossible and to die in one's sins 
 is terrible to contemplate. And this is the 
 state that many are in who have refused the 
 counsel of God at the hands of His servants. 
 Jesus said to those who challenged His divinity, 
 "I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall 
 die in your sins : whither I go, ye cannot come." 
 After the Methodists and others, suc 
 ceeded in crushing out the work of the Holy 
 Ghost in the place, they were hard pressed to 
 keep up an appearance of revival work, and 
 
 invited the Rev. Dr. A , Pastor of the 
 
 Mountain View Methodist Church of Butte, 
 to come and assist in meetings. The 
 
 Rev. A , had built a new church at 
 
 Butte and had become very popular as a 
 preacher and pastor. I was present when, with 
 much flattery, he presented Senator W. A. 
 Clark, who laid the corner stone of their 
 new church building. At the time it was said 
 that Mr. Clark had spent nearly a million 
 dollars in the Legislature of Helena, when he 
 was elected to the United States Senate. But 
 Dr. A was pleased to introduce him to the
 
 142 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 public and give him the honor of laying the 
 corner stone of the new church. 
 
 At the time we were conducting our mis- - 
 sion at Butte this so-called minister of the Gos 
 pel and the Rev. Jacob Mills, conspired to bar 
 my husband^and myself from the Sacramental 
 board at his church. 
 
 The day following, my husband was 
 handed a marked copy of the Ohio State Jour 
 nal. The article designated, as I remember it, 
 read as follows : 
 
 The Rev. A is pastor of the Methodist 
 
 Church at Butte, Montana. His salary is $2,500 a 
 year. Not long since he was rejected from the church 
 at Toledo, Ohio, for being too familiar with the fair 
 sex. Later he was thrown out of the conference at 
 Guthrie, Ohio, on similar charges, but through the in 
 fluence of a Methodist Bishop was taken back into 
 the fold. In the face of all these facts he is serving 
 a church at Butte, Montana, and pleasing the people 
 well. 
 
 I sat in his congregation one morning and 
 heard "him ridicule a certain holiness evangel 
 ist who had stepped aside from the paths of 
 virtue, but had confessed and repented of his 
 
 sins. The Rev. A gave holiness a thrust 
 
 by holding -up before the public, this man, who
 
 OLD CHURCH APOSTASY 143 
 
 was once a powerful and well known preacher 
 of the Gospel and had written some books on 
 the subject of holiness that had been well re 
 ceived. I felt it would be perilous not to re 
 buke him. 
 
 At the close of the service he walked down 
 the aisle in which I was standing. I asked the 
 
 Lord to help me and said, "Dr. A , you 
 
 have held up a man to ridicule in order to give 
 holiness a thrust, and I want you to know that 
 I am aware of the fact that you are guilty of 
 the same sin that you have condemned in an 
 other." . He stepped back, his countenance 
 changed, his lips quivered, and as soon as he 
 could command his speech he said, "You have 
 reference to the article in the Ohio State Jour 
 nal?" "Yes sir," was the reply. 
 
 A year later I was at Butte City again 
 and attended a service at the Methodist church, 
 this time a class meeting. On entering the 
 room I noticed that nearly every one seemed to 
 be depressed in spirit. The class leader prayed 
 as though there was a great burden on his 
 heart. Afterward he said, "Brethren, there is 
 no place but hell for the scandal-bearer." In 
 stantly it struck me that they were on the track 
 of their pastor and were unwilling to believe
 
 144 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 what they had heard. I was rightly im 
 pressed, for this was the case. 
 
 The pastor even then was supposed to be 
 on the Pacific Coast for a vacation, but having 
 heard that some things in his life were being 
 uncovered and producing an unwholesome 
 odor, he rushed home, and to the surprise of 
 all, walked into the pulpit a half hour later, 
 when another had been engaged to preach. 
 The report was going that he was more greatly 
 involved in scandal at Butte than he was 
 in Ohio, where he had been turned out of the 
 conference. When it was found that they 
 could no longer cover up his track, an exchange 
 of pastors was made with Salt Lake City. 
 
 Rev. H , Pastor of the First M. E. Church, 
 
 was sent to Butte, and Dr. A - took his place 
 as pastor in the Mormon Capital. 
 
 Dr. A was one of the characters that re 
 ceived endorsement and a hearty welcome at 
 Dillon after they had rejected and persecuted 
 our people. 
 
 The lOQth Psalm shows divine interven 
 tion where there is persecution of God's chil 
 dren. The Psalmist is impersonating Christ 
 makes a plea for deliverance from his enemies. 
 His is the cry of every human heart where Je-
 
 OLD CHURCH. APOSTASY 145 
 
 sus truly dwells. He says, ''Hold not thy 
 peace, O God of my praise : For the mouth of 
 the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are 
 opened against me: they have spoken against 
 me with a lying tongue." Never were words 
 more applicable to a people than these were to 
 those who fought against the cause of Christ 
 in this town of Dillon. Certainly the mouths of 
 wicked and deceitful men were there speaking 
 against those who were trying .to lift up the 
 Cross. They fought without a cause those 
 who loved their souls well enough to put the 
 right stamp on sin. 
 
 The wicked must be checked or the world 
 would lose its -salt,, and pandemonium would 
 reign, therefore the Psalmist said, "Set thou 
 a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand 
 at his right hand. When he shall be judged, 
 let him be condemned: and let his prayer be 
 come sin. Let his days be few ; and let another 
 take his office. Let his children be fatherless, 
 and his wife a widow. Let his children be 
 continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek 
 their bread also out of their desolate places." 
 
 All who understand the Scriptures know 
 that the Psalmist was not seeking personal 
 revenge. His purpose was infinitely higher 
 
 TRUTH 10.
 
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 OLD CHURCH APOSTASY -147 
 
 than this. He wanted the kingdom of right 
 eousness to flourish and wickedness to be put 
 down, and to this end he prayed. No person 
 with enmity in his heart or seeking revenge 
 can be a Christian. He must be willing to 
 suffer the loss of all things, and endure per 
 secution and affliction for Christ's sake. To 
 let bitterness come into the soul would mean 
 spiritual ruin. 
 
 The object of a true Christian, first and 
 last, is to do the will of God and glorify His 
 name on the earth. When personal ambition 
 creeps in, his power for good is lost. Jesus 
 taught His disciples to pray, "Thy kingdom 
 come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in 
 heaven." Before Christ's kingdom can be 
 established on the earth the wicked will have 
 to be cut down. If the children of the un 
 godly should be permitted to go unpunished 
 the price that has been paid for man's re 
 demption would be in vain. Therefore it 
 is not an unrighteous thing to pray for the 
 rod of chastisement to fall upon those who 
 repeatedly spurn the messages of God. It is 
 far better for the children of the wicked to be 
 vagabonds and beggars than to be in a place 
 of influence and power. Poverty is often
 
 148 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 made a blessing. If some people had an 
 abundance of this world's goods their lives 
 would be a curse. Therefore the Psalmist 
 says, "Let the extortioner catch all that he 
 hath; and let the strangers spoil his labor." 
 When the ungodly prosper the fortresses of sin 
 are strengthened. 
 
 Children are usually what their parents 
 make them. The Word says that the sins of 
 the parents are visited upon the children unto 
 the third and fourth generation, and this being 
 true, it is easy to understand why the Psalmist 
 said, "Let there be none to extend mercy unto 
 him: neither let there be any to favor his 
 fatherless children." 
 
 It might seem that it is cruel to make such 
 a prayer, and it would be if only the children 
 were involved, but it embraces the whole con 
 flict between sin and righteousness, and there 
 fore the prayer is made for the defeat of the 
 wicked and the triumph of the righteous. Chil 
 dren who die before they come to the age of ac 
 countability are saved through the atonement. 
 After they have been thrown upon their own 
 responsibility, hereditary sins often become 
 the ruling passions of their lives and it is im 
 possible for their influence to be .^ r < ><><!.
 
 OLD CHURCH APOSTASY 149 
 
 The I4th verse says, "Let the iniquity of his 
 fathers be remembered with the Lord: and let 
 not the sin of his mother be blotted out." Time 
 is not taken into consideration with God, a 
 thousand years is but as a watch in the night. 
 There can be nothing more foolish than to 
 imagine that God will forget. Forgetfulness 
 is an infirmity that belongs to man in his fallen 
 state. With him time, like a great mountain, 
 separates the events of his life, and when he 
 tries to look back there is much to obscure 
 his vision. But not so with the Almighty. 
 There are no mountains to rise above His all- 
 piercing eye. Isaiah says He "hath measured 
 the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted 
 out heaven with the span, and comprehended 
 the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed 
 the mountains in scales, and the hills in a bal 
 ance" (Isa. 40:12). When man breaks His 
 laws, mistreats His children and insults His 
 majesty, years may intervene, but when such 
 persons are least expecting it calamity over 
 takes them. About the time they think that 
 God has forgotten, the avenging angel, with 
 out further warning, steps in, and disaster and 
 death follow. 
 
 In the 1 5th verse of Psalm 109 he asks
 
 150 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 that the memory of the wicked be cut off from 
 the earth, because they showed not mercy and 
 persecuted the poor and needy, and slew the 
 broken-hearted. 
 
 The poor and needy are the children of 
 God. Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in 
 spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" 
 (Matt. 5:3). A person may have nothing of 
 this world's goods and yet be exceedingly 
 wicked, but no one can be a New Testament 
 saint without a humble and contrite spirit. 2 
 Cor. 6:10 says, "As poor, yet making many 
 rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all 
 things." "The sacrifices of God are a broken 
 spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, 
 thou wilt not despise" (Psa. 51:17). 
 
 The outbursts of violence that character 
 ized the opposition to the preaching of a full 
 Gospel at Dillon, has had scarcely a parallel 
 in Christian civilization. Much that has been 
 written on the subject it is deemed best not to 
 publish at this time, as it involves relation 
 ships that might cause much embarrassment. 
 It will perhaps be better appreciated some time 
 in the future. 
 
 After my brother and his family took their 
 departure, things were wrought up to such a
 
 OLD CHURCH APOSTASY 151 
 
 tension that the friends of the work were de 
 termined not to give way to the enemy and in 
 sisted on our sending other workers to the 
 place. We did so, and the meetings were con 
 tinued without any great outbreaks of violence, 
 any more than the throwing of stones, and the 
 smashing of window lights by the children. 
 The old beasts of prey seemed for a time to 
 have their wrath appeased. 
 
 But when it was necessary for certain rea 
 sons for the writer to be at Dillon a few days, 
 they arose from their lairs and began to roar. 
 I was told that threats were being made, and 
 that there was likely to be another outburst of 
 persecution, but true to the spirit of the Chris 
 tian martyrs I had no fear. There has never 
 been a time since God called me to take the Cal 
 vary route that I have been afraid of either 
 men or devils. Matthew 10:28 says, "And 
 fear not them which kill the body, but are not 
 able to kill the soul : but rather fear him which 
 is able to destroy both body and soul in hell." 
 
 I have never seen the time since I was 
 converted that I would not lay down my life 
 rather than disobey God. Many times in 
 my work and travels God has wrought deliver 
 ance from railroad wrecks, steamship disasters
 
 152 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 and other conditions where my life was in 
 danger, and I felt calm and restful. I knew 
 that the Lord had led me to Dillon at this time, 
 and that He was abundantly able to protect 
 me, regardless of what I might have to face. 
 
 But others were alarmed when they heard 
 the rumors that were afloat. And true to their 
 premonitions, one of Dillon's honored citizens 
 entered the room where I was stopping, on 
 a stormy afternoon, took me by the hair and 
 dragged me from the foot of the bed and 
 across the room, and struck me an awful blow 
 on the side of the head. 
 
 And had it not been for two women in the 
 room who fought desperately for my life the 
 assault no doubt would have resulted in my 
 death. The screams of some of the mission 
 aries who came in later brought help just at 
 the opportune time. One of the young women, 
 who had been a Methodist Deaconess for a 
 number of years before joining our organiza 
 tion, came in just at the critical moment. My 
 assailant called her a black-eyed witch and gave 
 her a blow in the face, which resulted in break 
 ing the bridge of her nose. She was in deli 
 cate health at the time and died at Los Angeles 
 a short time afterward.
 
 OLD CHURCH APOSTASY 153 
 
 Friends persuaded me to lodge out of the 
 city that night and the next day I left for Den 
 ver. 
 
 A few of the missionaries remained in the 
 town for a short time, but their lives were con 
 stantly in danger, as great stones were hurled 
 through the windows of the house, and some of 
 them narrowly escaped being struck. Evi 
 dently those who were doing the mischief were 
 backed up by the Church people and business 
 men. 
 
 When God's wrath is burning against a 
 city it is time for His people to get out. Angels 
 hastened Lot and his family out of Sodom be 
 fore fire and brimstone were rained from 
 heaven. 
 
 Luke 10:13-16 says, "Woe unto thee, Cho- 
 razin ! woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! for if the 
 mighty works had been done in Tyre and Si- 
 don, which have been done in you, they had a 
 great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth 
 and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable for 
 Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for 
 you. And thou, Capernaum, which art ex 
 alted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. 
 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that 
 despiseth you despiseth me; and he that de-
 
 154 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 spiseth me despiseth him that sent me." 
 
 There were a number of persons, some of 
 whom were my own relatives, who realized that 
 the people of Dillon and Beaverhead County 
 had provoked the wrath of the Almighty, and 
 as a result the scourge of death was passing 
 over the place. They were not long in getting 
 their, business affairs in shape to leave. Some 
 of them found refuge under the wings of our 
 Organization and have had no desire to return 
 to their old environment. 
 
 Our missionaries also left, not to return. 
 And the little town of Dillon stands today with 
 its long list of tragedies, as barren of spiritual 
 life as a Sahara desert, and the avenging angel 
 continues to stretch out his rod over the place. 
 If we judge by some correspondence and news 
 paper reports there has been but little cessa 
 tion of tragedies in the past seven years.
 
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 CHAPTER VIII 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 
 
 A recent Dillon paper gave accounts of at 
 least three sudden deaths.- An uncle by mar 
 riage at whose home I lived for two years was 
 killed near Dillon, by being thrown from a 
 wagon. 
 
 The companion of a woman who attended 
 our services regularly was killed by a runaway 
 team shortly after our missionaries left Dillon. 
 And so I could continue to multiply incidents 
 that resulted in the sudden and tragical deaths 
 of many others, if I had time and space to 
 do so. It is only with a sense of duty to 
 God and my fellowmen that I relate any of 
 them. My only desire is to glorify Him, and 
 to tell people that there is a limit beyond which 
 His forbearance will not go. 
 
 But to do the subject justice and to give 
 the reader a fair idea of what took place fol 
 lowing the rejection of the Gospel and the per 
 secution of our people, it is no more than fair 
 that a few other incidents should be related.
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 157 
 
 Dillon Tribune, Feb. 23d, 1906. 
 
 Dillon was shocked yesterday morning by the 
 news that F. C. Kress, Editor and Publisher of the 
 Dillon Examiner, was dead. His body was discov 
 ered by Dr. W. V. Kingsbury at an early hour yes 
 terday morning. On Wednesday Mr. Kress was 
 hardly able to attend to his duties at the Examiner's 
 office, having been ailing for several days. Wednes 
 day evening while eating his dinner in a restaurant 
 where he was boarding during the absence of his wife, 
 he was apparently attacked by asthma, complaining 
 that he had difficulty in breathing. His friends were 
 notified and he was removed to his home on South 
 Washington St. Dr. Kingsbury remained with him 
 until after midnight, and as he was then much re 
 covered and apparently not in serious danger, Dr. 
 Kingsbury stepped over to his home a little while. 
 
 At an early hour Dr. Kingsbury saw a light in 
 the Kress home, and he immediately went back there 
 and discovered Mr. Kress dead. * * The whole 
 community mourns the death of Mr. Kress, who has 
 been a leading citizen of Dillon ever since he made 
 his home here a number of years ago, etc. 
 
 Mr. Kress was one of the editors that took 
 sides with the townspeople when my brother 
 received such shameful treatment at their 
 hands, and no doubt the avenging angel de-. 
 cided not to spare him.
 
 158 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 A TERRIBLE CHARGE 
 E. Kelley Wanted 
 
 If reports are" correct, one of the most outrag 
 eously inhuman crimes ever committed in the state 
 was committed in Dillon last Sunday morning, be 
 tween the hours of two and five o'clock, and one that 
 would have resulted in immediate hanging in the 
 early days. 
 
 The crime, the nature of which I do not 
 care to relate, was committed a few months 
 after my brother's shameful treatment by the 
 people of Dillon. The guilty person was a 
 young man twenty-seven years old, the victim 
 an aged woman. 
 
 Dillon Tribune, Sept. i8th, 1904. 
 
 Mrs. Harriet M. Stout, aunt of A. L. Stone, 
 died at his home in this city about 1 1 :2O last night. 
 Her death was very unexpected as she had been only 
 ill since Wednesday. And when the physician left 
 the house about 9 o'clock last evening, her condition 
 was so much improved that he said she would be 
 very much better in the morning. However, the end 
 came a little over two hours later. 
 
 Mr. Stone was one of our bitterest foes. 
 
 DILLON'S CRIMINAL CASES 
 Monday morning at 9 o'clock the usual hour for 
 the opening of the court, the news that Judge Parker 
 was unable to be present was given out. * * The
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 159 
 
 news was a complete surprise to all present. While 
 regretting Judge Parker's inability to attend court at 
 this season, it might not be inopportune to touch 
 briefly on the volume of business to be done in the 
 court of this county. There are now one hundred 
 cases on the docket for trial or settlement, twenty of 
 which are criminal cases with defendants either in 
 the county jail or out on bail. 
 
 This will give some idea of the criminal 
 record of Dillon and Beaverhead County, judg 
 ing from the volume of business that was to be 
 attended to at the September court. 
 
 SUICIDE BY TAKING MORPHINE 
 
 Word was received at Dillon Monday that Giles, 
 employed on the ranch of Al. Noyes, had committed 
 suicide. On Thursday he took a dose of morphine, 
 dying at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. 
 
 WILFRED VERMILION MURDERED IN 
 SALT LAKE 
 
 Wilfred A. S. Vermilion was murdered in his 
 drug store by some thief who tried to rob the place, 
 this is the belief of those who are investigating the 
 matter. * * Vermilion's father arrived last even 
 ing from Dillon, Mont. He conferred with Coroner 
 Frank Clark. He will leave no stone unturned in 
 running down the man who shot his son. 
 
 Wilfred Vermilion came to Dillon with his par 
 ents when a small boy. He received his education in 
 the Dillon schools, grew up to manhood here and
 
 160 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 was ever a model boy and man. Those who have 
 known him have always admired him for his excel 
 lent character, his honesty and the high ideals which 
 he held. His father put him in business in Salt Lake 
 only a few months ago and he was succeeding most 
 admirably, having more than doubled the business of 
 the drug store he had bought since he had secured 
 the ownership. 
 
 The family have the sympathy of all Dillon. 
 Wilfred was the only boy and was the idol of the 
 family. The father took the greatest pride in tell 
 ing of the success with which his son was meeting, 
 and while waiting, for the train Tuesday morning he 
 was talking to the night depot agent, telling him that 
 he was just starting for a visit with his boy at Salt 
 Lake, who was in the drug business and doing so 
 well, at the same time little dreaming that a telegram 
 had been received a few minutes before by the night 
 man saying that Fred had been fatally shot. 
 
 Wilfred had taken all the degrees in Masonry 
 that he could obtain in Dillon, having finished up in 
 the Knights Templar on New Year's Eve, last De 
 cember. Dillon Tribune, Aug. 26th, 1904. 
 
 Same Issue. 
 
 PROF. E. J. PASSMORE IS DEAD REPORTED 
 DYING AT NOON LATER MESSAGE 
 SAID END HAD COME BODY AR 
 RIVED THIS EVENING 
 
 Prof. E. J. Passmore is very ill in St. James 
 Hospital at Burte, and grave doubts are entertained
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 161 
 
 as to his recovery. He left yesterday afternoon with 
 his wife and daughter for Seattle where he expected 
 to gain in health, but after reaching Butte he was 
 taken with a sinking spell and has been growing rap 
 idly worse since. 
 
 A telephone message received here this morning 
 announced his condition, and on all sides expressions 
 of sorrow and sympathy, for Mrs. Passmore have been 
 heard. 
 
 Another message received just before going to 
 press, states that Prof. Passmore died. Dillon is 
 cast in gloom. 
 
 DEATH OF MISS VIOLA RICH 
 
 The funeral of the late Miss Viola Rich was held 
 last Sunday afternoon at the Methodist Episcopal 
 church. Rev. A. A. Luce conducted the services. 
 The members of the Rebecca Lodge and the Woman's 
 Relief Corps attended in a body, and the interment 
 was under the auspices of the Rebecca Lodge, etc. 
 
