"Burning Bush" Sect

1905

Why Indiana Followers of New Religion Insist on Going to Jail

The "Burning Bush" is the title of a new religion which has reached Muncie, Ind., and since it appeals to the fanatics it seems to be spreading at an alarming rate, says a Muncie correspondent of the Chicago Chronicle. Men, women and girls have been arrested and fined for disturbing the progress of other religious meetings and they insist upon going to jail, claiming that God ordered them to do so.

The efforts of the followers to break up meetings of other denominations have resulted disastrously in several places. In Randolph county the operations of the "Burning Bush" followers have become so bold that they attempted upon various occasions to stop meetings of the Methodist churches. They believe that they are the elect and that all disbelievers will go to eternal punishment.

Miss Bessie Ford, a pretty young woman, is one of the leaders, and she was recently convicted, having been charged with disturbing religious meetings. She, together with Mrs. Mary Painter and a man named Hamilton Pursley, who have been introducing the faith in Randolph county, is being held at Winchester for her actions in various churches where regular services were being held. They all claim that they will go to prison and suffer punishment, since it has been the will of the Lord.

The work of the new religious sect has wrought up many localities, and the promoters have many followers. Not until now have they invaded the churches of the towns, and every effort is being made to confine their work to the rural districts, but this, it seems, is impossible.

The Lord Hates a Grouch

1911

Are you a grouch? Is the sun always behind a cloud when you look at it? Are you suspicious of every man who meets you with a smile, and does the prattle and laughter of children grate on your ears?

If this is the case there is something wrong with your insides. The trouble may be physical and it won't hurt to try a good dyspepsia cure. But the chances are that it is mental, and then you want to go out on the street and hire two or three big, husky fellows with heavy boots to kick you all over the townsite for a couple of hours. When you come to your vision will be a little clearer. A few doses like the doughnut instead of the hole.

The Lord and the community hate a grouch worse than they do a liar. There is no happy abiding place for them, either here or on the other side of Jordan's stormy banks.

The grouch walks down the street with his face the picture of a dose of quinine, and the neighbors look at each other and say, "How he hates himself." He goes to church and the only thing he notices is that the room is a little cold and the choir picked mighty poor hymns. He walks into a store and the clerks hide behind the counter to avoid him. His days are filled with stomach pains and his nights with bad dreams, while his cup runneth over with bitter gall. — Bert Walker.

—The Ellis Review-Headlight, Ellis, Kansas, 1911.