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ii*\ Jb/r n^V those who are not familiar with tho. history of popular delusions, to say, *'There must be something In it look' at its hosts of follpweirs." Dowie claims a following of some $0,000,-and there are at least 200,000 Mormons in the United States. But these numbers prove lioth* ing. As great and greater have been the numbers who followed the preachers of dead and gone delusions which are looked back upon with a vender,"at the credulity of mankind. .V""*'. It is, indeed, remarkable'that a man like Dowie, who ten years ago went to Chicago with a wife, two children and no money, should now at the head oi a sect having its thousands of members, Hbe reputed to be worth |5,O0O 00O, own several hospitals, a college, a. bank and a hotel and have planned a great city for the dwelling place of his followers, the biggest thing of its kindvsince Smith built Salt Lake City. ''v 0 01 ssn. Christian Scientists declare that which have sprung up, flourished tor a their sect numbers 1,000,000 people, end it time and then passed away, have been in is a common form of argument used by the form of religious erases some one has proclaimed himself as the prophet of a new dispensation and the people have flocked to him. .Jo It is also wonderful that Mrs. Mary 3aJffr a Eddy in a few years should '&&,, CHILDREN'!) CRU3\Di MOST'REMARKABLE, op TJi6 !s the world grows old and civiMzation have captured a million minds, with her Spreads andK increases human nature doctrine and become the priestess'- and seems to remain Just about what it was prophetess of a new religion. But when originally, and the preachers of new doc- we look back over the years and find out trlnes draw after them many followers. I how many people have accomplished sim- To-day It is "Elijah" Dowie and Mrs. jjar result* the wonder ceases. Prom the l*3dy yesterday it was William Miller earliest dawn of authentic history there and Jo Smith, and before that Simon have been Dowies and Eddys in the Magus and the Veiled Prophet of Khoras- WOrld. Nearly all the popular delusions 4.^k? But there have teen ot^er strange man ifestations of pudden popular craze which have been entirely free from the religious aspect. Such was the 'Tuftpomania," when a whole nation "went daft" over? tulips bulbs, the reign of the*alchemists, who sought^ to change the baser metals into trold and the belief-of millionsin the existence of the fountain of perpetual youth, a belief which brought the armed warriors of Ponce de JJeon to Florida and resulted in the discovery of the Mississip pi river. \,~1 Kjg Simon Hasn* an Early DOTTIC. V?^ One of the early predecessors of Dowie was Simon Magus. Simon appeared in Samaria early in the Christian era, in fact, in apostolic times. He declared he was the first manifestation of the "primal deity" and assumed to himself all the at tributes of the Almighty. He preached a doctriSe strongly Oriental, and founded & an heretical sect. Finally he was con verted to Christianity by Philip. The stories of Simon Magus and of his beau tiful companion, Helen of Tyre, which have come down to us, are strange and fantastic and distorted by the mists of years, but it is certain that in his day he had a large following, and for a time it looked as if his gospel would spread in excess of the gospel of Christ. In the. Acts we read: "There was a certain mai called Simon, which before time in this same city (Samaria) used scrcery and bewitched the people of Sa iraria, giving out that himself was some great one, to whom they all gave heeil, from the least to the greatest, saying: This man Is the great power of God And to him they had regard because of the long time he had bewitched them with ^sorceries. But when they believed Philip, pf* aching the 'hings concerning the king dom of God and the name of JestJustChrlst tfcey wore baptized, both r/ven and women. Then Simm"' himself believed also, and 'when he-was baptized he remained with Philip and wandered, beholding the mira cles and signs which were done. rnd when Simon saw that through lay ing on of the apostles' hands the Holy Chest was given, he ottered them money saying: 'Give me also this power that oi. whoms lever I lay my hands he may receive tha Holy Ghost.' But Peter saia ci to him: Thy money perish with tf.ee because thau hast thought that the gifts of God can be purchased with ''money. ?hou hast/neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of G0d.M' Such was Simon Magus, in whom all Sa maria believed and who appears also tc have a considerable following in" other places. So strong an impression did he :n_ake on his times that to this day in ivarious legends, notably that of Dr. Faus tus, we see traces of the story of'Simon end Helen of Tyrel VvViK Apollonius of Tyana was another prede cessor of Dowie and Mrs. Eddy as a "di- vine healer." He studied in the Greek school of Tarsus and adopted the Pytha gorean philosophy. Then he learned legerdemain, and traveled to the old seats of magic in Persia and Babylonia. Hav ing thus prepared himself he announced himself a deity and began to work pseudo MSffilPfcffis ective Page n-iracles. He founded a