A "HOWLY" BROTHERHOOD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 117, 12 July 1873, Page 17

A "HOWLY" BROTHERHOOD.

The religious sect of " Howling Repentants," which was formed two years ago, and which met in a room behind University College, has come to a premature end. The residents in the neighborhood must be greatly delighted; for the howling of the " repentants," however blessed it may have been to themselves, was far from pleasing to the ears of those whose " repentance" was not expressed in a manner so ferociously earnest. The sect flourished a while. To show sorrow for sin by screaming at the pitch of their voices was an occupation in which nearly two hundred fanatics gladly engaged, and on some Sundays the body ef sound sent out of their room was powerful enough to reach to the skies and a great deal further. The " repentants" howled when the " spirit" moved them; and, according to a distracted mortal who lived next door, the "spirit'' took care to " move" them pretty often, and to " move," moreover, as many at a lime as made the volume strong enough to be effective. "Whether from the fact that all their sins had been repented of, or from other causes less eneouraging, the Repentants have dwindled away to a number so small that, to use the words of the aforesaid afflicted resident, " their sins are hardly worth howling for." In the day of their prosperity, the Repentants, like all other prosperous churches—Established, Free, and otherwise, —were very exclusive. Unless you undertook to howl when moved, you could no more enter the tabernacle of the howlers than fly in the air. If anything approaching a smile was seen there in the neighborhood of your countenance, out you went. The main conditious of admission, and retention of your place when in, was a

face as long as a fiddle and a capacity to roar, and with these you could remain a member of the sect as long as the need for roaring remained. Newspaper men often tried without success to find their way among the howlers. Even Mr Archibald Forbes, of the " Daily News," who will gain admission where most other men will fail, could mako nothing of the doorkeeper to the howlers. His face wasn't half long enough.—" Dundee Advertiser" correspondent.