A CRAZY SECT.

Waikato Times, Volume XL, Issue 3257, 13 May 1893, Page 1 (Supplement)

A CRAZY SECT.

TERRIBLE CRUELTIES,

The actions of the Carterites, a religious sect in Coloma, Berrien County (Mich., U.S.)> which makes a specialty of "casting.out devils," have reached such a pitch of inhumanity that the people have determined to put a stop to the proceedings. The latest instance of torture took place ou February 2nd, Those of Carter's followers designated as choson ones reside in one house with him. Carter insisted that an aged woman, upon whom the Evil One had cast his eye, should incase horself in a coat of tar, This was done, irod the old woman went about her work in the kitchen. Presently her daughter upstairs heard cries of agony. She went to tho kitchen and saw her mother in a sheet of flame, the tar in some manner having become ignited. The Carterites claimed this was merely a method the Devil was using to attack his vutira. The daughter took her child and went to the nearest neighbor's, a quarter of a mile away, and told of the affair. These neighbors are not Carterites, and, horror • stricken, they hastened to the suffering woman's rescue. On reaching the place they found her in the yard clinging to a clothesline post. Not a vestige of her clothing remained. To the post, charred by flames from the burning body, strips of flesh hung wherever the form of the woman had touched it. In spite of her suffering, the woman lived nearly an hour. The methods of Carter, the selfconstituted chief of this band of deluded people, are almost beyond belief. The witch-hunters of Salem were less cruel. On select occasions gatherings are held known as " rousing Devil meetings," and there is nothing theoretical about tho proceedings. When the devil takes possession of one of their mombers the others endeavor to drive him out by systematic beating of the individual possessed in a monner which would put the prize ring to shame. At one of these meetings held this week a wayward cow was the primal cause. It happened in this way: Carter was in his barn milking a cow. None of his ways are gentle, and tho cow resented his manner of milking by kicking him, the milkpail, and the three-legged stool galley-west, Carter claims the Devil entered into the cow and caused her to do this, and to eradicate the demon he tied tho cow up in the stable and twisted its tail to the best of his ability. The noise made by the animal caused other Carterites to come to the barn to see what was the matter.. Carter made a lengthy speech to them, detailing his adventure, and concluded by saying the Devil was at present abiding in the haymow. Thereupon tho entire party proceeded to turn the hay upside down, slammed the barn doors repeatedly, and executed other manoeuvres. One woman fell over the edge of the mow to the barn floor. The fall injured her, and she at once vowed the Devil had paralysed her left side. This was well-nigh a fatal announcement, for Carter declared they' had Eis Satanic, Majesty cornered, and the whole party proceeded to drag the woman, who was over sixty, around tho floor, varying the proceedings by using her after the manner of a flail, and they kept this up until she was too weak to move,' finally doclaring the Devil had abandoned her. fhe combined attack of the Devil and humanity camo near producing a fatal result. To celebrate the event, howevor, a hallelujah meeting was held. Carter carries out his course of treatment in his own family. Not long ago he tied his wife up to a manger in a barn, at a time when she needed most delicate care, giving as his reason that a second Christ was soon to come into tho world. A few days before that he drove all about the neighboring country, looking, he said, foi a modern Marv. Failiug in lilb search, he went home and broke two of his daughter's ribs. It was not suggested, however, that he was possessed of the Devil. In fact, no instance is known where, he took a courso of his own treatment. Sevoral times when Carter has beaten some of his adherents they patiently submitted to the

castigation. Often they have been ordered by him to burn carriages, organs, the trimming of their children's hoods and hats, and to put their wives on a starvation dietall to "crucify the flesh," No doctor is ever allowed during illnoss. In spite of the torture which his followers mint ondure Carter is constantly gaining convorts. Tho man is not attractive in apoech or manner, and there is nothing in the doctrines be preachos which cuuld be called alluring.