 Miss Viola Rich had lived in Dillon twenty-four 
 years. During that time she made every one her 
 friend. To know her was to love her. Her charac 
 ter in every way was of the loveliest. Her patience 
 under all reverses was remarkable. She was a de 
 voted Christian and her life was one worthy to be 
 taken as an example to be followed by any one. 
 Needless to say that she will be greatly missed and 
 Dillon mourns her loss. 
 
 Aug. I9th, 1906. 
 
 Over-indulgence in liquor led eleven-year-old 
 John Hughes of Butte to an awful death last night be- 
 TRUTH n.
 
 162 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 neath 4 the car wheels of an excursion train returning 
 from Dillon. Drunk from beer drank at a picnic the lad 
 fell from the platform of the first car and the entire 
 train passed over him. Hughes' right leg was sev 
 ered at the hip. His right foot was smashed and his 
 left arm cut off. 
 
 While the train was backing up to pick up young 
 Hughes' body another fatality was averted only by 
 the presence of mind of a young man whose name is 
 not known. A man under the influence of liquor 
 made his way to the platform and fell through. The 
 unknown man grabbed his coat and succeeded in 
 holding him off the rails until the train was stopped. 
 
 The Coroner's Jury called the attention of the 
 Grand Jury to the fact that liquor was being sold to 
 minors within -the county. 
 
 ll'ASOX J. OLIVER WAS FOULLY MURDERED 
 Mr. Oliver Returned Sunday with the Remains Fu 
 neral Held Monday Afternoon Many Sympa 
 thizing Friends Attend Story of the Crime, Pur 
 suit and Capture. 
 
 The remains of Wason Oliver, accompanied by 
 the father, W. M. Oliver, arrived at Dillon from Hel 
 ena on the early morning train last Sunday. * * * 
 The sadness of the scene witnessed by those who bore 
 the remains of the murdered boy into his old home 
 was beyond description and every heart was pro 
 foundly touched by the boundless grief of the family. 
 The funeral took place at the home Monday after 
 noon, and a very large attendance made plain the
 
 INDIAN GIRLS PHOTO TAKEN NEAR DILLON
 
 164 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 sympathy and sorrow of the Dillon people. 
 
 Services were conducted by Rev. Dr. Tilden, 
 Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Rev. Dr. Martin of 
 the Presbyterian Church, and Rev. S. D. Hooker of 
 the Episcopal Church. The music was furnished by 
 picked voices from the different choirs of the city. 
 
 \\ ason Oliver was lorn in Dillon May I3tb, 1884. 
 He was a member of one of Dillon's oldest and most 
 highly respected families, his father at present being 
 chairman of the Board of County Commissioners. 
 He was sociable and of a kindly nature, and was es 
 pecially considerate of his mother's great love, a trait 
 always adorable. Although one who prized his home 
 surroundings and the devotion of family ties, he de 
 sired to personally seek and make his own home and 
 therefore left Dillon about two years ago for the 
 Pacific Coast with a view of locating there should he 
 find it desirable. Later, he returned to Dillon and last 
 May left here for the Alberta country in Canada, for 
 the purpose of taking up land. * * * 
 
 Early last month he started for home for the 
 purpose of wintering ^his stock here. He had an 
 excellent outfit, five splendid horses and some money, 
 and for these he was murdered near Wolfe Creek, 
 about forty miles north of Helena by a Frenchman 
 with whom he was traveling. 
 
 The Helena Independent says, W. J. Oli 
 ver, the young man from Beaverhead County, 
 whose body was found in a shallow grave near 
 Wolfe Creek, Friday, was killed by a s
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 165 
 
 < 
 
 blow on the right side of the head, the weapon 
 being a neck-yoke or round iron bar. It will 
 not be necessary to give the details of this 
 story. 
 
 We have persons in our institution who 
 were personally acquainted with young Oliver. 
 They knew something of his life and 
 declare that they believe he caused more 
 sorrow in homes in Beaverhead County than 
 any other of its young men. One of these 
 persons, a young man, heard Mr. Oliver boast 
 of the liberties he had taken with certain 
 young women and at the same time mark an 
 other victim to be sacrificed on the red-flamed 
 altar of passion. 
 
 The Tribune states that he went to the Pa 
 cific Coast to seek and make a home of his own 
 and that later he returned to Dillon and left 
 for the Alberta country in Canada. Did he 
 not seek other environments because he was 
 compelled to do so? With all the necktie 
 tragedies for which Dillon has been famous, if 
 reports are true it is a wonder that this young 
 man made his escape beyond the borders of 
 Beaverhead County. 
 
 It seems to have ever been the policy of 
 the Tribune Editor to cover up facts, especially
 
 1 66 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 those that might cause his patrons embarrass 
 ment. It would not do for the Tribune office 
 not to be fragrant with the scent of Dillon's 
 roses, therefore every unclean odor must be 
 banished as quickly as possible. 
 
 In the same issue. 
 
 OWEN ELLIS IS KILLED BY SID HO UK 
 
 The shooting occurred about 5 o'clock this morn 
 ing. So far as we have been able to learn the par 
 ticulars are as follows : 
 
 Ted Ellis, brother of Owen Ellis, was engaged in 
 a poker game with Houk, and the two became in 
 volved in a dispute which ended in a fight. Owen 
 Ellis went to the assistance of his brother. Houk 
 said, "I will kill you," rushed from the room, secured 
 his gun and fired, instantly killing him. 
 
 THOMAS H. HAMILTON PASSED AWAY 
 LAST NIGHT 
 
 Thomas Hamilton, traveled extensively through 
 out the United States, making life as pleasant for 
 himself as possible, etc. Funeral will take place 
 Monday afternoon. 
 
 Tribune, Oct. 1 3th, 1905. 
 
 In less than two years three, whom we may call 
 Dillon boys, have been foully murdered, Wilfred Ver 
 milion, James McLaughlin and Wason Oliver.' None
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 167 
 
 of the cowardly perpetrators of these bloody crimes 
 have so far been brought to justice. 
 
 Tribune, Aug. 3d, 1906. 
 
 MET AN AWFUL DEATH 
 Small son of J. C. Harrison Trampled to Death 
 By Bunch of Stampeded Horses. 
 
 A terrible accident happened to Ralph Edward 
 Harrison the eight-year-old son of J. C. Harrison of 
 the Upper Grasshopper last Tuesday evening, which 
 resulted in the boy's death yesterday morning. About 
 7:30 o'clock the boy went out to a corral where a 
 number of work horses were confined, for the pur 
 pose of turning them into a pasture to get water at 
 a near-by creek. Just as he started to open the gate the 
 animals became frightened from some cause and stam 
 peded to the gate. In the rush the gate was knocked 
 open and the boy thrown to the ground directly in 
 front of the horses. The entire bunch ran over him 
 trampling him in a terrible manner. Besides being 
 bruised and cut, it was found by Dr. Reyburn who 
 was summoned from Bannask, that his skull was 
 badly crushed. 
 
 The boy was afterward taken by his par 
 ents to a Butte Hospital where he was placed 
 under the care of skilful physicians, but in 
 spite of all they could do he succumbed to his 
 injuries and died. 
 
 The parents arrived on last evening's train ac 
 companied by the remains of their boy. The funeral
 
 1 68 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 was held this afternoon at the Methodist church. A 
 large number of sorrowing friends attended the fu 
 neral and accompanied the body to the cemetery. 
 Many floral offerings were heaped upon the casket 
 at the church and later placed upon the grave at the 
 cemetery. . The sorrowing relatives had the heartfelt 
 sympathy of the entire community. 
 
 The father of Ralph Harrison is an own 
 uncle of the writer, he is my mother's young 
 est brother. He was brought up under Chris 
 tian influences and attended the tent meeting 
 my brother Charles and myself held at Dillon. 
 He sought the Lord at the altar, but failed to 
 pay the price. 
 
 Dillon Examiner, March 7th, 1906. 
 GRIM REAPER CALLS ANOTHER 
 
 Clair Baker, a Well Known Young Man of This City, 
 Died suddenly in California. The News of the 
 Death Came as a Shock to His Family and 
 Friends. Funeral Services Held Monday After- 
 nooii at the Family Home in this City. Con 
 ducted by Rev. A. B. Martin of the Presbyter 
 ian Church. 
 
 On Thursday afternoon, March ist, the electric 
 wires flashed the sad message that Clair Baker, the 
 eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Baker had passed 
 away suddenly at Los Angeles, Cal. The whole com 
 munity was greatly shocked by this wholly unexpected
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 169 
 
 intelligence, and all hearts throbbed in sympathy with 
 the grief -stricken parents to whom the blow came 
 without warning, like a bolt from a clear sky: 
 
 This young man had not been feeling well, 
 but was up and about, and did not deem it 
 necessary to have attendance during the night. 
 
 He apparently dropped to sleep, "and probably in 
 the early hours of the morning when the vital powers 
 are at their lowest ebb, his heart ceased to bea^ * They 
 found him lying* in a serene and peaceful" slumber . 
 Thursday, with no evidence ot suffering whatever. 
 The angel of death had come to him unawares. 
 
 Same Issue. 
 
 CHRISTIAN DARNUTZER DIED AT HIS 
 HOUSE NEAR DILLON SUNDAY 
 
 AFTERNOON. \ t ' 
 
 
 
 He is the third old-timer from this vicinity to 
 
 ^ 
 
 cross the great divide in less than thret' weeks. Butte 
 Miner. 
 
 Dillon Tribune, May 25th, 1906. 
 
 THOMAS W. POINDEXTER PASSES BEYOND 
 An Honored Dillon Citizen and Former State Jiudito'r 
 
 Succumbed to Illness Last Tuesday. 
 
 Funeral took place yesterday under the ausnices * ** 
 of the Masonic Lodge. 
 
 Dillon Tribune, Aug. loth, 1906. 
 
 MISS STELLA MORSE PASSES AWAY 
 A Prominent Dillon Woman Succumbs to Bright's
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 171 
 
 Disease Death Came Wednesday Afternoon 
 Deceased was one of Dillon's Most Highly Re- 
 . spected Ladies. 
 
 Dillon Tribune, July 2Oth, 1906. 
 
 CHARLES DEPUTY KILLED BY HORSE 
 SUNDAY 
 
 While Enroute to Twin Bridges He Mounted His 
 Unsaddled Race Horse and Was Riding it Down 
 the Road When It Fell, Killing Him, Funeral 
 Was Held in Dillon Tuesday. 
 The shocking news was phoned to Dillon last Sun 
 day morning from Twin Bridges that Charles Deputy 
 was killed near there Sunday morning by a horse fall 
 ing with him. When last seen by his companions be 
 fore going round a turn in the road he was going 
 along at a short gallop. He was found lying in the 
 road just breathing his last. There was a rock in 
 the road about a large as a man's fist upon which the 
 horse had stepped and tripped. He apparently 
 fell and rolled entirely over on top of his owner, for 
 the horse had dirt all over his back. The horse's 
 tracks showed he was going in a short canter when 
 he fell. Three of Mr. Deputy's ribs were broken 
 and his skull fractured. He never spoke a word or 
 regained consciousness after he was found. The re 
 mains were brought to Dillon. 
 Same Issue. 
 
 DEAD MAN WAS PROBABLY A U. S. 
 SOLDIER 
 
 The Coroner's inquest over the remains of the
 
 1 72 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 man found in Beaverhead River last Friday by Isaac 
 Hall and B. F. Black, was held at the Court House 
 last Saturday afternoon at i :3O o'clock. The Cor 
 oner's Jury was composed of James G. Erwin, Wm. 
 Phillips, Jasper Nelson, F. P. Harrison, and Niel 
 Sharkey. After hearing all the evidence concerning 
 the dead man they returned a verdict that the de 
 ceased came to his death through unknown causes. 
 
 Dillon Tribune, Sept. 29th, 1906. 
 
 IRVIN RICH KILLED BY THE CARS 
 
 LAST NIGHT 
 
 Was Struck by a Locomotive while Walking on the 
 Track in'the Northern Pacific Yards at Livingston. 
 
 Irvin Rich came here with his father when two 
 years of age and has spent almost his entire life here. 
 He was a member of the graduating class of the 
 Beaverhead High School, and then went to Bozeman 
 and attended the Agricultural College for several 
 mpnths. About a month ago he left Bozeman for 
 Livingston. 
 
 He was a steady, moral and upright young man, 
 who made friends readily and was well liked by all 
 who knew him. Hi untimely end will be deeply 
 regretted, both in Dillon and different parts of the 
 state where he was known. 
 
 WILLIAM PAIMENT MET A HORRIBLE 
 
 DEATH 
 
 Well Respected Horse Prairie Resident Crushed Un 
 der Wagon While Hauling Load of Wood from 
 the Mountain.
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 173 
 
 He was returning with a load of wood. The 
 brake on the wagon broke while descending a hill and 
 the team ran away. He was thrown beneath 
 the wagon and fell under the wheels, two of them 
 passing over his body just below the lungs, fearfully 
 crushing him. He was unable to rise and supposing 
 that he would have to spend the night on the hillside 
 before being found, he dragged himself to the shelter 
 of a pine tree about 300 yards distance. 
 
 Mr. Paiment came to Beaverhead County about 
 three years ago and took charge of the Grant Hotel 
 on the Redrock and Salmon City road. He made 
 quite a number of acquaintances in Dillon and all 
 who knew him regret exceedingly his untimely end. 
 
 It is unnecessary to add to names on the 
 long death roll. The reader has had enough 
 to convince him of the truth of the assertion 
 that the avenging hand of the Almighty has 
 been stretched out over this little town and 
 the inhabitants of Beaverhead County. 
 
 The following in part was taken from the 
 Anaconda Standard in 1907. 
 
 HAD DILLON A HOODOO? QUESTION OF 
 CONCERN 
 
 Sudden Deaths of Recent Weeks Discussed 
 
 Developments of the past few weeks have made 
 
 the superstitious people of Beaverhead County sit 
 
 up and think a little bit, for there have been five 
 
 violent deaths of residents of that section within two
 
 174 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 weeks, and it must be remembered that Dillon is not 
 a very big town to have this record. The first death 
 was when a range rider who had just secured a good 
 position as trapper in the Big Hole National Forest, 
 had hi? horse jump from under him, sustaining a 
 fracture of the skull from which he died a few days 
 later. 
 
 The next fatal accident was when a member of 
 a threshing crew visited a ranch a few miles from 
 tci\vn, got his foot caught in a buggy wheel and was 
 threshed and pounded to death. 
 
 It was only a few days later until Frank Brady, 
 a one-armed bronco breaker, who had been in the 
 Beaverhead Valley for more than twenty years, was 
 thrown from a wagon during a runaway and killed. 
 
 Monday, William Stevenson was also killed by 
 being thrown out of a wagon during a runaway, and 
 just a few days ago one of the most beloved matrons 
 in the entire Southern part of Montana destroyed her 
 self in an inn at Los Angeles. 
 
 This record has set people of Southern Montana 
 thinking about their persecution of the holiness sect, 
 and the visitors to Butte from the Beaverhead metrop 
 olis during' the past few days seem much concerned 
 about the record and are wondering whose turn will 
 be next. 
 
 In this article an account is given of the 
 treatment my brother received at the hands of 
 the Dillonites, and the question is asked if this
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 175 
 
 is not the cause of a curse being placed upon 
 the prosperous town. 
 
 Their question is, "Did the members of this 
 organization because of the ill treatment of 
 their leaders pray that sudden death, woe and 
 pestilence, would be the fate of all who lived 
 in the town on the banks of the Blacktail?" 
 
 It is plain to be seen by this article that God 
 Almighty let the inhabitants of Dillon know 
 why the scourge of death was upon them. 
 When people are punished they usually know 
 for what cause it has been permitted. 
 
 To show that the work of destruction was 
 still going on in 1908, in and about Dillon, I 
 take the following from the Tribune of Jan. 
 3d, 1908. 
 
 A SHOCKING NEW YEAR TRAGEDY 
 Fred Baker Shoots Ed. Lawrence at the Hour the 
 Latter was to have Married the Former's Daugh 
 ter. Father Claims Self Defense for Act. 
 "I was inside my house and protecting my home 
 and family. I believe I was justified in shooting 
 Lawrence." Fred Baker. 
 
 "Nora screamed murder and Ed. jerked loose 
 from Mrs. Baker and ran to the door to save Nora, 
 thinking Baker was killing her." Al. Lawrence. 
 
 One of the most sensational shootings that ever 
 took place in Dillon, occurred at the home of Fred
 
 w * 
 
 176 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 Baker, on Kentucky Avenue, Wednesday afternoon, 
 when Baker shot T?.' A. Lawrence, a young man from 
 Butte, who wa^ just on the eve of wedding Nora, the 
 sixteen-year-old daughter of Baker. Lawrence lin 
 gered until 8 o'clock in the evening, when he breathed 
 his last. -Baker 'quietly submitted to arrest within 
 fifteen minutes after the shooting and was put in the 
 coun H y ? jail by Sheriff Gist. 
 
 The whr/i^ affair was most sensational and sad. 
 That which t shoujd have been the happiest, jolliest 
 and most joyous event in Dillon on the Glad New 
 Year, was suddenly changed to one of grief and 
 mourning, sprrow and regrets. Instead of a peaceful 
 wedding with all the joys which such an event usually 
 witnesses, there is a disappointed bride, a funeral 
 and a father behind prison bars. 
 
 For svSme time following the shooting hysterical 
 women ran up and down the street, and the little 
 sixteen year ' old bride-to-be, screamed and rushed 
 up and down'.' trie road, dressed in a beautiful pure 
 white wedding gown; men were moved to tears as 
 they gazed upon the young man struggling for breath 
 while his own blood choked him, a gaping wound just 
 over the eye,' the blood flowed down his face and 
 stained his white vest, collar and tie crimson ; it spat 
 tered upon a folded white paper that protruded from 
 his inside coat pocket on which the words could be 
 read, ^'Marriage License.*' The young man who met 
 this tragic 'death was Edgar A. Lawrence. He was 
 born in, 1 June twenty-two years ago. He has resided 
 in Dillon and vicinity for the past sixteen years. * *
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 177 
 
 The parlor had been tidied up for the occasion; 
 the services of Justice Rich had been secured: the 
 bride had been dressed for the event; the groom had 
 donned a suit of black, with white vest, shirt, and tie, 
 and patent leather shoes. The father was dressing 
 for the event that was to take place in a few minutes, 
 when suddenly the storm fell in all its fury and the 
 clear sky of approaching happiness was changed to a 
 dismal scene of trouble and grief. 
 
 The Tribune says also that some sensation 
 al stories had been spread concerning what had 
 been going on between Miss Baker and young 
 Mr. Lawrence, that there had been trouble 
 between Baker and Lawrence, and that the al 
 leged misconduct of Lawrence toward Nora 
 was all smoothed over, and that Mr. and Mrs. 
 Baker had given their consent for the two 
 young people to marry. 
 
 It will not be necessary to go into the de 
 tails of this horrible affair; enough has been 
 said to give the reader a fair idea of what 
 was at the bottom of all the trouble. The ap 
 pearance at the wedding of one of Mr. Law 
 rence's friends who had beaten Mr. Baker 
 a few days before in connection with the af 
 fair, was the immediate cause of the outbreak 
 that resulted in the shooting. It seems that 
 Mr. Lawrence, against the protests of Mr. 
 
 TRUTH 12.
 
 MOUNTAIN STREAM SNOW-CAPPED PEAK IN 
 
 THE DISTANCE
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 179 
 
 Baker persisted in having the young man at 
 tend his wedding, who had grossly insulted 
 and beaten the father of his fiance. 
 
 The calamities that followed the persecu 
 tion of our people at Dillon were not mani 
 fested alone in sudden and tragical deaths. If 
 the inmost thoughts of hearts could be read it 
 would be found that homes are draped in 
 mourning, over unspeakable crimes that have 
 been committed, where the jewels of a spotless 
 character have been snatched from the breasts 
 of young women who have become the victims 
 of the demon of lust, and some who tried to 
 cover their shame have resorted to measures 
 that have resulted in broken down health or 
 death. Be assured, calamity never comes single- 
 handed. The various forms of the sins of 
 the flesh go hand in hand with murder, and 
 Dillon, for her population has certainly had 
 her share to put on record. This little Philistine 
 town in the Beaverhead Valley has made a 
 record that will be remembered by the living 
 and read by the generations to come. 
 In the next issue, Jan. loth. 
 
 WALT HETRICK INSTANTLY KILLED 
 Left Cab of Engine without Letting Engineer Hughes 
 Know about It.
 
 i8o TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 .-/ Peculiar Accident at Button. Short Line Fire 
 man, Formerly of Dillon, Met Instant Death last 
 Evening. 
 