sect which flour ished and endured so that two centuries alter his death divine honors were paid to him by the believers in his religion, and Alexander Severus placed his bust in his "lararium" along with those of Abraham, Orpheus and Christ. Craze of the Crusaders. A strange delusion of. the Middle Ages manifested itself in what is known as the "Children's Crusade." Early in 1213, a sudden religious frenzy seized upon the children of France and Germany, and they gathered into bands with the inten tion of proceeding to Jerusalem and res cuing the Holy Sepulchre from the Turks. The flame of their enthusiasm was fanned by designing men who desired to get them on board ship and then sell them as slaves in the ports of the Bar bary coast. Thirty thousand boys and girls bearing banners .and crosses, and chanting hymns marched to Marseilles ind Genoa to embark upon their voyage to the Holy Land. It was expected that be fore this youthful army the hosts of Islam would miracuously be destroyed. The ships on which the chitaren^ "ep- "J^r^^vi^^'^the'^exi^Ubn of two or tnree, were wrecked on the coast of Italy and all oh board lost. The ships which escaped were taken to the African coast, where the-chlldren in them were sold into slavery. The young crusaders .who went to Genoa found no ships awaiting them there, for the merchants who were privy to the affair had expected them all at Marseilles. The people of Genoa seem to have recovered speedily from their delu sion when they found the thousands of children in their streets, and finally per suaded them to return to their homes. Fuller, In his quaint history of the "Holy Warre," says that this crusade was done by the Instigatiorvof the devil, and gives as a reason that "the devil, being cloyed with the murdering of men, desired a cordial of children's blood to comfort his weak stomach." While the delusion of the children's crusade lasted there-were probably more people who believed in it. than now be lieve in Dowie, Mrs. Eddy and all other contemporaneous prophets combined. All over Europe children ran about in bands, shouting, "O, Lord Jesus! Restore they xaross' to us" Pope Innocent III., who was unaware that the excitement had been stirred "up by^ a couple of 'back slidden" monks and.some merchants of Marseilles' for kidnapping purposes, was much fmpressed when told that the chil dren of France and Germany had taken t|. the' cross and .were on the march to &. It* ~T &*-* Jerusalem, and exclaimed: "These chil dren are awake while we sleep.'.' He took this outbreak of religious enthusiasm' among the children as a repr6ach to his own lukewarmness on the subject of cru sades. Tnliporannla. One of the most remarkable things in the history of the human mind was the "tullpomanla," which assailed the people of Holland in the seventeenth century. It is net only remarkable that a whole nation should have gone "stark staring mad" over a flower, but that that nation should have been Holland, whose people always have been distinguished by their practical common sense stolidity. A wave of the tulip craze made, itselffelt in Eng land, and even crossed the ocean and broke on the shores of Manhattan island, so that the burghers of New Amsterdam talked the "patter" of the craze as they took their pleasure in the Bowling Green or the Battery. One Conrad Gesner, in the year 1559, saw a tulip growing in the gardens of a learned man' who was noted for his col lection .of rare exotics. The bulb of this tulip had been/5b)^ughtifTOrni -d^m^aj^i- n'ople, where^the-fo favorite in Turkish gardens. Gesner be gan to talk tulip to the people of Holland, and became such a crank .on the subject of the flower, which he pronounced to be the most beautiful in the world. Wealthy people in Holland and Germany began to think it was the proper thing to be learned in tulip lore,- and the infection spread. Dutch tulips covered the seas at that time,- and many of the wealthy merchants of JJolland had tulip bulbs brought back to them from Constantino ple' in the ships which traded to that far-off port. In -1600 some bulbs were brought from Constantinople to' England and planted, and the craze fairly began. The price of tulips increased, and it was considered a sign of bad taste for any wealthy man in Holland-not to have a collection of tbesg flowers. Dealt la Ydlw Sto*^SvV All Holland went crazy''over the-'tulip until fortunes were paid for a single bulb, and regular exchanges were estab lished where the roots of the tuilp were "bought and sold a stocks-are now sold on Wall street. People speculated "wild ly in the tulip market, and. there were corners, booms, panics and all the rest of it.T^'sThere were no "tickers" in those days. But the quotations of the prices of the various varieties of tulips were read eargerly In the bulletin boards by the leople. In 1634 the rage among the Ihitch tp_ possess tulips, was so great that the ordinary industries of the coun try were neglected, and the population, even to its lowest dregs, embarked in the tulip trade. As the manit increased the .rices rose until in the year 135 many persons paid as high as $40,000 for forty rcots. Taking into" consideration the