WEIRD RELIGIOUS SECT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 13, 31 August 1911, Page 3

WEIRD RELIGIOUS SECT.

Despatches from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, dated July lOtn, state that thousands of spectators are Hacking there to witness spectacular perinrmaiiccs of a congregation of people calling themselves the “ Pentecostal Primitives.” In America several new sects arise every year, but as regards ; rolling, set earning, and kicking;, cue * Pittsburg reporter;; dewribe the Paula ceo,-Jed Primitives, wow. assembjrtd to v i the purpose of a convention, as‘easily i outclassing all their predecessors. Several hundreds of . persons, many apparently in a state of coma, wriggled and writhed On the floor of the great tent, some f flouting,. , others j shrieking, and all apparently obsessj cd by the idea that in due course the | gift of tongues, to secure winch,the ■Convention assembled; dome mysterious form descend upon them. The prostrate men were piled tom and live feet deep at times, while the women, in their frenzy, pounded the floors with open hands and occasionally pounded each other. u : , So far as one can judge, the Pentecostal Primitives are not strictly • original, and have borrowed some of their methods from the “Holy. Ghojsters” and the “Almighty Boilers”— two other religious organisations claiming the United States as their place of origin. Brother Eloat addresses his fellow-secretaries at Pittsburg as “gifted ones,” and to interviewers he declares that they are firmly convinced that by ' concentration of thought and frequent invocation of God they can secure temporal and eternal welfare. Most of the rnalo Pentecosters discarded their coats, collars, and vests, and roiled on the floor of the tent from side to side,,, occasionally colliding with the prostrate bodies of their comrades. When tired of rolling they arise, and with hands held alott as it iu an effort t(5 roach the top of the tent, tney walk to and fro on tip-toe, most, of the time shouting horribly.