 The south bound passenger train last evening was 
 more than an hour late. The cause of delay was not 
 ascertained^ until the train rolled in, when it was 
 learned that the delay was occasioned by the fireman, 
 Walter Hetrick's being killed at Buxton, a station a 
 few miles this side of Silver Bow Junction. * * * 
 Ed. Hughes started to back into a switch to couple on. 
 He thought that his fireman was in the cab, when it 
 seems that Hetrick had climbed from the cab without 
 saying anything to Mr. Hughes and was engaged in 
 working around the machinery of the engine. No one 
 knows what he was doing. At any rate his head was 
 caught somewhere in the machinery, supposedly be 
 tween the side rod and running board, and the whole 
 side of his head crushed. Death must have been in 
 stant. The deceased resided in Dillon most of last 
 year. * * He was employed as fireman out of Dillon 
 on helper, for D. D. Kneeland. The last few months 
 he had been promoted to a passenger run out of Butte. 
 He leaves a wife and four children. 
 
 Same issue, Jan. loth, 1908. 
 
 AN UNKNOWN KILLED 
 Body Found at Side of Railroad Track this Morning. 
 
 Met Death Mile North of City. 
 
 This morning when Nels Christensen took his 
 bunch of Jap section men up the track toward the 
 river he discovered a dead man lying at the side of
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 181 
 
 the track about 100 yards this side of Beaverhead 
 River. He returned to town and notified Coroner 
 Walker, returned to the spot with a number of others 
 and brought the body to Dillon. The man was ap 
 parently killed by the cars. He was lying on the end 
 of the ties, his head just clear of the ties. A great 
 pool of blood on the rail showed where the wheels 
 had crushed his head. 
 
 When his clothes were searched at the under 
 taker's establishment not a scrap of paper was found 
 to identify the fellow. On the little finger of his left 
 hand was a fancy gold ring with a heart on it. He 
 wore good work clothes, good lace shoes and new- 
 overshoes, dark brown woolen shirt, lavender tie, dark 
 salt and pepper coat and good underwear. 
 
 In this same issue, Foote, the Tribune 
 editor, poured out his wrath against the official 
 organ of our Church. He got the name 
 mixed, however, with that of another paper. 
 He said that a conductor on the O. S. L. had 
 one of these papers in his pocket and had made 
 the statement that some of our people were 
 planning another campaign for Dillon. He 
 closed his remarks by saying that to be fore 
 warned is to be forearmed. This man in look 
 ing out for his interests, wants to keep his 
 foot(e) in a bank of Dillon's roses. 
 
 However, there was no truth in the state-
 
 1 82 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 ment that any of our people were planning 
 another campaign for Dillon. 
 
 Same issue. 
 
 Tribune, Jan. loth, 1908. 
 
 ANOTHER FATAL ACCIDENT OCCURS 
 
 Young Man Smothered in a Sewer Ditch while Mak 
 ing Connection. 
 
 Roy Oilman Caught by Cave-in. Life Was Extinct 
 when the Accident Was Discovered by Henry 
 Burfiend Wednesday Afternoon. 
 
 A sad accident occurred Wednesday afternoon, 
 which resulted in the death of Roy Oilman, a young 
 man seventeen years of age, who was employed by 
 the Dart Hardware Company. * * * 
 
 About 3 o'clock the Dart Hardware Company 
 sent Roy Oilman up to Mr. Burfiend's to connect the 
 residence with the city sewer. The young man went 
 to work shortly after 3 o'clock. About 4:30 o'clock 
 Mr. Burfiend stepped out to the buggy shed in which 
 the young man had been working to see how he was 
 getting along with the work and to his amazement 
 he found that the south side of the ditch had caved in 
 upon the young man. One arm and one leg were 
 protruding from the dirt. Being unable to pull the boy 
 out, he hastily summoned assistance in the person of 
 Duke Gilbert and the two dug the boy out as quickly 
 as possible. His limbs were still warm and his body 
 limber when they got him to the top of the ground. 
 * * No one knows how long the body had been cov-
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 183 
 
 ered, but the condition of the body indicated that he 
 had met with the accident perhaps three quarters of 
 an hour before. 
 
 Roy Gilman was a nephew of A. L. Stone, cash 
 ier of the State Bank of Dillon. He came here from 
 Leavenworth, Kansas about three weeks ago and ac 
 cepted a position with the Dart Hardware Company 
 in the plumbing department. The father, J. M. Gil 
 man, and mother, who is Mr. Stone's sister, reside in 
 Leavenworth, Kansas. , 
 
 The many sudden and tragical deaths in 
 and about Dillon were evidently getting the 
 Tribune Editor into close quarters, judging 
 from the following article, printed in the Jan. 
 1 7th, 1 008 issue, under the heading, 
 
 HE IS NOT GUILTY 
 
 After having referred to the burning of 
 the Iroquois Theater, he says, 
 
 Now comes another great catastrophe, 175 lives 
 are snuffed out in a theater building in a Pennsylva 
 nia town, while a church performance was being given 
 for a Lutheran Church. A gas tank exploded, the 
 house took fire, and whole families were wiped out of 
 existence. 
 
 Now what the believers in the works of Provi 
 dence will have to say remains to be seen. As for 
 us, the theory of providential interference in human 
 affairs on this terrestial globe appears to be a delusion
 
 184 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 and a fake. Catastrophes occur and wipe out happy 
 and contented lives in buildings where performances 
 for the uplifting and betterment of mankind are going 
 on, as well as in places of so-called worldly amuse 
 ment ; the lightning splits asunder the lofty church 
 steeple when a flag pole is convenient. The floods 
 destroy the crops and homes of the righteous; afflic 
 tion smites the preacher in the midst of a church re 
 vival, and in the end death claims us all. 
 
 The fact of it is that the only lesson to be drawn 
 from these deplorable catastrophes (Mr. Foote no 
 doubt had in mind those that were happening in and 
 about Dillon) is from criminal negligence on the part 
 of common every-day men in handling dangerous gas 
 tanks or wiring a building for electric light, and so 
 forth (he may as well have said, and handling dan 
 gerous horses), and we believe that the Almighty is 
 entirely innocent in having any hand in such affairs, 
 and the apparent case made out against Him by fanat 
 ical believers should be non-suited." 
 
 This editor is no doubt trying to justify 
 himself in the part he took in the persecution 
 of God's people at Dillon, inasmuch as he has 
 had to record the long list of tragical and un 
 timely deaths. I imagine that the swift judg 
 ments of the Almighty are getting close to his 
 nerve and he wonders where the lightning 
 bolts are going to strike next. 
 
 His ideas of a soul-saving institution are
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 185 
 
 brought out in his endorsement of certain 
 Church performances. He apparently has no 
 conception of the true standard of Christianity. 
 
 There is no greater evidence of the apos 
 tate condition of the old denominations than 
 their Church entertainments, which often con 
 sist of rummage sales, donkey shows, ice-cream 
 socials, teas, and other performances where 
 almost any extremes are resorted to in order to 
 get money, and this is done while their mem 
 bers are hoarding up wealth. 
 
 He speaks of lightning striking the high 
 church steeple instead of the flag pole. If 
 New Testament principles and simplicity were 
 carried out there would never be a high church 
 steeple. It is an unnecessary addition to the 
 house of God, and points to worldliness and 
 pride in the hearts of the worshipers. From 
 a Scriptural point of view it would be like the 
 Almighty to pass by the flag pole and strike 
 the church steeple. 
 
 A false professor endorses all kinds of 
 hypocrisy and departures from New Testament 
 principles. 
 
 The editor's chief stock in trade seems to 
 be a whitewash brush he seems to be engaged 
 in the whitewash business.
 
 186 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 The following account of a Dillon pastor, 
 Rev. A. B. Martin, was taken from the Dillon 
 Tribune, Jan. I4th, 1910, four years after the 
 main body of this book was written. 
 
 DR. A. B. MARTIN STRICKEN BY DEATH 
 
 Suddenly Succumbs a few Minutes after Officiating 
 
 at a Wedding 
 
 A pall of sadness was thrown over the entire city 
 last Sunday evening by the shocking news being tele 
 phoned and being passed to nearly every house in the 
 city, of the sudden death of Dr. A. B. Martin, pastor 
 of the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Martin accompan 
 ied by his wife went to the Metlen Hotel, where he 
 was to officiate at the wedding of Mr. A. Tash, and 
 Miss Anna Lennerman, two well known and popular 
 people of this city. 
 
 OFFICIATED AT THE WEDDING 
 The wedding took place in the Metlen parlors 
 about 6 o'clock, Dr. Martin performing the ceremony. 
 Immediately following the wedding and congratula 
 tions of the few friends and relatives of the contract 
 ing parties present, all repaired to the dining room 
 where a sumptuous weddirg dinner was served. 
 Shortly after 7 o'clock, Dr. Martin excused himself 
 and wife, stating that they must hasten to the Pres 
 byterian church where he would deliver his usual 
 evening sermon. They left the dining tables and 
 passed into the front parlor of the hotel, Dr. Martin 
 pleasantly greeting various friends as he passed from
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 187 
 
 the dining room and hallway. He appeared in the 
 jolliest of spirits and was as happy as any one present. 
 Entering the parlor Dr. and Mrs. Martin seated 
 themselves a few moments and engaged in a pleasant 
 conversation with Archie Main, manager of the hotel. 
 The Doctor reminding Mr. Main and a number of 
 other young gentlemen about the hotel that they 
 should be thinking upon engaging his services for 
 occasions similar to that of the evening. 
 
 DEATH COMES SUDDENLY 
 The church^ bell rang at 7:30 o'clock, and Dr. 
 Martin reached for his rubbers to put them on, before 
 walking to the church, a distance of about four city 
 blocks from the hotel. He put one of the rubbers 
 on and reached for the other one. Just at that moment 
 he suddenly straightened up, with a look of pain on 
 his face, gasped and sank backward upon the sofa 
 upon which he was sitting. 
 
 NO PARTING WORD 
 
 Both Mrs. Martin and Mr. Main were looking at 
 him at the time and they thought he had fainted, the 
 room being very warm. Mr. Main ran for some water 
 and the screams of Mrs. Martin instantly brought a 
 number of persons from the hotel office into the parlor. 
 Those gathered around the prostrate man instantly 
 saw that he was dead. However, several physicians 
 were hastily summoned and they worked faithfully 
 over him for some time to no purpose. He had died 
 instantly without tittering a word. * * * 
 
 A messenger was sent to the church and the sad
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 189 
 
 news of their beloved pastor's death announced. The 
 people immediately left the church, tears streaming 
 down the faces of many. 
 
 Messengers were sent to other churches in Dillon 
 where services were in progress and the news an 
 nounced from the pulpits and the services dismissed. 
 At every church and in every home where the sad 
 news was received, those hearing it were bowed down 
 with grief, for Dr. Martin was one of the most loved 
 ministers of the city. 
 
 MASONS TAKE CHARGE 
 Members of the Masonic bodies of Dillon removed 
 the body to the Presbyterian Manse, where it was pre 
 pared for burial. 
 
 At the time our people were suffering per 
 secution at Dillon we were completing our new 
 Bible School and Church building at Denver. 
 Here and at other places we met with 
 occasional outbreaks on the part of the 
 enemies of the Cross, but no extremes 
 were resorted to compared with those of the 
 people of Dillon. As true Christians, we ex 
 pect that wherever the full Gospel is preached 
 and sin is uncovered there will be antagonism. 
 The very fact that we have these things to 
 meet proves the validity of our credentials. 
 At the same time the bitter antagonism of 
 some of the Dillonites revealed the falsity of
 
 I 
 
 their religion and the depravity of human char 
 acter. . 
 
 For any one to cry, "Peace, peace," 
 when there is no peace, would be to bear 
 the stamp of the fallen Church, and 
 likewise suffer the penalty of her crimes 
 in the day of God's visitation. The 
 way of the Cross is that of loneliness and sep 
 aration. To be completely surrendered to God 
 is to forsake the world with all its vanity and 
 pride, and to do this means to sever relation 
 ships when they block up our way and hinder 
 our progress in the Christian life. 
 
 Cain and Abel were brothers, but the day 
 came when there was no harmony between 
 them, from the fact that Cain failed to pay the 
 price to secure the approval of God upon his 
 life. Abel brought an offering that was ac 
 cepted of the Lord. This aroused the jealousy 
 of his elder brother, and murder was the result. 
 i John 3:15 says, "Whosoever hateth his 
 brother is a murderer: and ye know that no 
 murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." 
 Cain had hatred in his heart, and because Abel 
 had found favor with God he slew him. Peo 
 ple may have hatred in their hearts and yet be 
 far from committing crimes, but there was
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON. 191 
 
 but little restraint upon the Dillonites. There 
 had been too much red-handed crime in 
 and about the place for them to be intimidated, 
 and it mattered but little who the victims were. 
 A separation had to conle in the home of 
 Abraham. Ishmael no doubt would have 
 killed Isaac, if he and his Egyptian mother 
 had not been sent away. There was division 
 between Esau and Jacob. Esau was a man of 
 the chase. His pursuit symbolizes the works 
 of the flesh. He made savory dishes for his 
 father from the venison that he killed, while 
 Jacob helped his mother at home. But the day 
 came when there had to be a separation. Jacob 
 obtained the birthright and had to flee for his 
 life. The birthright symbolizes spiritual in 
 heritance, and those who have it are always 
 pursued by the elder brother, or those possessed 
 of the carnal nature. When a person ob 
 tains salvation there is always a part 
 ing of the road. Those who fail to 
 pay the price will often rise up in the 
 bitterness of their hearts and seek to destroy 
 his influence or even attempt to take his life. 
 All the old beast wants is plenty of chain and 
 if there were no restraining powers, he would 
 go to his limit.
 
 \()2 . TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 There was plenty of chain given him at 
 Dillon, and there was no justice to be had in 
 the courts. Mob violence hindered the course 
 of law, and property was confiscated and held 
 from its rightful owners as it was in the days 
 of the Inquisition. The. records in the county 
 seat of Beaverhead County will show one of 
 the most devilish schemes that was ever con 
 ceived in the minds of so-called civilized men 
 to defeat justice. It stands out as a black deed 
 on the records of those who endorsed such a 
 course. The records will some day be judged 
 and the guilty will quake under the zig 
 zag lightning of God's wrath. Be as 
 sured not a person will make his escape 
 unless there is a mighty turning to God and 
 whole-hearted repentance, and there is not 
 much probability that this will ever take place. 
 Men will go on, hard-hearted and rebellious, 
 to face the great tribunal. There will be no 
 interference with justice there. They will 
 have to suffer the penalty of their sins. 
 
 Rev. 16:6-11 says, "For they have shed the 
 blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast 
 given them blood to drink; for they are wor 
 thy. * * And men were scorched with great 
 heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 193 
 
 hath power over these plagues : and they re 
 pented not to give him glory. And the fifth 
 angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the 
 beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; 
 and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And 
 blasphemed the God of heaven because of their 
 pains and their sores, and repented not of their 
 deeds." 
 
 There are some persons who will never re 
 pent, their damnation is already sealed. The 
 demonstration of God's wrath has no effect 
 upon them. They will stand unmoved in the 
 bitterness and hardness of their hearts until 
 the yawning gulf opens its mouth to receive 
 them. They would rather die than to humble 
 themselves and ask God and those whom they 
 have wronged to forgive them. 
 
 Through years of hardening, Satan tight 
 ens his grip and holds them as the trophies of 
 his achievements in his warfare against Christ 
 and His kingdom. 
 
 One may trifle with his opportunities for 
 a time and may not realize that a crisis is 
 near, but it comes sooner or later, and he is 
 either snatched as a brand from the burning, 
 or left to suffer the wrath of God with those 
 
 TRUTH 13.
 
 194 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 who have said, "We will not have this man 
 to reign over us." 
 
 The fair hand of promise reached out to 
 Dillon and its inhabitants, but they knew not 
 the day of mercy and their city has been the 
 storm-center of God's wrath ever since. 
 
 The old Jewish hierarchy, became so cor 
 rupt that Jesus compared it to a black mulberry 
 tree, and said to His disciples, "If ye had faith 
 as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto 
 this sycamine (black mulberry) tree, Be thou 
 plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in 
 the sea; and it should obey you" (Luke 17:6). 
 The Jews had persecuted and killed God's 
 prophets, and were waiting then for an oppor 
 tunity to put to death His only begotten Son, 
 whom He had sent to redeem them from de 
 struction. There was nothing left to do but 
 to root up the old tree, and it took the faith of 
 the true Apostolic Church to do it. 
 
 Forty years later, the destruction of Jeru 
 salem took place and the Jews were scat 
 tered to the ends of the earth. Their once 
 proud nation disappeared and they dropped 
 down in the great Gentile sea to be lashed with 
 the waves of persecution for more than two 
 thousand years. God has not forsaken them
 
 MORE RECENT TRAGEDIES AT DILLON 195 
 
 entirely, but He has never removed the rod of 
 correction. They have been followed by fam 
 ine, pestilence and death. There have 
 been times when it seemed there would be 
 no one left to perpetuate the race. But true 
 to God's word a remnant has survived all these 
 things and still the veil is over their faces. 
 How they have suffered and bemoaned their 
 estate as they have been hounded and driven 
 under the beastly powers of the half-civilized 
 and barbarous nations, ever seeking rest and 
 finding none! 
 
 As the destroying angel followed them 
 from place to place, many of them gave up 
 in despair and chose death rather than life. It 
 is certainly a fearful thing to fall into the 
 hands of the living God, but how few realize 
 what it means to place themselves in a posi 
 tion to receive His curses rather than His 
 blessings.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 TWENTY-THREE STUDENTS AND PREACHERS 
 
 IMPRISONED DEATH OF JOHN ASKEW, 
 
 THE OFFICER WHO ARRESTED THEM 
 
 During the fall and winter of 1903-04 
 some of the policemen of Denver showed hos 
 tility to our work in the street marches and 
 open-air services. Among them was John As 
 kew, who patrolled Sixteenth street, be 
 tween Curtis and Larimer. On a Sunday 
 evening our workers and students formed a 
 procession at Eighteenth and Larimer streets, 
 marched to Sixteenth, and x up Sixteenth to 
 Curtis street, where they were commanded by 
 Mr. Askew to halt. There were perhaps 3, 
 ooo people following on the sidewalks, but 
 there was no blocking of traffic until he stopped 
 the procession, and soon several thousands of 
 people were massed about the Tabor Grand 
 Opera House. 
 
 Our people were carrying banners with 
 different scripture texts. On one was 
 printed, "Prepare to meet thy G o d." 
 The officer deliberately took his 'club and 
 smashed this banner. He ordered the other 
 banners to be taken down, and struck two of
 
 DEATH OF JOHN ASKEW 197 
 
 our workers and thrust them into the police 
 box, and called for the patrol wagon. 
 
 I was not in the march and had taken no 
 part in the open-air service, but was standing 
 on the sidewalk, and in a position to see all 
 that took place. Mr. Askew was furiously 
 angry and immediately summoned other offi 
 cers and hurried off about two dozen of the 
 workers to the City Hall, while a number of 
 other policemen were left to disperse the 
 crowd. 
 
 I went to the City Hall and asked the 
 Captain why our people had been arrested and 
 imprisoned. He was very courteous and said 
 he thought they would be out as soon as the 
 crowd dispersed, and asked me to see that they 
 went home through the side streets rather than 
 the main thoroughfares. 
 
 Two hours later the prisoners were dis 
 charged. The next morning some of the offi 
 cials, finding they had been let go, were very 
 indignant and got out a warrant to re-arrest 
 them. They were taken back, placed under 
 bonds and released on my promise that they 
 would return in ten days for trial. When the 
 time came for the hearing they had the privi 
 lege of choosing between paying $25 each or
 
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 DEATH OF JOHN ASKEW 199 
 
 going to jail for two weeks. It would have 
 cost $600 to have paid the sum required, and of 
 course they went to jail. 
 
 The quarters to which the women were 
 assigned were clean and neat, but the men 
 were thrown in among the worst of crimi 
 nals, in almost the vilest place imaginable. 
 Some of them suffered greatly before morning. 
 The few that were left out to push the work 
 on the new building were so burdened over the 
 affair they could scarcely do anything but 
 pray. After twenty-four hours had passed I 
 determined to see the Mayor at any cost. I 
 found him at the Metropole Hotel early in the 
 morning and laid the case before him. Later, 
 he conferred with the Fire and Police Board, 
 and our whole company was immediately re 
 leased. 
 
 The strain of the day and the two nights 
 that they were in prison was almost greater 
 than words can express, not only because I 
 knew some of them were suffering greatly 
 from their unpleasant surroundings, but be 
 cause their services were needed so badly in 
 getting our building enclosed before wintry 
 weather set in. 
 
 There was a time of rejoicing when all
 
 2oo TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 came back from prison and work on the build 
 ing was resumed. 
 
