Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the WorldWooldridge, Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman)
History
Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World
Wooldridge, Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman)
Crime -- Illinois -- Chicago; Police -- Illinois -- Chicago
Then there is another kind of charlatan, the American fake
religionist, of which, perhaps, there are just as many as of the
foreigners with the weird doctrines of the orient. This type of faker
is coarse compared with the soft-shod, incense-burning Hindu, but
he "gets the money" without much trouble. He is generally a ranter
as far as preaching goes. His methods are those of the shouter, his
religion includes visitation of spirits, shaking of bodies and other
manifestations of divine power. He boldly asks for contributions, not
for a school to be established for the training of missionaries for
his faith, but for the furtherance of his own work right here in this
country.
"It takes money to fight the devil," is a favorite cry with this type
of sacrilegist. The stronghold of the religious faker is that the
people who follow him believe in him implicitly. One faker recently
proclaimed himself the son of God, come to revisit earth, and, when
assailed by a paper for it, stood up in an audience of his believers
and asked them who they thought him to be and how they regarded him.
The answer was that he was the son of God, and his mission was to
save all mankind from sin. It is obvious that, when a man with such a
hold on a clique asks for money, it is sure to be forthcoming without
question. At times he does not have to ask for it, one man of this
kind having had money showered upon him at a meeting by the hysterical
women of his flock.
FAITH IN CHARLATAN STRONG.
This man has operated in at least four sections of this country, has
served a term in state's prison for alienating a wife's affections
along with the husband's money, has been driven out of two towns by
angry husbands; but now he is again in possession of a following which
believes implicitly that through him, and through him only, is it
possible to obtain eternal salvation.
In appearance this man is a human shark, long-faced, thin of jaw and
nose, and with a mouth that is nothing but a straight line cut in the
face. In repose he might be taken for a shyster lawyer, but when he
begins to speak and the artificial frenzy is burning in him it is easy
enough to see why impressionable women may be drawn to him. Even a
strong-willed man, observing his actions and the degree of enthusiasm
in him, is apt to feel that he can be nothing other than sincere in
his beliefs. But, if he is sincere, his sincerity runs only towards
making of his beliefs a good business proposition, and avarice is one
of his strongest points.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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