Duying power of money then as compared with the present day, this wpuld mean about $80,000 as the price paid. A tulip or: the species called Admiral Li'efken was worth nearly $2,000, and a bulb oi Seper Augustus, the most valuable of G.11, was quoted at what would amount in money of the present day to $4,400. At one time there was only two bulbs ol a certain kind in Holland, and so anxious were people to possess thern for specu lative purposes that one person offered twelve acres of building lots in a tliickl populated section for one of the roots The other bulb was bought in exchange for 4,600 florins, a new carriage, twe gray horses and a complete set of har ness. A single root of a rare specie* called the Viceroy was sold for "twe tests of wheat, four lasts of rye, four fai cxen, eight fat swine, twelve fat sheep two hogsheads of wine, four tuns of beer two tuns of.butter, 1,000 pounds of .cheese a complete bed, a suit of clothes* and silver drinking cup."^ ,The stock jobbers speculated wildly, it tulip stock and made fortunes by bayinf when the market was low and sellinf ,*hn it.^as high., The bulls and th* bearsj fought /out then'^ver tulips, ai they do now' over railroad securitlea Many Individuals grew suddenly rich ant everybody speculated on the "tulip mart.' Nobles, citizens, farmers, mechanics sailors, servants, chimney sweeps anf even "old clothes men" dabbled in tulips Foreigners became smitten by the craw a fid poured money into Holland from al directions. The operations of the trad* became so complicated that a specia code of laws was enacted to govern it Thelrice of the necessities and luxurie* of life rose rapidly. Collapse of the Craze. Suddenly the people came ,to then senses and asked each other where thii was all going to end. A panic seizer upon the people and everybody rushet to sell. Then all this fictitious wealth In tulips vanished away. People whe shortly beforjg A*"* thought themselvet wealthy 'suddenly found themselves possessed of a few old bulbs, which no body would buy, and of nothing else. The :Ties of distress caine from all sidea Substantial merchants were reduced tc 0ggary and the representatives of an 2ient houses saw the fortunes or the line iranish away. It was a terrible awaken ng for Holland. Astrological Idol. In the sixteenth century so many po 3le (not the ignorant and lowly only, but :he*wise and high-placed) believed in arfso with tne roliowers or trie .great Nostradamus. Physici3n to Honrv Jr. France, he published his work? :n the. K'cult scieice3 and was ma'l:: ri'i'h wit'i iesent that he received from t:ro gr^wf-* :s a tokf-n of t*\ci- the? rvr-n f, inowirecgo or the mystic science of the stars. Nostradamus* "Centuries," a coJ Gction of verses written in language as bscure and unintelligible to tho ordinary rind as Mrs. Eddy's book itself, was vhat first called.popular attention to him. 3rrcat nobles and learned men from all isrtp of the earth made pilgrimage* to the astrologer's house In Parts, anS the king made him a counselor of state. Witchcraft Delusion. The belief in witchcraft, of which thW Salem outbreak was only one of many manifstations, cast Its shadow oves Europe for two centuries and BaM and vias a delusion so widespread that it. was dangerous to deny a belief to it. An epidemic of terror every now andl then would seize upon a nation, aad man was safe in his possessions a ___ person from the machinations of Ut% devil. The word "witchcraft"! was open everybody's tongue. England, Scotland1. end the Far Northern nati^Hs succes sively ran mad on this subject and for a long series of years furnished', tbeb* tribunals with so many trials for witch craft that other crimes tj.ldom wenM spoken of .The history of witchcraft fe this eom4 try is weijL known.. Jh* mania^ whtds seized upon the devout peoySe off Xaa* sachusetts was one of the greaft n^^is* of history.-and in reading, about. Vt seems as if the entire people of BTew Engiansi vent mad at the time. On* of the tarcs ite prescriptions for determining wbcCbas) a woman was a witeb or not wast to throw her mto a pond. If she sanar cfi was ill right, thoughv unfortunately drowned, but if she floated, it WAS sraoC sure that she was a witch.. While the witch mania was afrHcffot? England, one Mathew Hopkins achieved, a reputation as the most expert witeb finder In the knigdom. He used to travel about the state with several ojwintntrf^ Jind upon arriving .in town he waS| iodged and fed at the expense K tha authorities, who also paid him a good sum for ferreting out the witches in ths community. Not a few thousand, not a million, but whole nations accepted the dpctrines of witchcraft, and the Ti4 trms of the delusion fell by the thooJ sand. I Ancient Christian Sctenttrntmu There is some resemblance between thai "magnetize**" of the sixteenth cent and the Christian Scientists of to-day Professed to be able to cure an 5- ^IJ- vr- eases and really did benefit some _*_ suffering from slight or imaginary a-' I ments by convincing the patient tttal tn^ disease was gone. Not one million, ^ology that the followers of Mrs. Eddy sey^ mmi^elieTed "SiS ^dpowie^appea^asahanjfuljd^com- ^ght.byPara^s^^heto^J^ 14 1$ \mm