 As I thought and prayed over the affair, 
 I felt that some one was going to suffer and 
 scarcely was the trial over, until Askew was 
 smitten by the hand Of God, and in five 
 weeks from the day he stopped the procession 
 on Sixteenth street, on a Sunday evening, at 
 the very hour that he made the arrest, he was 
 dying. The following was taken from the 
 Denver Post: 
 
 PATROLLING LAST BEAT 
 Death has laid its clammy hand very suddenly on 
 Askew, one of the largest and strongest of Denver's 
 policemen, and accounted the handsomest man in the 
 Department. Walking his beat a week ago, he is now 
 so low that the attending physicians do not expect him 
 to live. His death is hourly expected. 
 
 The young policeman will be remembered by al 
 most every resident of Denver. He had the Sixteenth 
 street beat between Larimer and Curtis, and his gi 
 gantic figure was always noticeable. More than six 
 feet tall, weighing 225 pounds, with broad square 
 shoulders and a handsome strong face, he was univer 
 sally admired. 
 
 For several weeks Askew has been ailing, but 
 kept at his work uncomplainingly. He knew death 
 was approaching. * * * He kept on at his work, 
 though he lost forty-three pounds in the last few
 
 DEATH OF JOHN ASKEW 201 
 
 / 
 
 weeks and it was not until a week ago that he had to 
 stop work. Sick as he was, Askew was still patrolling 
 his beat when Chief Armstrong happened along. 
 Learning that the man was sick the Chief ordered 
 him to go home at once, or he would probably have 
 worked until he fell. 
 
 It was not generally known, even among his fellow 
 officers that Askew was ill until yesterday. 'Chief 
 Armstrong, Captain Delaney and President Frank 
 Adams of the Fire and Police Board, called at Askew's 
 home, 1237 Welton street, yesterday afternoon, but 
 he was already unconscious, and could not be aroused. 
 The physicians said that this was the coma preceding 
 death. 
 
 It is only three years since Askew was appointed 
 on the Denver Police Force, but after a short ex 
 perience he was found able and courageous, and was 
 given the Sixteenth street beat, the most prominent 
 in the city. 
 
 The following is a statement in the same 
 issue of The Post. 
 
 Mrs. White said, That policeman acted like a 
 madman, he broke through our circle and knocked 
 down our banner, which bore the inscription, "Prepare 
 to Meet Thy God." That was five weeks ago, now 
 Mr. Askew is in eternity. I knew that God would 
 avenge His people. From the day he made the arrest 
 he walked his beat practically a dead man. God is 
 with us, and if they keep on more of them will become 
 the victims of His wrath.
 
 2O2 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 Mrs. White had reference to a Sunday a feu- 
 weeks ago when Mr. Askew requested the Pillar of 
 Fire people to cease their religious demonstrations on 
 Sixteenth street. Askew jumping in among them 
 struck some of the enthusiasts with his club and sent 
 them all to jail in the patrol wagon. 
 
 PILLAR OF FIRE IN CONVENTION 
 The Pentecostal Union (Pillar of Fire) is holding 
 a convention to celebrate the opening of their new 
 building at 1845 Champa street. Mrs. White believes 
 in nothing more or less than the old Methodist faith. 
 We are just beHevers, she said, in old-fashioned 
 Methodism. We have more demonstration than they 
 had perhaps, but that is because we believe they did 
 not have enough. 
 
 When the newsboys of Denver heard that 
 I said that God's hand had been laid 
 upon Mr. Askew in judgment, they gath 
 ered a hundred strong before the door of our 
 auditorium and began hurling stones through 
 the windows. They claimed that Mr. Askew 
 had been their friend and they would be re 
 venged. \Ylien they were doing their worst 
 there was not an officer that would interfere 
 with them. A number of our workers went 
 out among the boys and tried to quiet them 
 down and persuade them to cease from vio 
 lence. A few of them were reasonable, but
 
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 2O4 TRUTH STRANGER THAN .FICTION 
 
 the most of them were like hardened criminals. 
 After the boys had made assaults on the build 
 ing for three different evenings, screens were 
 put over the windows. When they came the 
 next time they found no further opportunity 
 for their favorite pastime and quietly walked 
 away. Shortly afterwards one of the ring 
 leaders died. 
 
 Large crowds filled our auditorium, 
 and often many were turned away for 
 want of seats. As messages were given 
 from time to time under the inspiration 
 of the Holy Spirit, some softened and yielded, 
 while others hardened, and it often became 
 necessary to invite those who had habitually 
 resisted the truth to leave the place and make 
 room for others. I have invited hundreds 
 to go at various times, under these conditions, 
 and found every time when there was such an 
 occurrence it worked out for good. 
 
 To have people like mere pew holders occu 
 pying space after they have let their opportu 
 nities for getting saved pass, is to block up the 
 way of others, and I have resolved many times 
 not to preach to such persons. There are al 
 ways those who like to hear the music and see 
 the demonstrations, who are unwilling to pay
 
 DEATH OF JOHN ASKEW 205 
 
 the price after conditions are set before them. 
 Such persons are unworthy, and it is humil 
 iating to one who knows they are spurning the 
 word of God to look into their faces and recog 
 nize them as having any part in a service, if no 
 more than to occupy a seat. When God ceases 
 to strive with people we might as well let 
 them alone. Life is too short to waste time 
 with such persons. They are on the broad 
 road and have plenty to keep them company 
 without taking our time. 
 
 As God's power continued to be manifested 
 from day to day, many remarkable things 
 took place. Often when souls were praying 
 at the altar, persons would be present who 
 came to criticize and find fault with our meth 
 ods. 
 
 An old man living across the street, one of 
 the leaders of the Holiness Association, and 
 who professed to be enjoying the higher Chris 
 tian life, attended one of our meetings, There 
 were a number of persons at the altar crying 
 to God for mercy. As our workers gathered 
 around to pray for them, there was real travail 
 of soul, and many who were present, who had 
 never made a profession, were under deep con 
 viction. In the midst of such a scene the old
 
 206 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 man called it fanaticism and made other cruel 
 and heartless remarks. He was warned by a 
 person, who felt that he was on the verge of 
 sinning against the Holy Ghost. But he re 
 fused to take the rebuke and continued to 
 make remarks. 
 
 Two weeks later this man fell off a street 
 car, and was picked up in a dying condition. 
 lie lived but a few minutes. Father Alcott, 
 as he was called, was one of the persons who 
 bitterly opposed our work. His name 
 is recorded in the long list of those who 
 suffered death or even worse than death be 
 cause of the part they took in the fight against 
 the preaching of the full Gospel. It was a 
 sad ending for a man who had professed holi 
 ness and preached it for many years. 
 
 Some of our people attended a meeting 
 in the hall where he sometimes presided at the 
 services. On one occasion when some of them 
 .shouted and demonstrated their joy, he turned 
 nut all the lights.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 GOD'S JUDGMENTS ON THE SCOTT FAMILY 
 
 Price Scott, my husband's brother-in-law, 
 was burned out of his business at Beverly, 
 West Virginia, in 1903, and came with his 
 wife and five children to Denver. For sev 
 eral weeks his family were inmates of our 
 Training School. There had been many 
 prayers offered up for them and it was 
 clearly understood that God had brought them 
 to Denver. They arrived about the time the 
 walls of our new building were going up and 
 when we were badly in need of help. Mr. 
 Scott was a good workman and might have 
 assisted, but showed no inclination to do so. 
 His excuse was that he had to provide for his 
 family, and the fact is they were already being 
 provided for among us. We assured him that 
 his family would never suffer so long as God 
 was so bountifully supplying our needs, and 
 that they were perfectly welcome to share with 
 us. 
 
 He saw the Lord working miracles every 
 day in supplying food for the tables, and the
 
 2o8 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 money that was needed in the construction of 
 the building. He frankly acknowledged that 
 he had never seen anything like it before. But 
 with all the light and persuasion that was 
 brought to bear upon him, he refused to take 
 any part in the work, manifesting an independ 
 ent spirit, and showing an unwillingness to 
 have the needs of himself and family provided 
 for through any process that he had not de 
 vised. 
 
 His favorite passage of scripture was I 
 Timothy 5:8, "But if any provide not for his 
 own, and specially those of his own house, he 
 hath denied' the faith, and is worse than an in 
 fidel." He perverted this scripture and re 
 fused to be corrected. 
 
 He acknowledged that several years before 
 he had been called to preach the Gospel, but re 
 fused to obey, having made the excuse that he 
 had a family to support, and did not wish 
 to impose upon people. We tried to convince 
 him that the first step to make was to pick up 
 his tools and go to work on the building. But 
 he persisted in having his own way, and day 
 after day tramped the streets, looking for 
 work. He spent weeks at this with little or 
 no success.
 
 JUDGMENTS ON THE SCOTT FAMILY 209 
 
 A HUNDRED DOLLARS IN HIS TRUNK 
 
 During this time he had kept a hundred 
 dollars hidden away in his trunk. It was 
 not known that he had this money until 
 after Lelia, his eldest child, came down with 
 typhoid fever. When at her bedside one day, 
 I asked her if there was anything she wanted. 
 She replied, "I could eat some grapes, but papa 
 will not spend any of his hundred dollars to buy 
 them." I had one dollar in my pocket, but I 
 took a part of this and bought the grapes. 
 
 The following morning our Scripture 
 lesson was taken from i Kings 17, where the 
 widow of Zarephath baked her last cake for 
 Elijah, which was followed by the miraculous 
 increase of the oil and the meal. Mr. Scott 
 had the meal, but refused to bake the cake as 
 the widow did, and there could be no miracle 
 wrought in behalf of his family. 
 
 After many solicitations and repeated fail 
 ures to get him to obey the Lord, and finding 
 that he was hindering the faith of others, we 
 told him the best thing for him to do was to 
 rent a house and move his family into it. He 
 was not expecting this, but set out at once to 
 look for a house. One was secured not far 
 from the School, and he often came in to 
 
 TRUTH 14.
 
 2io TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 the morning class where the Lord continued 
 to talk to him, giving him clear light as t< > what 
 he should do. But he hardened under the mes 
 sages, and his danger was apparent to all. 
 
 He refused to sever his connection with 
 the old Presbyterian Church, of which he had 
 been a member for years, and yet he claimed 
 that there was no spirituality in it, and that he 
 \\as practically out. But for some cause he 
 was unwilling to write his church officials to 
 re-move his name. I knew by this time 
 that he lacked sincerity or he would not have 
 hesitated a moment to break all connections 
 with an organization that he knew to he spirit 
 ually dead. 
 
 One morning when he was present at the 
 prayer service I rose with a burning message. 
 Unable to longer refrain from speaking, I told 
 him that God's judgments were speedily com 
 ing upon him. I shall never forget the expres 
 sions on the faces of the students and others 
 that were present. They trembled under what 
 they believed was God's last message to him. 
 In a state of rebellion he rose and left the 
 room. 
 
 For months and even years we had been 
 trying to raise a standard in the School against
 
 JUDGMENTS ON THE SCOTT FAMILY 211 
 
 old churchianity, and made a rule that none 
 of our people should attend services at the 
 different churches without permission. He 
 knew all about our reasons for this, as the 
 argument had been made in his hearing time 
 and again. But notwithstanding he and his 
 wife went to St. James M. E. Church to attend 
 a service a few weeks later, knowing that they 
 were doing so against the light and rules of 
 the Institution. 
 
 Some may have blamed the woman, but she 
 was not the ruling spirit in the Scott home, her 
 husband dominated everything, and she, lack 
 ing will power, and being in delicate health, 
 made but little resistance. 
 
 On returning from the church, where they 
 had gone to hear a favorite evangelist, when 
 in a few feet from the corner where they were 
 to alight, Mrs. Scott stepped from the moving 
 car, and the back of her head struck the 
 ground, causing concussion of the brain from 
 which she died two hours later. She never 
 spoke after the accident. 
 
 We believe it was the mercy of the Lord 
 that took her away, leaving her husband to suf 
 fer for his disobedience and rebellion. I U- was 
 left with five children to care for, without
 
 - 
 O
 
 JUDGMENTS ON THE SCOTT FAMILY 213 
 
 friends or money, or even a position where he 
 could earn wages. The care of the 'home and 
 children was a heavy burden on Lelia, only 
 fourteen years of age, who was just recovering 
 from her long spell of fever. We begged him to 
 let us take the little ones, but still he persisted 
 in having his own way, saying that he intended 
 to keep his children together. 
 
 My husband's mother, who came from 
 West Virginia to attend the funeral of Mrs. 
 Scott, her only daughter, lived with the fam 
 ily for a time, relieving Lelia of some of the 
 burden. But everything continued to go 
 against Mr. Scott, and to my knowledge he 
 moved three times within a few months. 
 
 Having utterly failed in the West 
 he decided to go back to West Vir 
 ginia. He consented to bring his chil 
 dren and come to the Bible School the few 
 days while he was making ready to go. Dur 
 ing this time God gave him one more warning 
 which stirred him to the depths. He retorted, 
 "God can speak through others as well as you 
 or other members of this organization, and I 
 expect to get light from other sources and walk 
 in it. I have yet to see or believe that the 
 Pillar of Fire is the only religious movement
 
 214 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 that can give a man light." In the mood that 
 he was in it was useless for any one to talk to 
 him. I.elia begged to be allowed to stay 
 in the School, but he told her it would never 
 do for her to be separated from the smaller 
 children, and with sobs and tears she said, "1 
 will have to go because Papa says so." 
 
 As he started down the steps with tl it- 
 baby in his arms, I said, "Mr. Scott, God'- 
 judgments are going to continue to fall upon 
 you." 
 
 He replied, "I will risk it," and before 
 reaching the foot of the stairs, said again, "I 
 will risk it." 
 
 It surprised his acquaintances in \Ye-t 
 Virginia that he ever returned after having 
 made a complete failure in business before 
 leaving for the West. 
 
 Xot long after his return, Lelia took 
 quick consumption and died. She was sick 
 only a few weeks. There was no one but the 
 aged grandmother to look after the three small 
 children, and she had her hands full at home. 
 
 Shortly after Lelia's death, Mr. Scott died 
 also, and the younger children were left en 
 tirely in the care of their grandmother.
 
 JUHIMKXTS OX THE SCOTT FAMILY 215 
 
 He was sick only a short time and no one 
 was expecting him to die. A complete collapse 
 of his physcial powers came suddenly. In his 
 unconscious moments, he seemed to be planning 
 to get back to the Bible School at Denver, and 
 spoke of the hundred dollars in his trunk. He 
 had reference to the money that he kept hid 
 in his trunk \vhile in our Bible School. 
 
 Mr. Scott wanted his way, and he had it 
 for a short time. 
 
 The calamities that befell this family all 
 took place in a little more than two years. The 
 scripture says, "He, that being often reproved 
 hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be de 
 stroyed, and that without remedy." 
 
 The following additional statement was 
 made by my husband, shortly after the death 
 of Mr. Scott: 
 
 "After coming to Denver, Price was 
 clearly reclaimed in one of our meetings. He 
 came out in a strong testimony, saying he had 
 been a backslider for fifteen or twenty years, 
 yet during this time was superintendent of 
 a Sabbath-school and about the most active 
 member of the Presbyterian Church in 
 the community where he was reared. He saw 
 the awful state of the old Church and the in-
 
 216 TRUTH STKAXCKK THAN FICTION 
 
 dividual members, believing that they would 
 all perish if something was not done for tlu-in 
 He spoke of the worldly choir in which he 
 sang; of the evils existing there and of its 
 hurtful influence upon his life. He told how 
 for ten years he attended his lodge, I believe 
 he said every Saturday night, making 520 Sat 
 urday nights away from his wife and children 
 who needed him in the preparation for the 
 Sabbath. He told what some of his troubles, 
 difficulties and temptations had been and testi 
 fied that a great change had been wrought in 
 him, and the wife affirmed later that it was so. 
 He rose from the altar with a covenant to do 
 and be anything that God wanted, and believed 
 that it would be to preach the Gospel, as the 
 call was upon him in his early life. This was 
 a voluntary, face to face transaction with God. 
 
 REFUSING TO WALK IN THE LIGHT 
 
 "Light kept coming as weeks passed, and 
 the meaning of following Christ fully, began 
 to dawn upon him more and more and he began 
 to draw back. The family had been the sub 
 ject of many prayers and now that he had 
 started, the Lord tried to press him through. 
 The Holy Spirit fanned upon him with His 
 white wings and brought all influences possible
 
 JUDGMENTS ON THE SCOTT FAMILY 217 
 
 to press him to his goal. We were all alive 
 to his every interest and incessantly implored 
 God to take him through. The enemy of his 
 soul got in, he lost sight of what God had 
 shown him and set his heart on having a world 
 ly position and managing his own life and 
 course. He became unrestfu'l and ran to get 
 a position, but the Lord closed the way before 
 him. Every morning upon seeing a newspa 
 per notice, he would go out, thinking a posi 
 tion would be obtained, and if he failed he 
 would say that next morning he would go to 
 work on our building, but it would be the same 
 thing over. We were pained over his persist 
 ent course, and the Spirit that got into him 
 was seen not to be of God. He seemed driven 
 on in desperation as though there were no God. 
 When he would hasten away we knew that he 
 would return without success. 'Just missed 
 it,' Too late,' etc., he would say. The Lord 
 had an open door and stood waiting for him 
 to enter it. Oh, we thought, if he would only 
 get quiet before God and get his bearings 
 from heaven. 
 
 THE CRISIS IN HIS LIFE 
 
 "The crisis came in the Bible School one 
 day in prayers, in an experience that will never
 
 218 TRUTH STRAM.KU THAN Ku TIO.N 
 
 be erased from memory. It was one of those 
 clear-cut, well defined workings of the Holy 
 Spirit that was as plain to us as the hand-writ 
 ing on the wall. Price could not read the end 
 of that day's work, but some of us could. The 
 warning message came as startling as a clap of 
 thunder from a clear sky. A great burden 
 came on the School for him and the Holy Spir 
 it burned into hearts, prayers and exhortations 
 in his behalf. Something dark hung about 
 him. He was at the forks of the road. The 
 pressure on him was so great that he took off 
 his coat and stood on a chair and wrestled with 
 God as Jacob, not for the victory, but to have 
 his own way in life. 
 
 "What all there was in that hour that he 
 held back, and the full meaning of becoming 
 a 'living sacrifice' as God asked it from him, 
 only eternity will reveal. He doubtless saw 
 the loss of worldly friendships and prefer 
 ments, the meaning of preaching the Gospel 
 in this age of apostasy, of going without the 
 gate with Christ and bearing the reproach, 
 with the trials of a life of faith, the poverty 
 on earth that makes one rirh in Christ and lays 
 up treasures in heaven. It was an awful mo- 
 im'iit. All heaven paused. The serpent of
 
 JUDGMENTS ox THE SCOTT FAMILY 219 
 
 the pit drew closer with confidence and raised 
 to throw his spell over him and coil his influ 
 ence about him. His course was not only be 
 ing settled, but it was being settled in a way 
 that would affect his family for time and eter 
 nity; then there were relatives and people of 
 the world who were to rise or sink by his de 
 cision lost by his not preaching the Gospel. 
 Had he but lost his life for Christ's sake, he 
 would have found it; had he but given up all, 
 he would have gained all. He resisted and 
 drew back. It cannot be told, the feeling that 
 came over us. He not only pushed God out 
 of his plans, but deliberately took his family 
 out of His hands, and his eyes becoming 
 blinded he purposed to and did set himself in 
 his own course contrary to all warnings and 
 entreaties. The die of his life was cast. I 
 can see the angel under divine orders, that 
 hour write his wife's name in the records of 
 heaven for removal, and then the sweet-spir 
 ited, beautiful daughter, Lelia's name went 
 down, both of whom were soon taken from 
 earth ; the first going almost in a flash never 
 knowing what, hurt her. Our hearts bled! 
 \\ e suffered as much over the suddenness of 
 her departure as we did over all the deaths in
 
 22O Turin STKAXCKR THAN l ; n iiox 
 
 the family. By the first suffering \ve were 
 prepared for the latter. \VhcMi the published 
 announcement came of Lelia's death and how 
 she could say in her affliction, 'hear Je>u-. 
 how I love you,' I read it to Mrs. \Yhite and 
 her heart filled with sorrow and she said. 
 'Stop, I cannot stand it.' It brought to re- 
 memhrance the scene in the room of prayer 
 where Price rejected the light that shone 
 squarely in his face when she came from the 
 room feeling as though the flesh on her would 
 burst under the power of God, saying, 'The 
 judgments of God are coining upon him! . Ire 
 coming upon him!' As she emphasized it % 
 with the downward gesture of the hands, and 
 her heart in agony, I myself knetv it ?<.'a.v so! 
 Too ivell, I knew it! 
 
 "When he returned East, I would fain 
 have thrown myself in front of him and 
 stopped him by force from carrying the five 
 children back, but there was nothing that could 
 avail; he went leaving his wife's (my only sis 
 ter's) remains under the shadow of the Rock 
 ies. Lelia suffered in the thought of return 
 ing, saying she never again could stand the 
 formal, dead Church services. 
 
 "I am satisfied this family would all be
 
 "I'LL RISK IT'
 
 jj_> TKTTII STKANCKK THAN FICTION 
 
 living today if God's will had been done. One 
 culd not believe otherwise, after goini; 
 through what we did. I have told this as 
 I would in a circle of family relations around 
 \':v old hearth-stone at a late hour at night 
 \\lien the fire has died down, leaving but a 
 few glimmering embers, when faces and forms 
 grow dim, but the presence of all is real. It 
 was around such firesides in my early life that 
 the most solemn events were told, and carried 
 to the chambers of sleep to be carefully 
 weighed and thought over. 
 
 "To those who read this, let it find a place 
 in your hearts to save you from presumption 
 and rebellion against God."
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 SWIFT JUDGMENTS 
 
 During the spring and summer following 
 the completion of our new building, we were 
 greatly annoyed by a Mr. L who lived 
 across the street from us. This was the man 
 from whom we bought our lots and to whom 
 later was given the contract to put up the build 
 ing. We found him to be unreliable, and an ene 
 my of every good cause. It was he who was re 
 sponsible for the collapse of the building en 
 terprise by getting into entanglements with 
 the city officials causing the work to stop for 
 a number of months. 
 
 This man was looked upon by our people 
 as Sanballat, the enemy of Nehemiah in the 
 rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. He pre 
 tended to be our friend, and was apparently 
 anxious to see the work prosper, but at heart 
 he had no good intentions whatever. He 
 sought every opportunity to take the advantage 
 of us, in his grasp for the dollar, and suc 
 ceeded in getting much more than was due 
 him.
 
 224 T:- M STK v.\<;r.u THAN FICTION 
 
 As soon as we could get things entirely 
 out of his hands, another contractor, a Mr. 
 Hall, vvas employed, who gave satisfaction in 
 every way. From the time the work passed 
 out of Mr. L 's hands he became our hit 
 ter foe, and sought every opportunity to 
 work some underhanded scheme to overthrow 
 the whole enterprise. The battle sometimes 
 seemed almost more than we could bear, and 
 in seeking consolation we often turned to the 
 book of Nehemiah and read the story of the 
 re-building of the walls of Jerusalem. 
 
 We had Sanballat to contend with just as 
 truly as did Nehemiah. 
 
 After our walls had gone up and the build 
 ing was enclosed, he became openly hostile, 
 and boastingly declared that he would circu 
 late a petition and get sufficient names to have 
 our work closed up. He was not the owner 
 of the lots we bought from him, but was sim 
 ply the agent. He had every opportunity to 
 take the advantage of us and force us to come 
 to his terms. 
 
 After his contract was broken with us he 
 built a new lodging house, or hotel, as he called 
 it, and we believe that the money he made in 
 his dealings with us, made it possible for him to
 
 SWIFT JUDGMENTS 225 
 
 put up this building, and that he had in mind 
 some scheme to get our property also. He was 
 a political schemer and trickster, and had a 
 large number of people under his influence. 
 
 On the evenings that our services were 
 held he showed much discomfort and unrest, 
 and would sit or walk in front of his hotel, 
 unable to conceal his animosity. And occa 
 sionally during a week night service when 
 there was a larger congregation than usual he 
 would walk in and take a seat in the rear, evi 
 dently to get hold of something that he could 
 use against us. 
 
 In the early part of the summer my hus 
 band and I went to Los Angeles for a few 
 weeks. While there engaged in revival work, 
 news reached us that this man was about to 
 circulate the petition. I shall never forget 
 what a blow it was to me. I knew that he 
 would carry out his evil designs if there was 
 not divine intervention as the people in that 
 neighborhood were not very friendly toward 
 us. 
 
 The day the letter was received we were 
 having an all day prayer service in the Mis 
 sionary Home Where we were stopping, and 
 souls were praying through and getting blest. 
 
 TRUTH 15.
 
 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 The Lord was present in power. Hut I felt 
 that I must go to my room and pray alone. 
 During the next five hours it seemed that the 
 blood was almost dropping from my heart, 
 and as the time approached to go to the even 
 ing service, I felt that God had heard m\ 
 prayer and would avenge His own elect. 
 
 I went back to the prayer room and told 
 those who were present that the Lord had giv 
 en the victory, and that He was going to take 
 the Sanballat of the Pillar of Fire movement 
 in hand. 
 
 A few weeks later a large open-air meet 
 ing was being conducted by our missionaries 
 and students in front of our building in Den 
 ver. I was looking out from a second 
 story window, listening to the songs and 
 testimonies of nearly a hundred of our stu 
 dents. I kept my eye on the hotel across the 
 street, and its proprietor who was more rest 
 less than usual. A young man standing near 
 him on the sidewalk was very much inter 
 ested in the service, but for his own good 
 was too close to the hotel. Mr. L gave 
 him a vicious look, and I thought I saw his 
 lips move. But the young man was so inter 
 ested he did not seem to notice him.
 
 SWIFT JUDGMENTS 227 
 
 Mr. L left his seat, rushed to his office, 
 and came out shuffling something up his sleeve. 
 I said, O my Lord, he has a club. Almost in 
 stantly the young man was given a terrific 
 blow which sent him about ten feet. After 
 getting on his feet he looked around, at a loss 
 to know what had taken place, as Mr. L , the 
 hotel proprietor, had struck him in the back. 
 The young man, badly frightened, soon dis 
 appeared. 
 
 Horrified at what had taken place, I said,. 
 My God, how long will you permit this man to 
 go on in this way. If he is not going to re 
 pent it would be better for Thee to take him 
 out of the world now, than to let him live on 
 and have more on his record to account for. 
 He had taken his seat again with a grin of sat 
 isfaction. I could not help but feel that the 
 Avenger was close at hand. 
 
 About ten days later I was attending a 
 meeting in Chicago, and some one brought me 
 a paper with an account" of a terrible railroad 
 disaster near Pueblo, Colorado. There had been 
 a cloud-burst, and a railroad bridge across a 
 river, swept away. A Rio Grande train plunged 
 over the banks into the awful chasm, and near 
 ly ever person on board was killed or drowned.
 
 j_'S TRUTH STKAM.KR THAN l ; u rx>\ 
 
 There was but one car in the rear that did not 
 go over. 
 
 I looked over the list of the dead, but saw 
 the name of no one I knew. A later issue re 
 vealed the fact that the hotel proprietor had 
 gone down in the awful wreck. A letter from 
 my husband a few days later said that his re 
 mains had been brought back to Denver, and 
 were then lying in the hotel across the street. 
 He was dragged out of the mud and rubbish in 
 the river bed, and presented an awful appear 
 ance. No words could describe the lifeless 
 form. 
 
 Thus was the ending of the person who had 
 given us so much trouble and who had lifted 
 his arms of rebellion against the Almighty. 
 The hotel which he built had a hundred bed 
 rooms, besides other apartments. An electric 
 sign on the top of the building flashed out liis 
 name. This hotel had a very fancy front, but 
 was not substantially built and many said it 
 was characteristic of the man. 
 
 I \\< young wife with one child was left to 
 conduct the business. Later, the Government 
 bought the whole block on which to erect a 
 United States Post-office, and Mrs. L , wn- 
 forced to sell her property. The hotel
 
 SWIFT JUDGMENTS 229 
 
 torn down and. removed from the grounds, and 
 the Government building, erected at a cost of 
 $3,000,000 covers nearly the entire block. 
 
 The Lord has said that He would destroy 
 the wicked both root and branch, and never 
 were words more manifestly fulfilled than in 
 the case of this man. 
 
 In the same block was the Coliseum Hall, 
 the largest in Denver until the new audi 
 torium on Champa and Fourteenth streets was 
 built. We once held a Convention in the Col 
 iseum Hall during which $2,000 was given to 
 make the first payment on the lots where our 
 building now stands. 
 
 In connection with this auditorium was 
 a smaller hall, where the meetings of the Colo 
 rado Holiness Association were held. Among 
 its members were our bitterest enemies. A fire 
 destroyed the building and they were compelled 
 to hunt other quarters. They had a humiliat 
 ing experience which brought disgrace upon 
 the association and later they disbanded alto 
 gether. 
 
 The Psalmist said, "I called upon the Lord 
 in distress: the Lord answered me, and set 
 me in a large place. The Lord is on my side; 
 1 will not fear: what can man do unto me? The
 
 SWIFT JUDGMENTS 231 
 
 Lord taketh my part with them that help me: 
 therefore shall I see my desire upon them that 
 hate me. It is better to trust in the Lord than 
 to put confidence in man. It is better to trust 
 in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. 
 All nations compassed me about: but in the 
 name of the Lord will I destroy them. * * * 
 They compassed me about like bees; they are 
 quenched as the fire of thorns: * * * The 
 Lord is my strength and song, and is become 
 my salvation" (Psa. 118). 
 
 How sure is the foundation of the right 
 eous! God's word cannot fail, He will help 
 those who help His people, and destroy those 
 who fight against them. There is no alterna 
 tive. When people hate and persecute those 
 who trust in Him, they will have to suffer the 
 consequences for He has promised to uphold 
 the righteous by the right hand of His power, 
 and to destroy all the workers of iniquity. 
 
 Nearly all who lived in this particular block 
 on Champa street were enemies to our work. 
 An old, gray-headed woman with children and 
 grandchildren, showed much hostility. She 
 kept the young people in her home from attend 
 ing our services when they had a desire to serve 
 the Lord. Afterwards her favorite grand-
 
 j^j Tkrni STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 daughter, unable to stem the tide of worldli- 
 ness in the company where she was com 
 pelled to go, brought sorrow to the limne. 
 Other things happened which were equally as 
 bad, which helped to clothe- the home in mourn 
 ing and finally break it up. 
 
 Judgments came quickly on those who op 
 posed God's work and people. There were 
 suicides, murders and disasters happening .ill 
 around us. One could scarcely pick up a 
 newspaper without reading the account of 
 some one's being suddenly cut down, who had 
 attended our services and failed to yield to the 
 pleadings of the Spirit or had fought against 
 the work. A woman becoming angry at what 
 she read in one of our papers, tore it in 
 pieces, and the next day dropped dead. All 
 kinds of calamities came upon hypocritical 
 professors, who had used their influence 
 against the work. Truly the God who deliv 
 ered the children of Israel from the Egyptians 
 and sent judgments on all who tried to hinder 
 them, was with us in demonstration and power. 
 When we had done our best, our extrem 
 ity was His opportunity, and He would roll 
 the sea away. When our feet were in the 
 water's edge and the billows mountain high.
 
 SWIFT JUDGMENTS 233 
 
 He would catch the flood with an unseen hand 
 and let us pass over. Then on the banks of 
 deliverance He would give us a song of praise 
 and the gates of heaven would open over our 
 
 souls. 
 
 \Yonderful, wonderful, beyond words to tell, 
 \Yonderful salvation, that makes our hearts swell . 
 
 To the best of my ability I have been try 
 ing to tell it for many years. There are times 
 of special anointing when I feel the earthen 
 vessel will break, but God knows just how much 
 I can bear and stays His hand. Oh, if 
 people could only know that it is possible to 
 have a foretaste of heaven on earth they cer 
 tainly would let go the trifling things of this 
 world and place their affections on things 
 above. Riches of grace are at their command. 
 When my soul was ushered into the Holy of 
 Holies, I was so enraptured with the face of 
 Jesus and the depths of His infinite love, it 
 seemed I would die if I could not make it 
 known. And from day to day, I pressed for 
 ward, using all my ransomed powers, exhort 
 ing, singing, preaching and writing, trying to 
 tell something of the heights, depths and 
 breadths of this great salvation, though it 
 seemed that all I could say or do was only a
 
 234 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 drop in the ocean. But I was determined if 
 He could use an instrument of clay to place 
 myself at His command, whether it meant life 
 or death. I knew it would mean the loss of all 
 things, but some things were in the unknown 
 bundle of consecration that were revealed la 
 ter. But by the grace of God He has helped 
 me to triumph. 
 
 When the enemy has severely pressed me, 
 I have cried unto Him and He has never 
 failed to reach out a helping hand. The 
 patli has not been strewn with roses, often 
 the thorns have pricked my feet and I have 
 been weary with unceasing toil, but thank- 
 God, it has not been irksome. It has 
 a pleasure to give Him my best and yet in 
 doing so I felt I was an unprofitable 
 servant. Oh, how often I haye prayed 
 to be saved from a life of selfishness, 
 to be willing to be spent in behalf of oth 
 ers! And how wonderfully He has come 
 and rewarded my efforts and multiplied my 
 talents, and best of all given me the assurance 
 that. I was pleasing Him, however ungrateful 
 others might be! 
 
 The enemy has never given me a thrust 
 that has left anv bitterness in mv soul toward
 
 o 
 d
 
 236 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 anyone. He has worked through the dear 
 est ties of earth and placed the dagger in their 
 hand to plunge into the depths of my heart, 
 hut instead of a curse it has always proved t. 
 be a blessing. Because of the weakness of the 
 flesh it was hard to bear, hut ] was perfectly 
 willing to take anything that came, knowing 
 that I had the promise that no instrument 
 that was formed against me should prosper, 
 and even! though at times it seemed my life's 
 blood was ebbing away, I have had no 
 complaint against humanity. Romans 8:28 
 says, "And we know that all things work to 
 gether for good to them that love God, to them 
 who are the called according to his purpose." 
 And God's word assures us that if we suffer 
 with Him we shall also reign with Him (2 
 Tim. 2:12). There is no way to get to heaven 
 without taking the Calvary route, and the 
 servant is not above his Lord. "For he know- 
 eth our frame; he remembereth that we are 
 dust" (Psa. 103:14). 
 
 In order to lift up a New Testament stand 
 ard of righteousness there have been times 
 when I have been severe with people and 
 after they have had sufficient warning and 
 failed to profit by it, for Christ's sake I cut
 
 SWIFT JUDGMENTS 237 
 
 them oft" and had no more fellowship with 
 them. It was hard to do, often taking all my 
 physical and spiritual strength, but God has 
 never failed to show His approval and to re 
 ward me for keeping up the standard. 
 
 I have found that my worst foes have been 
 among my own kinsfolk. The enemy has 
 sought in every conceivable way through hu 
 man relationships to defeat the work God has 
 called me to do. He has taken the advantage 
 of these ties and oftentimes cracked the lash 
 over my head to force me into submission, and 
 desperate conflicts have followed, but thank 
 God, I have triumphed. 
 
 The rains have descended, the floods have 
 come, the winds have blown and beat upon my 
 house, but it has been unmoved. It is founded 
 on the Rock, and storm and tempest have 
 not been able to overthrow it. There is nothing 
 of earth stronger than the human tie. The 
 devil knows this, and along his line of defense 
 raises great bulwarks to defeat the kingdom 
 of Christ. If he should succeed the plan of 
 salvation would be a failure and his triumph 
 would be complete. But thank God there are 
 a few people who are not totally blind to his 
 schemes, and who would sacrifice the dearest
 
 238 TRUTH STKANCKR THAN FICTION 
 
 human ties rather than to give up Christ. 
 Farewell to the world with all its p< ;mj> a..l pride. 
 k>r.- my Savior, in Thee 1 would abide. 
 
 If the enemies of i;.c Cross who pluni^ 
 >\vk!cssly into t'.ic 1 attic would only stop and 
 t':ink, reason \\nuld gain t C and 
 
 many calamities \vould 1 c avoided. T.iose 
 \vl:o bccorr.e l;old in their defiance of t/.e truth 
 usually do so with a conscience smiting them, 
 and a little hesitancy and forethought would 
 turn aside the judgments of the Almighty. 
 God's word cannot fail. The past six thou 
 sand years of Bible history have proved this 
 to be true. He is the Alpha and Omega, the 
 first and the last. Man may get in between 
 >omcwhere, but be assured God will be at the 
 winding up of the conflict, and all flesh before 
 Him shall be silent. 
 
 Isaiah, speaking of His anointed said, 
 ''I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One <>i N- 
 rael, thy Savior: I gave Egypt for thy ran 
 som, Ethiopia and Seba for fhee. Since thou 
 wast precious in my sight thou hast been hon 
 orable, and I have loved thee: therefore I will 
 -ive men for thee, and people for thy life. 
 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy 
 seed from t':e east ard gather thee from the
 
 240 TRUTH STR.\.\(,I-:K THAN FICTION 
 
 west. I will say to the north, Give up; and 
 to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons 
 from far, and my daughters from the ends of 
 the earth." 
 
 Many times when the enemy has made 
 a desperate fight, I have been encouraged by 
 the foregoing scripture. It hardly seemed pos 
 sible that the Lord would work through such 
 an instrument when there were others at hand 
 that seemed far more competent. But in spite 
 of their protests He has rejected them and 
 cast them aside, and continued to pour out His 
 blessings upon me, and to use me at the front 
 of the battle, exposing hypocrisy in the church 
 es. Scores of would-be leaders were set aside 
 because they were unwilling to make the 
 sacrifice and uncover sin. Many of them 
 counted the cost and were not willing to 
 pay the price, and today they are withered 
 branches, tied up in bundles, ready to be 
 burned. How hard it is for people to obey, 
 when God says do this or that, or sit thott here, 
 or stand still, or render service in some part of 
 the vineyard that is not pleasing to them ! 
 They, say they want to obey God, but at the 
 same time they want to have their own way 
 and make the Almighty come to their term<.
 
 SWIFT JUDGMENTS 241 
 
 This He will never do. He may give them 
 a little rope, but be assured there will be a time 
 of reining up when they must consent to His 
 decisions, or suffer the consequences. "Not 
 every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that 
 doeth the will of my Father which is in heav 
 en." 
 
 TRUTH 16.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 GOD'S JUDGMENTS IN THE EARTH 
 
 .The fulfilment of prophecy was mightily 
 demonstrated in the earthquake disaster on 
 the Pacific Coast in 1906. The whole country 
 was horrified at the loss of property and hu 
 man life, which came as the result of a single 
 stroke from the hand of the Almighty. When 
 conditions in San Francisco are understood 
 one should not be surprised that nearly the 
 whole city was wiped out. It must b,e remem 
 bered that there is a limit to God's forbearance, 
 and it matters not whether many or few are 
 involved. He is longsuffering ( and merciful, 
 but when a decision to administer punishment 
 has been reached, it often comes like a flash of 
 lightning and whole cities and countries are 
 left in desolation. Psalm 7:11-16 says, "God 
 judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with 
 the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will 
 whet his sword ; he hath bent his bow, and made 
 it ready. He hath also prepared for him the 
 instruments of death; he ordained his arrows 
 against the persecutors. Behold, he travail-
 
 GOD'S JUDGMENTS IN THE EARTH 243 
 
 eth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, 
 and brought forth falsehood. He made a 
 pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch 
 which he made. His mischief shall return 
 upon his own head, and his violent dealing 
 shall come down upon his own pate." 
 
 There is always the house of Saul and the 
 house of David, and these two houses are 
 closely connected. Their inmates are togeth 
 er for a time, but there comes a separation. 
 Saul carries a javelin or a dagger under his 
 cloak, and at a favorable time will seek to de 
 stroy the life of David, or the spiritual life. 
 Hence, the Lord has said that a man's foes 
 are they of his own household. It has been 
 so all down the ages. David once lodged in 
 the house of Saul and ate at his table. Saul, 
 feeling that David would some day be heir to 
 the throne, and inflamed with the fires of jeal 
 ousy sought to take his life, even after David 
 had brought such great deliverance for Israel 
 by slaying Goliath. 
 
 For ten years David was pursued by his 
 relentless foe. He was hounded like a deer 
 from place to place, making hairbreadth es 
 capes, and sometimes almost despairing of life, 
 but there came an end to the battle. -Saul,
 
 _'44 TRUTH STRAXCKR THAN FKTIOX 
 
 who was once counted among the prophets, 
 after he departed from the Lord sought conso 
 lation from the witch of Endor, and in that 
 hour was rebuked by Samuel to the great con 
 sternation of the sorceress. God was still on 
 his track, and as with most others who pursue 
 such a course, Saul's life ended in tragedy. 
 
 God is merciful to those who have never 
 been enlightened, but there are many stripes 
 for those who know to do His will and do it 
 not. 
 
 The calamities that have lately been visited 
 upon the nation have started in the West and 
 are traveling East, they have followed in the 
 wake of the Pillar of Fire movement, and not 
 only have there been individual calamities by 
 the scores and hundreds, but whole cities have 
 been in part or totally destroyed. Some town^ 
 have been wiped off the map by tornadoes, 
 floods and fire. Through these many dis- 
 a-ters God is awakening the people to their 
 peril and giving us the opportunity to warn 
 them to flee the wrath to come. 
 
 There has been much unbelief and indif 
 ference on the part of professed Christians in 
 regard to divine retribution. Many have 
 thought that God has no hand in such things,
 
 GOD'S JUDGMENTS IN THE EARTH 245 
 
 that they come by mere chance. This is 
 due to the fact that their spiritual senses are 
 dull and they have no abhorrence for sin. 
 
 If they had no relish for the pleasures of 
 this world or the things that are forbidden in 
 God's word they would see- things from an en 
 tirely different point of view and would expect 
 calamity to fall on those who disobey God and 
 have no reverence for His word. 
 
 Old Church apostasy is responsible for 
 people's daring and unbelief. If the watch 
 men on the tower were giving out the warning 
 there would not be so many taken unawares, 
 but they are crying, "Peace and safety," while 
 the storm-clouds of God's wrath continue to 
 gather. 
 
 There was no thought of approaching ca 
 lamity in San Francisco on the morning of 
 April 1 8th, 1906, when the earth began to 
 heave as though trying to get rid of an unde 
 sirable burden, resulting in the destruction of 
 millions of dollars worth of property, the loss 
 of many human lives, and rendering homeless 
 by fire nearly 300,000 people, or almost the en 
 tire population of the city. God smote this 
 modern Gomorrah as He did the cities of an 
 cient times, its cup of iniquity was full. A
 
 s 
 u 
 
 I. 
 
 
 
 u 
 x 
 

 
 GOD'S JUDGMENTS IN THE EARTH 247 
 
 great majority of its population were pleasure 
 seekers. There was not a city in the United 
 States more thorougly given up to amusements 
 than was this proud metropolis of the Pacific 
 Coast. 
 
 Conrad's Opera Company had sold tickets 
 to the amount of $120,000, on Monday pre 
 ceding the calamity. This sale broke all pre 
 vious records, but the great theater building 
 was shaken to pieces and burned before the 
 play came off. The company was afterward 
 entreated to turn over the money to the relief 
 of the sufferers. Had things gone on undis 
 turbed there might have been twice $120,000 
 put into opera tickets, as it will be understood 
 that the $120,000 was only a fore-installment 
 from the sale of tickets. This shows the god 
 less trend of a profligate people, and their total 
 blindness to spiritual things. 
 
 Could other curtains be lifted and the 
 scenes of debauchery in the city previous to 
 its destruction, be depicted on the screens, 
 God's reasons for wiping it out would be more 
 forcibly apparent. Under the light of civiliza 
 tion we have no doubt that San Francisco was 
 as deserving of punishment as Sodom and Go 
 morrah.
 
 248 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 The Scriptures show that the Gentile Age 
 is rapidly drawing to a close. Luke 21:11 
 says, "Great earthquakes shall be in divers 
 places, and famines, and pestilences ; and fear 
 ful sights and great signs shall there be from 
 heaven." This is one of the prophecies to be 
 fulfilled just preceding the coming of the Lord. 
 Jesus says, "These are the beginning of sor 
 rows." 
 
 The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius about t la- 
 time of the San Francisco earthquake brought 
 terror, to those living along the Mediterranean. 
 There were great numbers of earthquakes in 
 the vicinity of Rome and it seemed for a time 
 that the nations would awaken from their 
 awful sleep. But people are prone to forget, 
 and do so in the face of impending calamity. 
 
 The people at the Golden Gate who sur 
 vived the disaster began to plan greater build 
 ings. In their imaginations they saw the city 
 rising from its ruins more permanent and 
 beautiful than ever before, and they have ac 
 complished their purpose. Buildings have 
 been constructed that are supposed to be proof 
 against earthquakes. It is just like the folly 
 of man to attempt to do such a thing. We pity 
 their intrepedity, knowing that God has
 
 GOD'S JUDGMENTS IN THE EARTH 249 
 
 brought every work of man to naught as it has 
 pleased Him to do since the world began. 
 When He shakes a city down, people had better 
 not tamper with the rubbish, lest another stroke 
 should follow more deadly than the first. 
 
 In the study of God's word, we find that 
 earthquakes are going to play an important 
 part in the tribulation judgments. In the past 
 centuries God used them to destroy peoples 
 and cities whose cups of iniquity were full. 
 The earth opened and swallowed up Korah's 
 crowd who were rebelling against Moses, and 
 the people pertaining to Korah went down alive 
 into the pit. Afterwards fire came out and de 
 stroyed 250 men who offered incense, then fol 
 lowed the pestilence, destroying 14,000 people 
 who were rebels at heart against God. The 
 Lord knows how to sift the wicked out and pur 
 ify an atmosphere that is polluted by iniquity. 
 
 Isaiah, in prophesying of God's judgments 
 on Jerusalem, says, 'Thou shalt be visited of 
 the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with 
 earthquake, and great noise, with storm and 
 tempest, and the flame of devouring fire" (Isa. 
 29:6). "Yea, it shall be at an instant sud 
 denly" (Isa. 29:5). Fire always follows 
 earthquakes. The loss of life and the d'e-
 
 250 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 struction of property in San Francisco by the 
 earthquake were not so great, but it was the 
 fire that followed which wrapped the city in a 
 seething hell of flames and drove people mad 
 in trying to make their escape. 
 
 GOD'S WHIRLWINDS 
 
 There are many people congratulating 
 themselves on being out of the volcanic dis 
 tricts, but they seem to forget that they are in 
 the course of the whirlwinds (cyclones). 
 "The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and 
 the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his 
 feet." In Oklahoma, towns have been almost 
 -wept out of existence by cyclones God'- 
 whirlwinds. There is no building that a whirl 
 wind cannot hurl from its foundation, nor tree 
 so firmly rooted, but what it must succumb to 
 its power when once in its embrace. At the 
 very moment when people are saying, "Peace 
 and safety," these monsters of the plains swoop 
 down upon them and devastate everything in 
 their course. Stories are told of happenings 
 in their wake that are almost incredible. \Ye 
 have heard of their driving a board endwi-i- 
 through a house, and sucking the water out of 
 a well. The destruction that follows their 
 trail is similar to that of an earthquake. In
 
 GOD'S Jrnr.MKXTS IN THE KAKTH 251 
 
 cities fire breaks out and the people are left 
 homeless and starving. 
 
 EARTHQUAKES IN DIVERS PLACES 
 
 As the Gentile age draws to close, ca 
 lamities will come thick and fast in different 
 parts of the earth at the same time. Famines 
 will follow and it will then be impossible to 
 render assistance to the suffering and the dy 
 ing. It was an easy matter for the people 
 of the United States to come to the relief of 
 those who were rendered destitute by the earth 
 quake calamity on the Pacific Coast, but let a 
 number of such , disasters, and even greater, 
 come at once, and one can readily see what the 
 results will be. Should London, New York, 
 Chicago and St. Petersburg receive shocks in 
 rapid succession, or all at the same time, all 
 the governmental powers of the globe would 
 be paralyzed, military forces put to confusion, 
 and mutiny, bloodshed and anarchy, would fol 
 low without restraint. There will be no such 
 thing as law and order when the thirst for 
 blood in human beings is inflamed by want, 
 starvation and revenge. The walls of asy 
 lums, jails and penitentiaries will be. shaken 
 down, and hundreds and thousands of lunatics
 
 252 TKI in STRANGER THAN KICTION 
 
 and criminals allowed to roam the country, 
 adding to the awful horrors those of unbridled 
 passion and violence. 
 
 Let the reins of the English government he- 
 loosened in London alone and nearly seven 
 millions of people turned loose to the ravages 
 of famine and pestilence and you will have a 
 state of affairs inconceivable in the mind of 
 man, and too horrihle to depict by word or pen. 
 Ports would he captured, vessels sei/ed. and 
 all communications with other nations cut off. 
 Should the laboring class of England once gain 
 the ascendency there would be volleys of pent 
 up wrath and revenge that would burst forth, 
 like the lava from the crater of a volcano. 
 against the aristocracy, under whose tyran 
 nical rule they have been kept in ignorance. 
 poverty and wretchedness for centuries past. 
 Records would be destroyed, property >ei/ed. 
 and men of title slain. 
 
 . It would be a question of only a little time 
 when the whole island would he in the embrace 
 of a famine, millions of dead bodies would be 
 piled up without burial, while a deadly pesti 
 lential atmosphere would follow, and it would 
 be impossible for any one to survive. 
 
 \Ve are on the verge of something more
 
 O 
 G
 
 J54 TRUTH STKA.\<;KK THAN FICTION 
 
 dreadful than has ever been knuwn since the 
 foundation of the world. Infidelity is rapidly 
 increasing and men are sinning against great 
 er light than ever before. The spirit of anti 
 christ is everywhere rearing its head in haugh 
 tiness and rebellion against God. His word is 
 trampled under foot and scientific reasons giv 
 en by the worldly wise for everything that is 
 coming to pass. He will not endure this state 
 of things much longer, and suddenly, when i 
 pie are least expecting it, His strokes will fall 
 upon them. 
 
 TRIBULATION ON THE JEWS 
 
 Jesus said to. the Jews, "Behold, your house 
 is left unto you desolate." Has not this de 
 nunciation been fearfully fulfilled? 
 
 "Never was a narrative more full of horrors, 
 frenzies, unspeakable degredations and overwhelming 
 miseries than is the siege of Jerusalem. Never ua> 
 any prophecy more closely, more terribly, more over 
 whelmingly fulfilled than this of t'hri-t's. The men 
 going about in the disguise of women with swonls 
 concealed under their gay robes; the rival outrages 
 and infamies of John and Simon ; the prie-t- struck by 
 darts from the upper court of the temple and falling 
 slain by their sacrifices ; the blood of all sorts of dead 
 carcasses priests, strangers, profane --landing in 
 lakes in the holy courts the corpses themselves lying
 
 GOD'S JUDGMENTS ix THE EARTH 255 
 
 in piles and mounds on the very altar slopes ; the fires 
 feeding luxuriously on cedar work overlaid with gold ; 
 friend and foe trampled to death on the gleaming 
 Mosiac's, promiscuous carnage; priests swollen with 
 hunger, leaping madly into the devouring flames till 
 at last those flames had done their work, and what 
 had been the temple at Jerusalem the beautiful and 
 holy house of God, was a heap of ghastly ruins where 
 the burning embers were half slaked in pools of 
 gore." FARRAR'S LIFE OF CHRIST. 
 
 Jesus and His disciples foretold the de 
 struction of Jerusalem, but there was only an 
 occasional one who would listen. For the 
 most part the people went on, hardened in their 
 infidelity, and as stupid and indifferent as 
 beasts about the fearful calamities that were 
 about to fall upon them, and it" is just so today. 
 The fallen preachers are doing all in their pow 
 er to ease the consciences of their self-indul 
 gent, pleasure-seeking, money-loving congre 
 gations. God's wrath will soon burst upon 
 them with all the horrors depicted in the pages 
 of sacred and profane history, and even worse, 
 for Jesus says in reference to the end of the 
 Gentile age, that there will be a time of "great 
 tribulation, such as was not since the begin 
 ning of the world to this time, no, nor ever 
 shall be."
 
 256 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 Another picture of the unutterable horrors 
 of the destruction of Jerusalem might be re 
 lated here : 
 
 "And did not all the righteous blood shed upon 
 the earth since the days of Abel come upon that gen 
 eration? to see their fellows crucified in jest 'some 
 one way and some another,' till 'room was wanting for 
 the crosses and crosses for the carcasses?' to ex 
 perience the 'deep silence' and the kind of deadly night 
 which seized upon the city in the intervals of rage? 
 to see 600,000 dead bodies carried to the gates? to 
 see friends fighting madly for grass and nettles, and 
 the refuse of the drains? to see the bloody zealots 
 'gasping for want, and stumbling and staggering along 
 like mad dogs?' to hear the horrid tale of the miser 
 able mother, who, in the pangs of famine, had de 
 voured her own child? to be sold as slaves in such 
 multitudes that at last none would buy them? to see 
 the streets running with blood, and the 'fire of burning 
 houses quenched in the blood of their defenders?' 
 to have their young sons sold in hundreds, or exposed 
 in the amphitheaters to the gladiator or the fury of 
 the lion, until at last 'since the people were now slain, 
 the Holy House burned down, and the city in flames, 
 there was nothing further left for the enemy to do?' " 
 FARRAR'S LIFE OF CHRIST. 
 
 Reader, this is only a picture that prefig 
 ures the awful horrors of the Gentile judg 
 ments that will break upon the world after
 
 GOD'S JUDGMENTS IN THE EARTH 257 
 
 Christ takes His blood-washed Bride away. 
 The blood of millions of martyrs must be 
 avenged on the Gentile nations. God's saints 
 have never received more terrible treatment 
 from the hands of the Jews than they have 
 from the Gentiles. The wicked Nero, the agents 
 of the Inquisition, and all other persecutors of 
 God's children must suffer fearful retribution. 
 John, in Revelation 6:9-10, says, "I saw under 
 the altar the souls of them that were slain for 
 the word of God, and for the testimony which 
 they held: And they cried with a loud voice, 
 saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost 
 thou not judge and avenge our blood on them 
 that dwell on the earth?" We see plainly by 
 this and many other scriptures that the blood 
 of these martyrs will be avenged on the Gen 
 tile nations. There have been many millions 
 of these martyrs who have been tortured and 
 put to death in every conceivable way. God 
 says that once more He will shake the heavens 
 and the earth and all the nations. This will 
 not be done altogether through the operations 
 of wars, but by earthquakes. Then will bs 
 fulfilled the prophecy, "For when they shall 
 say, Peace and safety ; then sudden destruction 
 
 TRUTH 17.
 
 258 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 cometh upon them, * * and they shall not 
 escape" (i Thess. 5:3). 
 
 "IN SUCH AN HOUR AS YE THINK NOT" 
 
 It is reported that the earthquake at San 
 Francisco took place at 5:15 a. m., at the very 
 hour when nearly the whole city was asleep. 
 No one was expecting any trouble when that 
 terrific shock came, lasting about three min 
 utes, which almost stopped the heart pulsations 
 of hundreds of thousands of people. \Ye are 
 told that no sensation is more sickening or hor 
 rifying than that produced by an earthquake. 
 Those who have felt the shocks say there are 
 no words adequate to describe it. People go 
 insane from its effects. One of the awful fea 
 tures of the tribulation will be the fact that a 
 great per cent, of the population will be fren 
 zied with suffering and fear. The Bible plainly 
 tells us that men will seek death and shall not 
 find it, and in their efforts to escape God's 
 wrath, will call for the rocks and hills to fall 
 on them and hide them from His presence. 
 This shows how men will suffer on account of 
 evil consciences and in trying to escape one ca 
 lamity they will meet another. 
 
 The prophet Amos, in describing the effects
 
 GOD'S JUDGMENTS IN THE EARTH 259 
 
 of an earthquake, says, it will be, "as if a man 
 did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or 
 went into the house, and leaned his hand on 
 the wall, and a serpent bit him." This prophet 
 also says that they will wander from city to 
 city in search of water to drink and will not be 
 satisfied, and yet they will not return unto the 
 Lord. People look upon the Pacific Coast dis 
 aster as something that simply happened by 
 chance, and are trying to give scientific reasons 
 for its occurrence ; they are determined to leave 
 God out of the affair, contrary to His word, 
 which says, "Shall a trumpet be blown in the 
 city, and the people not be afraid? * * and 
 the Lord hath not done it?" 
 
 It is a known fact that God has always had 
 a people on the earth to whom He could reveal 
 His secrets. He occasionally finds a chosen 
 vessel who will keep His commandments and 
 do His will at any cost; to such a one He re 
 veals the hidden mysteries of grace and shows 
 him things to come. "Surely the Lord God 
 will do nothing, but he revealeth his secrets 
 unto his servants the prophets." God has used 
 the Pacific Coast calamity to open His word to 
 1 1 is true people.
 
 CHAPTER X i 1 1 
 TORNADOES AND FLOODS 
 
 On March 2ist, 1913, a terrific storm, with 
 startling suddenness started in Northern Tex 
 as, and traveled diagonally across the country, 
 bisecting the Mississippi Valley moving in a 
 northerly direction across Ohio into the regions 
 of the great lakes. 
 
 In the first stages of the storm, millions of 
 dollars worth of property were destroyed and 
 irany lives lost. Alabama seems to have been 
 the worst stricken. 
 
 Telegraphic communication was cut off, 
 and in some instances 5,000 mile detours were 
 made to connect Chicago with New York. 
 There were 200 trunk wires that were lost. 
 
 The wind, combined with rain, sleet and 
 hail, was responsible for the situation. For 
 five hours New York labored to get in touch 
 with the stricken area, then made a sweep 
 touching the Gulf of Mexico, the Eastern 
 Rockies and the Canadian border line. 
 
 nif-wing eitfhty-dght miles an hour the 
 
 in -truck \\Ysu-rn NV\v York, killing two
 
 TORNADOES AND FLOODS 261 
 
 persons and imperiling the lives of many 
 others. 
 
 One hundred patients at the state hospital 
 at Utica narrowly escaped death while being 
 hurried into the building when the storm struck 
 the city with the force of a tornado. Two 
 trees on the lawn where the patients had been 
 taking an airing, were blown down, and sev 
 eral inmates were cut by flying glass when the 
 windows were broken. An attendant was in 
 jured by a plank blown from a building near by. 
 The gale plowed a path 200 feet wide through 
 the hospital grounds and a portion of the city, 
 causing much damage. 
 
 Lower Peach Tree, Alabama, was prac 
 tically wiped out. At Gibbsland houses were 
 lifted from their foundations and carried 
 through the air several hundred yards and 
 dropped just outside the town limits. In Mur- 
 freesboro nearly every building in the public 
 square was leveled. A Presbyterian church 
 was wrecked, and the corner of the court house 
 unroofed. Conductors on trains reported that 
 houses were literally carried by the wind across 
 the tracks. 
 
 Two heroic young women telephone oper- 
 atros, Mabel Hill and Minnie Year wood, stayed
 
 3 
 D 
 
 55 
 O 
 
 H 
 U 
 
 C/5 
 
 ai 
 
 - 
 x
 
 TORNADOES AND FLOODS 263 
 
 at their post of duty, regardless of the flying 
 timbers that broke the windows of the building 
 they occupied, and signaled fire companies and 
 aroused citizens from their beds, "then girl- 
 like, when it was over broke down and cried." 
 
 In Madison County, Tennessee, the storm 
 left a path of destruction a quarter of a mile 
 wide, killing people and blowing down many 
 houses and barns. 
 
 Everywhere churches and school houses 
 were damaged. The region between Hoxie, 
 Black Rock and Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, was 
 strewn with wreckage of every description. In 
 many instances the only remaining evidences 
 of houses were what was left of bed quilts, 
 sheets and clothing blowing from trees that 
 withstood the force of the gale. 
 
 A railroad station at Minturn was blown 
 away, as was the station at Hoxie. In all of 
 these towns and cities, lives were lost. In one 
 town as many as thirty-nine persons were 
 known to have been killed. One of the pecul 
 iar features of the storm was that it found 
 most people asleep. For days it was almost 
 impossible to estimate the loss. 
 
 At Memphis the government steamer Vul 
 can was sunk in forty feet of water.
 
 j<>4 TKI in STRA.XCMR THAN FICTION 
 
 Damage estimated at a million dollars re 
 sulted from the tornado in Indiana. A num 
 ber of people were killed and injured from liv 
 ing debris. "Churches suffered particularly 
 fnnn the gale. At Tipton the Methodist 
 church was unroofed. The chimney <>t the 
 Holy Angels Church at Indianapolis was top 
 pled over and crashed through the roof onto 
 an altar elaborately decorated for Easter. The 
 Methodist church at Harmony and three 
 churches at Franklin were demolished." 
 
 In nearly every account given of the de 
 struction in the wake of the tornado special 
 mention is made of churches that were demol 
 ished. It was just preceding Easter when 
 elaborate preparations were being made for 
 the services. The practices in the modern 
 churches in connection with Easter are simply 
 idolatry. Women and men dress in their gay 
 est apparel, and Easter Sunday at the church 
 is a veritable Vanity Fair. 
 
 New bonnets, silks, satins and flashing 
 gems, everywhere greet the eye. The pastor 
 is closed in with a bank of flowers while inside 
 
 * 
 
 of hearts are ghastly skeletons, whitened sep- 
 ulchers, full of dead men's bones. 
 
 The pastor preached his little Easter ser-
 
 TORNADOES AND FLOODS 265 
 
 monette, comparing the resurrection life to 
 April flowers, and the whole proceedings are 
 an abomination in God's sight, a travesty on the 
 religion of the Bible. Is it any wonder that 
 the steepled houses where such performances 
 are carried on under the name of religion are 
 swept away by the tornadoes of God's wrath? 
 
 In the streets of Indianapolis a large force 
 of men worked all day removing fallen trees, 
 while policemen guarded the dangerous places 
 in the down-town district. With houses un 
 roofed and windows broken the cold wave fol 
 lowing the storm caused much suffering. The 
 storm swept some of the streets with as much 
 impunity as though they were western plains. 
 An 86-mile gale hurled pedestrians to the street 
 and injured many with flying debris. 
 
 At Louisville a farmer had his team and 
 wagon blown into an adjoining field, but he 
 himself escaped without injury. . 
 
 Sixty persons in the Covington, Kentucky 
 jail were bounced from their cots when light 
 ning struck the prison and hurled a fifteen foot 
 chimney to the ground. The iron cells and 
 cots made good conductors for the lightning 
 and the prisoners were in a panic. 
 
 At Jefferson, Texas the wind blew two
 
 266 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 minutes at the rate of 120 miles an hour. A 
 woman was killed and many houses ruined at 
 Winona, Texas. 
 
 Ohio suffered greatly from the storm. At 
 the county infirmary at Tiffin a smoke-stack 
 was blown down and tottering walls made res 
 cue impossible. A brick building was blown 
 over on which several men were working. The 
 contractor was killed and others badly injured. 
 
 Two fishing smacks disappeared on San- 
 dusky Bay that were sighted three miles off 
 from shore in the morning. A boat went 
 ashore near Danbury, Ohio and was broken 
 to pieces. 
 
 In Western Pennsylvania several houses 
 were wrecked and a number of churches dam 
 aged. 
 
 Following the fearful tornado rain poured 
 down for four days, and had it not been for 
 God's promise that He would not totally de 
 stroy the world with a flood many would have 
 thought that a repetition of the days of Noah 
 was upon us, but the bow of promise gave hope 
 that .God would stay His hand and spare the 
 world another deluge. 
 
 Rivers and lakes in the North and Middle 
 West reached a high water mark that had
 
 TORNADOES AND FLOODS 267 
 
 never been known before. It was declared 
 that it was the greatest flood since the days of 
 Noah. 
 
 March 25th, Grand Reservoir in Mercer 
 County, Ohio, the largest artificial body of 
 water in the world, broke its dikes and caused 
 a flood at Dayton. Unofficial reports of the 
 dead and dying were all the way from 500 to 
 10,000 in and about Dayton. Later, it was 
 found that many who were missing were res 
 cued from tops of buildings and other places 
 where they were huddled together like animals. 
 
 The water was so high the city was left in 
 total darkness and practically every business 
 house was flooded to the second floor. The 
 city of Celina, Mercer County, situated on the 
 south of the reservoir, was not heard of for 
 some time after the devastating waters broke 
 loose in their frenzy of destruction. It was 
 supposed that this town of 30,000 inhabitants 
 was totally destroyed. 
 
 St. Mary's on the north bank of the reser 
 voir also remained rn silence. 
 
 In the history of the world, says the New 
 York World, there never was a flogd of greater 
 extent, with the exception perhaps of the pre 
 historic deluge of Noah's time. Wind and
 
 o 
 
 X 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 LJ 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 

 
 TORNADOES AND FLOODS 269 
 
 rainstorms of terrific violence covered vast 
 areas of the middle West from the Mis 
 souri River to the Allegheny Mountains, reach 
 ing as far north as Ontario and below South 
 ern Illinois. Ohio, Indiana and parts of Illinois 
 and Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas, 
 suffered most severely. 
 
 Hamilton, Dayton, Delaware, Middletown, 
 Columbus and Youngstown, presented partic 
 ularly pitiable spectacles. In these cities the 
 fatalities and property loss were heavy. 
 
 Frantic appeals came from the Mayors of 
 these cities, especially Dayton, for aid, and the 
 Federal and State authorities, as well as the 
 Red Cross Society, took hurried measures for 
 relief. 
 
 Cincinnati experienced a cloudburst early 
 on the morning of the 25th which started the 
 Ohio River to rising rapidly. Soon many of the 
 streets were flooded. Families in the lowlands 
 wei\- warned before the waters reached them. 
 
 A big dam a short distance from Akron, 
 Ohio burst and horsemen were sent through 
 out the valley to warn the populace of their 
 danger. Hundreds fled to higher ground. 
 
 Sweeping up the Ohio Valley from the 
 west, the third storm in ten days devastated
 
 2/o TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 different sections between Louisville and Cin 
 cinnati in Kentucky, and extensive districts in 
 Illinois, Indiana and Southwestern Ohio. A 
 number of persons were reported killed at Ma- 
 kanda, Illinois. At Lima, Ohio, flooded by 
 the Ottawa River, ten miles of trains were held 
 up by washouts at Middlepoint. 
 
 ' At Springfield, Ohio, Mad River and Buck Creek 
 both out of their banks and several houses flooded. 
 LaRue inundated. Many reported homeless and much 
 suffering among poor classes. 
 
 Ft. Wayne, Indiana, St. Joseph, Maumee and 
 St. Mary's Rivers on rampage. Towns without 
 light and water famine threatened. 
 
 Marion, Indiana, 500 persons forced to flee for 
 their lives. 
 
 Ellwood, Indiana, 300 persons homeless. 
 
 St. Louis, Many families forced to leave their 
 homes by the Des Peres River. 
 
 Youngstown, Ohio, 14,000 men are idle by rea 
 son of closing down of factories and mills. 
 
 Newark, Ohio, Mar. 25th. Special Despatch to 
 Commercial Tribune. 
 
 Waters from the North Fork and the South Fork 
 of the Licking River are running through the resi 
 dential part of the city. Several hundred people have 
 been rescued 5y boats from their homes. The police 
 department has ordered every one to vacate the lower
 
 TORNADOES AND FLOODS 271 
 
 part of the city at once. The flood-gates of Buckeye 
 Lake nine miles from this city have been thrown open 
 because the water was in danger of breaking through 
 the dikes. Were the dikes to give way a sad story 
 would be told at Newark. 
 
 All the B. & O. trains operating on the Sandusky 
 division have been withdrawn. The city of Mt. Ver- 
 non on the B. & O. is shut off tonight without light or 
 water supply. 
 
 The water is still rising lapidly. The streets are 
 crowded with people who are not satisfied in the face 
 of impending disaster to go to bed. 
 
 On the 25th of March at Columbus, Ohio, 
 half a hundred row and motor boats were used 
 to carry supplies through the streets to the suf 
 ferers. 
 
 It is impossible to go into details and de 
 scribe the frightful scenes of suffering in the 
 flooded district. We can touch on only a few 
 points and merely give the reader some mate 
 rial for thought. 
 
 The Governor ordered out the troops and 
 the flooded district was put under marshal law. 
 
 The following is a copy of the telegram sent 
 by Governor Cox to the Chairman of the Red 
 Cross Society at Washington. 
 
 Columbus, March 25th. 
 
 "Advices are that the situation at Dayton are very
 
 272 TRUTH STRANCF.K THAN FICTION 
 
 critical. More than half the city is inundated from a 
 depth of five to nine feet. The entire down town 
 commercial district is under water. At this time no 
 means of knowing how many are lost. 
 
 Piqua, Sidney, Hamilton and Middletown, are 
 also sadly in need. The maximum of our military 
 strength is being used in different parts of the state. 
 \\ o have appeals from some parts by telephone to the 
 effect that women and children are in the second story 
 of their homes. Boats are being rushed overland 
 by wagon, as railroad traffic in flooded districts is 
 practically suspended. We greatly appreciate your in 
 terest and co-operation. James- M. Cox, 
 
 Governor. 
 
 A bill appropriating $250,000 for the re 
 lief of the sufferers was sent to the legislature. 
 Gov. Cox sent appeals for aid to the governors 
 of all the border states of Ohio, including 
 Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan, Indi 
 ana and Kentucky. 
 
 Thousands of head of livestock perished in 
 the flood. Hundreds of persons who took ref 
 uge in a school house were soon surrounded 
 by the flood. In their frantic appeal for help 
 they kept ringing the bell, but the current \\a- 
 too swift for them to be reached, even with 
 boats. 
 
 Ten thousand were homeless at Columbus
 
 TORNADOES AND FLOODS 273 
 
 alone. The city and more than a half dozen 
 other towns were cut off from the world. At 
 a small town northeast of Dayton twenty-three 
 bodies were seen sweeping through in the river. 
 A telephone message from Dayton to Gov. Cox 
 said 30,000 people in that city were homeless, 
 and that four suburbs, including Edmont, 
 North Dayton, Riverdale, and Dayton View, 
 were inundated. 
 
 A despatch from Hamilton stated that L. 
 R. Davis residing on Dayton street, witnessed 
 a most pathetic tragedy at Water street and 
 the C. H. & D. railroad last night. A man 
 standing in front of his home, crazed at the 
 sight of the fast encroaching waters, deliber 
 ately turned upon his wife and shot her 
 through the temple. With a wild cry the des 
 perate man then leveled a gun at his own head 
 and sent a bullet through his brain. His body 
 fell across that of his wife. 
 
 A special .despatch to the Tribune from 
 Delaware, Ohio, reads as follows: * 
 
 Scenes of indescribable suffering are enacted in 
 this town tonight and untold horrors constantly offend 
 the eye. The heart of the city is flooded with ten 
 feet of water, carrying death and destruction in its 
 wake. Two hundred homes are swept away and mon- 
 TRUTH 18.
 
 O 
 
 H 
 
 u 
 
 -
 
 TORNADOES AND FLOODS 275 
 
 etary losses will run into millions. The raging 
 waters make rescue work almost impossible, and all 
 efforts to count the dead and succor the living go for 
 naught. 
 
 Message from Hamilton, Ohio, said: 
 
 The cries of women and children as they faced 
 inevitable death, and the frantic, but unsuccessful 
 efforts of husbands and fathers to rescue loved ones, 
 present a scene that will go down in the history of 
 the world's catastrophes as one of the worst on record. 
 Thrilling stories were told how families were sep 
 arated, some fortunate enough to be saved while 
 others were left to their doom. In one case a four 
 teen year old girl was the only one out of a family 
 of six to be saved, the other five being caught in the 
 house as it was overturned, and buried beneath it. 
 Emma Theobold, the girl that was saved, was forced 
 to hang on a tree for four hours until she was found 
 by a patrolman of the Cincinnati police department. 
 The girl was in a state of exhaustion and her hands 
 were cut through to the bone from clinging in the tree. 
 She fainted after being rescued, but was soon revived. 
 
 Many persons went to their death in plain view of 
 the more fortunate ones, when their houses, which 
 were floating, would crumble and the occupants be 
 hurled into the water. In many houses the families 
 would move to the upper floor and even to the roof, 
 only to have the water follow them at the rate 
 of three to four feet an hour, and finally 
 drive them from the highest point they could reach.
 
 276 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 James Weaver and his wife residing on Ludlow 
 avenue had a close call from death. As the water was 
 just beginning to creep up to the top floor of their 
 home they were taken out. Weaver said that he saw 
 a man swimming in Ludlow street towing a large dry- 
 goods box on which sat his wife. 
 
 Roads leading into Hamilton presented a sad ap 
 pearance. Buggies and farm wagons were lined up 
 for miles and the flood victims gathered in little crowds 
 to discuss their fate and the remote chances of saving 
 any of their property. Worry was written on the 
 faces of many whose entire families were not ac 
 counted for. 
 
 East Hamilton and Peck's Addition suffered as 
 much as Hamilton itself, more than 1,500 being ren 
 dered homeless in the former place while in the latter 
 water covered everything. 
 
 Bellefontaine, O., March 25th More than 2,000 
 acres of water are pouring against the banks of the 
 Lewistown reservoir, fifteen miles from here, and if 
 the increasing flood should burst the banks the lives 
 of every inhabitant of the lower Miami Valley would 
 be imperiled. 
 
 Sheriff Cook and deputies have vainly tried all 
 day to reach the Pennsylvania train which has been 
 marooned nearly twenty-four hours on the banks of 
 the Mad River, opposite West Liberty, Ohio. Twenty 
 passengers waded to safety from the coach which fell 
 ir.to the river 
 
 Most of the passengers in the train are thought 
 to be from Chicago.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 CALAMITY, A REBUKE TO PRESUMPTION 
 AND PRIDE 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF VANIMAN^S AIRSHIP 
 
 One calamity after another comes, and hu 
 man lives are sacrificed because there are those 
 who refuse to take warning. Disasters on sea 
 and land are ever increasing, but there seems 
 to be nothing to check the presumption and pas 
 sions of men. God speaks, but there are none 
 to heed His voice. The world, like a merry- 
 go-round, moves on, holding people under the 
 spell and charm of sin, unconscious of the doom 
 that awaits them. 
 
 Men have captured the elements and made 
 them subserve their purposes, but withal they 
 know not their Creator and persist in trying 
 to become gods themselves. There never was 
 an age when human beings were more defiant 
 of God's laws. With all the scientific inven 
 tions and achievements they have forgotten 
 that He has said, "Without me, ye can do noth 
 ing." God alone has creative power. John 
 1 13 says of Christ, "Without him was not any 
 thing made that was made." But man has
 
 278 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 been given the power to utilize nlatural forces 
 in his own service. Marvelous inventions 
 have been thrust upon the world, where sin 
 abounds and the creature is worshiped rather 
 than the Creator. "God is a spirit : and they 
 that worship him must worship him in spirit 
 and in truth" (John 4:24). The trend is ever 
 toward materialism. That which cannot be 
 seen with the natural eye is ignored. Spirit 
 ual blindness is everywhere in evidence. Scarce 
 ly any one attempts to look through the eye of 
 faith, and without faith it is impossible to 
 please God. 
 
 To live in the Spirit there must be a con 
 stant battle to keep the body under. It is easy 
 to forget that all flesh is as grass. Man is 
 prone to rely upon his own resources. In the 
 marvelous achievements that are being made 
 self is exalted and God is robbed of His glory. 
 Hence, it becomes necessary that calamities 
 come as a rebuke to presumption and pride. 
 There are those who would vaunt themselves 
 beyond measure and set themselves up as gods 
 to be worshiped, if ever and anon there was not 
 a blow struck that shows up human frailty and 
 weakness. 
 
 The Titanic disaster marvelously illustrates
 
 CALAMITY, A REBUKE 279 
 
 this truth. The wonderfully equipped vessel, 
 the pride of Great Britain, demonstrating the 
 very acme of human skill in mechanical engin 
 eering, was blotted, as it were, out of existence 
 by a single stroke from the Almighty, to teach 
 men the first commandment, "Thou shalt 
 have no other gods before me." Danger lies 
 in the pathway of those who become self-con 
 fident and take undue glory to themselves in 
 the work of their own hands. I Cor. 10:12 
 says, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take 
 heed lest he fall." This should be duly heeded 
 by people of every vocation in life. When 
 men are saying peace and safety then sudden 
 calamity comes. 
 
 A certain amount of self-confidence is nec 
 essary, but there is a limit, and to go beyond 
 this is crossing the dead-line. God's rebukes 
 are fearful, and after repeated warnings, He 
 will administer the final stroke that will hurl 
 man down the precipice of his own ambitions 
 and leave him a mangled Corpse for the world 
 to look upon and profit by. God prospers and 
 protects people as they reverence and fear Him. 
 When pride and presumption play their part on 
 the stage of human life tragedy is the climax. 
 
 The destruction of the dirigible Akron at
 
 280 Tkt'Tii ST;<.\.\(,KR THAN FICTION 
 
 Atlantic City on July 2, 1912, with five human 
 lives, is one of the disasters that lias 
 shocked the civilized world. The explosion took 
 place 2,000 feet above the sea, in 
 early morning, and was witnessed by 3,000 
 people on shore. The Akron, in \\iiicli 
 Mr. Vaniman hoped to cross the ocean, was 
 making a trial trip, but when all was going 
 smoothly an explosion occurred, tearing the 
 gas bag into bits. The car tipped and fell 
 straight to the water as quickly as lead. With 
 it went Yuniman and his men, and in a moment 
 the entire exhibition was wiped out, all the 
 crew being killed and the ship utterly de 
 stroyed. 
 
 Melvin Vaniman was the engineer who 
 accompanied Walter Wellman in his attempt 
 to cross the Atlantic in the dirigible l>ull<n, 
 America, and had been preparing to try the 
 s'inie feat on his own account. The Akron 
 was a balloon of his own design on which hun 
 dreds of thousands of dollars had been spent, 
 and in which it was believed, he had corrected 
 the. mistakes of Wellman's airship. Day after 
 day experiments had been made and details 
 perfected, which were supposed to insure suc 
 cessful flight.
 
 CALAMITY, A REBUKE 281 
 
 It was a bright morning with merely a 
 mist and only a slight wind from the west. 
 There was not the least doubt expressed in the 
 stability of the machine. To assist in launch 
 ing the ship the authorities of Atlantic City 
 placed the fire and police departments at the 
 service of Mr. Vaniman. They steered her 
 safely out of the shed and held her secure. It 
 was a beautiful sight as she rose gracefully 
 in full view of the anxious spectators. The 
 crowd cheered heartily while the cream-col 
 ored vessel reflected the sun's rays. 
 
 A LAST FAREWELL 
 
 Mrs. Vaniman stood waving from the 
 porch of a little cottage they had occupied 
 since her husband had begun his experiments. 
 But only a few moments intervened when Mrs. 
 Vaniman, who was acquainted with every de 
 tail of the ship's construction, saw it torn to 
 atoms and knew her husband and his crew 
 were lost. It is said she bore it bravely, while 
 the wives of other men of the ill-fated balloon 
 were frantic with grief. No doubt Mrs. Van 
 iman had thought much upon the probability 
 of such a disaster and this had somewhat pre 
 pared her for it. Had Melvin Vaniman 
 crossed the ocean in this ship his name would
 
 282 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 have gone down as the greatest hero and in 
 ventor of the age. But God did not see fit to 
 confer this honor upon him. 
 
 One of the members of my own household 
 saw him and his men working with the machine 
 on Sunday. I have never known it to fail, 
 that when people disregard the day Christ 
 set apart for rest and worship, calamity 
 of some kind overtakes them sooner or later. 
 Christ rose from the dead on the first day of 
 the week. In spite of those who ignore the 
 Christian Sabbath, God has always honored it, 
 and always will. The great majority of people 
 who have been converted have found Christ 
 under the preaching of the Gospel on the first 
 day of the week. In the New Testament di- 
 pensation it is the Lord's Day. The old Jewish 
 Sabbath, with its rites and ceremonies and 
 bloody sacrifices has gone. Every Jew who gets 
 converted keeps Sunday instead of Saturday. 
 He knows he is done with the works of the 
 law when he accepts Christ. 
 
 The Titanic was struck just before mid 
 night on Sunday, after hundreds had thrown 
 the reins loose on the neck of sinful indulgences 
 in the desecration of God's holy day. It was 
 another fearful rebuke to Sabbath-breakers.
 
 B * 
 
 B ^ 
 
 w 
 ^ 
 o 
 
 - 
 
 B 
 
 W 
 X 
 
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 B
 
 jS4 TurTii STKAXCKK THAN I : KTIOX 
 
 Disasters on Sunday trains are becoming more 
 numerous. Sunday steamboat excursions are 
 continually meeting with divine disapproval. 
 Human lives are sacrificed to flood and ilame 
 and in every other conceivable manner, simply 
 because men refuse to honor God and His 
 w< >rd. 
 
 The destruction of the Akron is one of the 
 greatest tragedies in the long list resulting 
 from the attempt to navigate the air. On July 
 5th, three days later, Thomas Moore dropped 
 to his death from a parachute i,oco feet 
 in the air, before 15,000 people , who had gath 
 ered at Hillside Park, Belleville, X. J. 
 Mr. Moore was one of the best balloonists in 
 the United States. He refused to use his life 
 belt and when warned of danger, said, 
 
 "l WON'T GO TO HEAVEN TODAY." 
 
 He had planned to make the event unusu 
 ally spectacular, and the first two stages of 
 the program were carried out successfully. 
 The fatality came in the third. At 4 o'clock 
 the great gas bag was full and the balloon was 
 tugging at its anchor. Moore stepped forward 
 and into the basket. The park manager, a 
 friend of his, cried out, "Don't be a fool. T<>m, 
 why do you want to take such chances! Go
 
 c.j CALAMITY, A REBUKE 285 
 
 on and fix that life-belt." The belt referred 
 to is known as an aeronaut's life-belt and all 
 careful balloonists attach it to a parachute be 
 fore making an ascent. 
 
 The warning seemed to amuse Moore, a 
 handsome, well-built chap of twenty-five. He 
 laughed at his friend and replied, "That's all 
 right, Bill, I have been up in the heavens hun 
 dreds of times, but I haven't been all the way to 
 heaven, and won't go there today." 
 
 Then turning to Gillen who was with him, 
 he said, "Get into the basket." But, Gillen was 
 more careful than his partner and adjusted 
 his belt to the parachute before starting. 
 
 "Let her go !" shouted Moore, and the bal 
 loon shot to an altitude of 3,000 feet ; then the 
 wind caught it and it was blown to the west, 
 only to be caught in another current of air and 
 carried back over the park. 
 
 The crowds could see two men adjusting 
 parachutes. Gillen told how he had parted 
 from Moore. "I told him to adjust his life 
 belt, but he wouldn't. He said he knew his 
 business too well to make any mistake. My 
 parachute opened nicely before I had dropped 
 more than TOO or 200 feet. Tom re 
 leased his first parachute and there came
 
 286 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 a drop for him, but the second parachute 
 opened all right. I saw him release the second 
 parachute, and fall with the red, white and 
 blue one. He was 1,000 feet up. He 
 al.-o opened the third parachute. The next in 
 stant I was almost paralyzed by a terrific shriek 
 and Tom's body shot by me. His hold was 
 broken on the third parachute and not being 
 attached to it by a life-belt he fell." 
 
 Panic seized the spectators and women 
 and children made for the gates, shrieking, and 
 falling over one another. The balloon crashed 
 into a field half a mile away. Moore was still 
 breathing. He had jumped from so many 
 dizzy heights he had become defiant of the laws 
 of nature and God made him an example of 
 His wrath to the thousands who witnessed his 
 fall. 
 
 Wilbur Wright who constructed the aero 
 plane that made him famous on both sides of 
 the Atlantic, when in France was requested by 
 
 the President to take his machine out on Sun- 
 
 i 
 
 day, but refused on the ground that he was not 
 a Sabbath 'desecrater. Mr. Wright, I have 
 1 een informed, had a Christian father, which 
 accounts for his maintaining true principles, 
 even after he was known as a great invent"!-.
 
 CALAMITY, A REBUKE 287 
 
 He died a natural death a short time ago as the 
 result of fever, with no stain of presumption 
 on his character. 
 
 For many years Count Zeppelin has been 
 building airships, many of which have been 
 destroyed by storm or by fire. Only recently 
 one was blown out to sea by a hurricane and 
 wrecked, fifteen men or about two-thirds of 
 the crew, losing their lives. 
 
 During the past few years the German 
 people have been almost carried away by the 
 thought of gaining supremacy in air naviga 
 tion, picturing in their imagination, a fleet of 
 air vessels carrying guns and deadly bombs, 
 threatening death and destruction to their 
 enemies. 
 
 "Once more, and for the seventh time, a 
 terrible disaster has overtaken a German diri 
 gible airship. The great Zeppelin aerial war 
 ship, 'L-2' exploded a few minutes after leav 
 ing the Johannisthal aerodome at 10:15 this 
 morning (Oct. I7th), carrying to death 
 twenty-seven of the twenty-eight persons on 
 board. The one survivor died tonight. 
 
 "On leaving its shed the airship ascended 
 about 900 feet. The crowds that had assem 
 bled to witness the trial trip of this latest ad-
 
 X 
 
 c 
 
 t- 1 
 Cfl 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 W 
 
 
 
 <
 
 CALAMITY, A REBUKE 289 
 
 clition to the German Navy cheered as the mon 
 ster 525 feet long and of 820 horse power 
 rose in the air. 
 
 "Suddenly as they watched they were hor 
 rified to observe an explosion, and a mighty 
 pillar of flame burst from the balloon. In an 
 instant the entire structure was enveloped, and 
 turning end on, the airship plunged to the earth 
 a mass of burning canvas and molten alumi 
 num." 
 
 In spite of all the accidents that have oc 
 curred and the lives that have been lost the 
 German Emperor advises that there be no ces 
 sation of efforts in perfecting the air warships. 
 The Bible speaks about the nations' being mad 
 (Jer. 51 17), and it is evident that Germany is 
 mad, crazed with a lust for power and su 
 premacy. This spirit is back of its army, its 
 navy, its Imperators and its air warships, and 
 therefore God says, "Behold, I am against thee, 
 O thou most proud, saith the Lord God of 
 hosts : for thy day is come, the time that I will 
 visit thee. And the most proud shall stumble 
 and fall, and none shall raise him up: and I 
 will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour 
 all round about him." 
 
 TRUTH 19.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 THE NATIONS COMING TO A CRISIS 
 
 As the world hastens on to a crisis and we 
 see the multitudes thronging the broad road, 
 we tremble for those who are at ease in Zion. 
 God's plan to save souls and enlighten the na 
 tions is through human instrumentality. But 
 how few people are willing to sacrifice their 
 own lives to save others! When Jesus hung 
 on the cross, His persecutors said, "He saved 
 others ; himself he cannot save" ( Mark 15:31), 
 and how true this was. If He had tried to 
 "save himself, the plan of redemption would 
 have been defeated. He could not have been 
 made an offering for sin had He not been 
 willing to lose His life, and so it is with His 
 true followers. If they would save others, 
 themselves they cannot save. 
 
 One who leaps overboard to save a drown 
 ing man risks his own life, but there are those 
 who dare to do it. If people would rescue per 
 ishing souls they must risk all. The great sea 
 of humanity is in awful turmoil, and souls un 
 conscious of their peril are going down to eter-
 
 THE NATIONS COMING TO A CRISIS 291 
 
 nal woe. Multitudes stand by and refuse to 
 lend a helping hand. They consider the sac 
 rifice too great, and many confer with flesh 
 and blood and let their opportunities pass. 
 Such persons will be confronted at the Judg 
 ment by those whom it was possible for them 
 to have saved. To become a soul-saver means 
 to sacrifice the comforts of life and to be a 
 pilgrim and a stranger on the earth. No one 
 can travel the Calvary route and live in luxury 
 and ease. It will mean privation and suffer 
 ing such as the Master endured, but to suffer 
 \vith Christ means to share His riches in glory 
 and to have a house not made with hands eter 
 nal in the heavens. 
 
 Oh that we could draw men away from 
 their own little surroundings and enable them 
 to comprehend the purpose for which they were 
 created! They would think less of their own 
 lives and of the trifling things that occupy 
 so much time and attention. The need of op 
 pressed and downtrodden humanity is so great 
 it demands all the time and strength of those 
 who are willing to put themselves on record 
 as true servants of the Lord. But strange to 
 say the welfare of the human race, polluted as 
 it is by sin, concerns but little the vast multi-
 
 292 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 tude of professed Christians today who have 
 a name to live and are dead. Such persons are 
 at ease in Zion and vainly imagine they will 
 escape the wrath of a just God. John 3:16 
 says, "For God so loved the world, that He 
 gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
 lieveth in him should not perish, but have ever 
 lasting life." This passage is quoted more than 
 any other in the New Testament and God has 
 a purpose in this. He wants His children to 
 understand that He loves every lost soul of 
 Adam's race and that the life blood of His 
 Son has paid the redemption price. 
 
 "HOW SHALL WE ESCAPE?" 
 
 How shall we escape if we neglect so great 
 salvation and refuse to help save others after 
 \ve ourselves have been saved from sin. Oh 
 that blind eyes could be opened and deaf ears 
 unstopped so that the cries of the lost could be 
 heard by those who have it within their power 
 to rescue them! Multitudes are mangled and 
 bruised by the Fall and unable to reach a place 
 of safety without help. Where is the good Sa 
 maritan who will bind up their wounds and 
 take them to an inn (true Church) where they 
 can be refreshed by the wine and oil of the 
 kingdom! It will cost something to do this.
 
 THE NATIONS COMING TO A CRISIS 293 
 
 The Good Samaritan walked while the 
 wounded man was placed upon his own beast. 
 He also furnished the inn-keeper with money 
 to provide for him and thus we see that he 
 had to deny himself to rescue one who was 
 ready to die. How few people are willing to 
 give of their substance! The best is always 
 reserved for self. They see others without 
 the comforts of life and say, Be thou warmed 
 and clothed, but they are unwilling to disturb 
 their own pocketbooks. Whatever such per 
 sons may profess, they will find when it is too 
 late that they have missed the mark entirely 
 and made their beds in hell. 
 
 How few there are who give from the 
 heart! There are those who will make gifts, 
 if in so doing they will receive the praise of 
 men, or in other words, use their gifts as a 
 means of gratifying the pride of their own 
 hearts. God will not receive such offerings. 
 They send forth a stinking savor and are like 
 dead flies in the ointment. Many make ex 
 cuses because they claim they have no gifts or 
 talents that could be used in soul-saving work. 
 They pass judgment upon themselves, contrary 
 t< the word of God, who has said that He 
 chooses the weak things and the foolish and the
 
 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 base things of the world to confound the 
 mighty. Mo one, without divine illumination, is 
 capable of judging himself and lias no more 
 right to do so than to pass judgment upon oth 
 ers. Moses made a great mistake when he 
 complained of his slowness of speech and told 
 the Lord he was not eloquent. God said, "\Vh 
 hath made man's mouth?" and His anger was 
 kindled against Moses. How many persons 
 today are bringing down the wrath of God on 
 their heads for refusing to obey when He com 
 mands ! 
 
 BUT FEW WILL PRAY 
 
 Oh that the Lord would send a religious 
 awakening over the land that would arouse the 
 nation from its sleep of death and bring the 
 people to repentance! If the forebodings of 
 some great calamity could be seen and felt, 
 many no doubt would betake themselves to 
 prayer as the people did in Nineveh of old. If 
 people do not repent quickly the tribulation 
 judgments will burst in fury upon the nations. 
 If they would begin to pray, marvelous things 
 might take place. The old denominations quit 
 praying many years ago, and thus calamity 
 has been invited and divine retribution is near 
 at hand. Onlv here and there a few de-
 
 THE NATIONS COMING TO A CRISIS 295 
 
 vout souls may be found who actually pray. 
 
 The banner of holiness has long been 
 trailed in the dust. The garments that werf 
 once the habiliments of saints are everywhere 
 besmirched with the sins of the flesh. Are 
 there no weeping prophets that will take up a 
 lamentation over the apostate condition of 
 Christendom today, who will weep between the 
 porch and the altar until God sees fit to rend 
 the heavens and take away the reproach ? Ver 
 ily He hath not spoken in vain, and every jot 
 and tittle of His word will be fulfilled. Isaiah 
 says, "And they shall go into the holes of the 
 rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear 
 of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, 
 when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth." 
 
 There are a few faithful witnesses who 
 dare to lift up the standard and cry out against 
 sin and never was there greater demand for 
 Christian heroism than now. It encourages 
 the heart to see one who has actually been de 
 livered from the fear of men in the midst 
 of this wicked and sinful generation, boldly de 
 claring the whole counsel of God. The Pillar 
 of Fire is in the breach to be a witness to the 
 nations in these last days. A crisis has come. 
 There is no time to fold the arms and sit down.
 
 296 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 In order to save one's own life one must risk 
 his life for others. Those who are intimidated 
 by opposing forces will sink beneath the waves 
 to rise no more. Faith as a grain of mustard 
 seed will remove mountains of difficulty and 
 enable one to triumph when all is dark without. 
 The Christian warrior wages a mighty bat 
 tle. He is not engaged in a conflict by which 
 he expects to obtain an earthly crown or king 
 dom. He looks upon the things of this world 
 as trifling and transient. He is working in 
 behalf of his soul's eternal interest, and those 
 things that will endure through a never-end 
 ing eternity. He sees the goal at the end of 
 the race and exercises all of his faculties in try 
 ing to make his calling and election sure. With 
 the spirit of the martyrs he counts not his life 
 dear and is just as willing to glorify God by 
 his death as by his life. In a world of vanity 
 and pride where men love luxury, ease and 
 pleasure there are no attractions for him. As 
 did Abraham he seeks a city which hath foun 
 dations whose builder and maker is (id.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST 
 
 The unpardonable sin is committed when 
 people attribute the work of the Holy Spirit 
 to the devil. In the sight of God there could 
 be no greater crime, and where people do this 
 wilfully it merits damnation. This is a fearful 
 penalty, but the scripture says, ''Shall not the 
 Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25). 
 
 Jesus was accused by ungodly men of hav 
 ing an unclean spirit. This was virtually 
 calling the third Person of the Trinity a devil. 
 It is not uncommon to hear the same thing of 
 the ambassadors of Christ; hypocritical pro 
 fessors are often reckless in their denuncia 
 tions of God's anointed. This is nothing less 
 than blasphemy, yet they are not aware of their 
 danger. 
 
 i John 5:16 says, "If any man see his 
 brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he 
 shall ask, and he shall give him life for them 
 that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto 
 death : I do not say that he shall pray for it." 
 It is useless to pray for one who has committed
 
 298 TRUTH STKAM.I.K THAN FICTION 
 
 the sin unto death, and it is often made mani 
 fest to those who are spiritual. "For the 
 Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things 
 of God. For what man knoweth the tlii 
 of man, save the spirit of man which is in hiir ? 
 even so the things of God knoweth no man. 
 but the Spirit of God" (i Cor. 2:10-11). 
 
 The idea seems to prevail that one can 
 say or do almost anything against a child of 
 God and not be held responsible for it, but 
 there could be no greater folly. I Cor. 6:i<i 
 says, "Know ye not that your body is the tem 
 ple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you?" God's 
 Holy Spirit works through human instrumen 
 talities, hence the danger of fighting against 
 them. There are ample scriptures to prove 
 this argument. 2 Cor. 6:16 says, "For ye a Ti 
 the temple of the living God; as God hath said, 
 I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I 
 will be their God, and they shall be my people." 
 
 Many are committing the sin against the 
 Holy Spirit. Often without hesitation people 
 denounce the child Ten of God in the strongest 
 terms, and at the same time imagine that they 
 are dealing with man alone. They forget that 
 the Scriptures say, "He therefore that despis- 
 eth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also
 
 THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST 299 
 
 given unto us his Holy Spirit" (i Thess. 4:8). 
 Also, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
 of the least of these my brethren, ye have done 
 it unto me" (Matt. 25:40). 
 
 As a rule, those who have committed the 
 unpardonable sin do not live long. After 
 God's Spirit ceases to strive with them they 
 are turned over to the devil, and sudden calam 
 ity or 'death overtakes them. The day of 
 mercy is past and their probationary life is 
 ended. 
 
 If Satan cannot drive people hastily be 
 yond the reach of mercy he tries a gradual 
 process, leading them on from bad to worse, 
 until they take the step that cuts off their last 
 chance for eternal life. The conscience be 
 comes seared, and truths that once made an 
 impression upon their heart no longer affect 
 them in the least. 
 
 I remember distinctly the time when the 
 Holy Spirit revealed to me that some one had 
 committed the unpardonable sin. This was in 
 a city in Iowa where my brother and myself 
 were holding a tent meeting. On a Sunday 
 evening the Holy Spirit gave me a burning 
 message on the near coming of the Lord, and 
 the tribulation judgments. All available space
 
 300 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 \\as taken on the inside, and hundreds were 
 gathered about the tent on the outside. My 
 whole being trembled under the pressure of 
 the Spirit. There were a number of clergy 
 men in attendance, among them a Methodist 
 Presiding Elder, whom I observed weeping 
 when the awful judgments of God were 
 being thundered in the ears of the people. 
 
 There were those present who had tried to 
 make a disturbance, but the Spirit of God took 
 hold of them and they were powerless to pro 
 ceed further. For nearly an hour the congre 
 gation was held under the spell of the Gospel. 
 Words are inadequate to describe the scene as 
 volley after volley from the heavenly batteries 
 was poured out upon them. Instantly it was 
 revealed to me that some one near by was sin 
 ning against the Holy Spirit. I said, "There is 
 some one here tonight who is fighting against 
 God and sealing his doom for eternity." 
 
 Then I called out to a physician who had 
 invited my brother and myself to hold this 
 meeting, saying, "Doctor 1) , when you hear 
 of some one's dying suddenly, who i< present 
 tonight, will you kindlv write me about it?'' 
 He said, "I will." 
 
 On leaving the tent that night this man
 
 THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST 301 
 
 was accosted. by another physician, who said, 
 "Doctor D , you seem to be carried away with 
 this fanaticism. If you keep on, your instru 
 ments will soon -be up for sale, and you will be 
 going with these people." 
 
 We went to another meeting from this 
 place. When I reached home a letter was 
 awaiting me from Dr. D , telling of the sud 
 den death of the physician with whom he had 
 had the foregoing conversation. He had 
 dropped on the street, was carried to his 
 office and expired a few minutes later. Short 
 ly afterwards his instruments were ad 
 vertised for sale. "He, that being often re 
 proved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be 
 destroyed, and that without remedy" (Prov. 
 29:1). 
 
 This is only one link in the chain of trag 
 ical events in which God has sent judgments 
 upon those who have rejected His messages, 
 rebelled against Him, and attributed the work 
 of the Holy Spirit to the devil. 
 
 There is another way to sin against the 
 Holy Ghost, which may be illustrated by the 
 following incident. In my early ministry, a 
 man fifty-five years old, came to the altar as a 
 seeker of salvation. He was there eleven
 
 302 TRUTH S u THAN Fin 
 
 nights in succession. Xo one, apparently, had 
 any Imrdcn for him, and none of the Christian 
 workers talked or prayed with any real interest 
 f<>r his soul. 1 asked him it" P.e knew why this 
 was. He seemed to know the reason and said, 
 "When I was a young man, I attended revival 
 meetings, and there were lien the Spirit 
 
 so greatly moved me it was almost impossible 
 to hold out. lint 1 did, persistently refusing to 
 yield. I thought I would wait until 1 wa fnrty- 
 five, and then I would be settled in life and it 
 would be an easy matter to serve the Lord 
 
 When I was between forty and fifty years 
 of age the Holy Spirit again approached me 
 and I felt Him trying to soften my heart, but 
 it would have been much harder for me to have 
 yielded at that time than it would have been 
 years before. Feeling but little inclined to 
 serve the Lord I made up my mind to wait 
 ten years longer and here I am today with 
 my heart as hard as adamant. I have no convic 
 tion and no feeling about the matter whatever. 
 I am simply here because I felt it was my duty 
 to come. I believe I have sinned away the day 
 of grace, and that there is no'hope for me." 
 
 I told him that there might be a chance 
 in a thousand for him, and that I would advise
 
 THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST 303 
 
 him to cry mightily to God to send the Holy 
 Spirit back to him. I begged him to pray 
 without ceasing and to fast, but he said, 
 "I have no strength within me to perse 
 vere." And this was true. Nothing I could 
 say or do had any effect upon him, and the 
 meeting closed leaving him without hope in his 
 lost condition. 
 
 Later, in a revival meeting at H , 
 
 Colorado, I told the story of this man, 
 and God mightily used it in putting conviction 
 upon the people. I predicted that he would 
 be cut off suddenly. And on Saturday morn 
 ing, only two days later, I read the following 
 account in a Denver newspaper of his being 
 stricken. 
 
 "F - K , a well-to-do farmer, living 
 near L C , attended a revival meeting 
 Friday evening. On his way hotne, a blood 
 vessel burst on his brain. The physicians say 
 he will die." 
 
 Mr. K lived two weeks after he was 
 stricken, and only once during this time was 
 he rational. He called for a certain preacher 
 who, it was said, had been in a backslidden 
 state for many years. Of course he received
 
 304 TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION 
 
 no spiritual help, and finally breathed his last 
 without God and without hope. 
 
 Oh, if people only knew what hell will be 
 to a lost soul they certainly would be careful 
 how they criticize the children of God! The 
 fight of the devil is against the Holy Spirit, 
 and those witli whom He abides. Matt. 12: 
 41-42 says, "The men of Nineveh shall rise in 
 judgment with this generation and shall con 
 demn it: because they repented at the preach 
 ing of Jonas ; and, behold, a greater than Jonas 
 is here. The queen of the south shall rise up 
 in the judgment with this generation, and shall 
 condemn it: for she came from the uttermost 
 parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Sol 
 omon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is 
 here." To harden the heart is spiritual suicide 
 and people are in danger of doing this every 
 time a message is delivered under the inspira 
 tion of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Multitudes will have to face the Great 
 Tribunal, who have committed the sin against 
 the Holy Ghost. It is perilous for one to know 
 that God is speaking through lips of clay and 
 then not have the courage of his convictions. 
 God looks upon the heart and makes no mis 
 take. He knows who is accountable and will
 
 deal with them accordingly. I Cor. 12:3 says, 
 "Wherefore I give you to understand, that no 
 man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus 
 accursed : and that no man can say that Jesus 
 is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." When a 
 person sins wilfully against the Holy Ghost he 
 is cut off forever. 
 
 Reader, we beg of you to take warning, 
 and not place yourself in a position where you 
 will be left to die in your sins. 
 
 TRUTH 20.
 
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