[Scott Pitta]

Oakland Tribune Feb. 7, 1909
Holy roller horror invades

Immorality, lewd and improper conduct, interference between husbands and wives, coercion of prospective young women converts and flagrant insincerity, are the charges which are made against the leaders of the "Holy Rollers," by Mrs. J. F. Holland of Stockton.

She is a pretty and intelligent young woman, who, with her four babies, is existing in destitute circumstances in a two-room shack in the rear of 904 Harrison Street, Oakland, because, she claims, her husband refuses to work and devotes his time and energies to the promulgation of the ten tenets of the faith of the Apostolic Faith, otherwise known as the "Holy Rollers."

Mrs. Holland and her four small children arrived in Oakland four days ago to join the husband and father, who deserted his home and work in Stockton four months ago to join the "Holly Roller" band at San Joseand expected to become a worker in the missions of that cult. When she arrived she found that Holland was without funds, had no work, and was unable to provide fo her and their children.

She and her little ones were housed in a little shack in the rear of the rooms formerly occupied by the Apostolic Faith Mission at 904 Harrison Streeet. For furniture there is one stove and a bed. For food she has been dependent to a great extent on the charity of neighbors. The husband, she declares, had made no effort to find work and alleges that because he as devoted his life to the work of the mission, there will be some miraculous provision made for them by the Lord.

Mrs. Holland was present at the meeting in San Jose some weeks ago when Miss Daisy Moore of Oakland fell under the influence of the leaders and teachers of the cult that her family physican beleived for a time that her mind had been permanently affected. She had been present at other such meetings and tells of numerous instances of this kind.

Because she will not become a member of the cult and because she resents the ruin of her family life through the influences of the organization, she declares she had been persecuted, reviled, kept in actual want and destitution, and, more than all, the leaders here attempted to force her to join the band by working on her mother's live through threats that if she does not "come into the fold," her babies will be stolen away from her.

"These people have cast such an influence over my husband that our family life, once very happy and peaceful and prosperous, has been utterly ruined." said Mrs. Holland."They have taught him that he need not work and provide for us and he believes that he is called to teach that faith of the cult.

"I can not believe in them. I know that they are insincere and bad people, and because they have been unable to make me join the band, they have subjected me to all manner of hardships. They have giben us but a few shreds of clothing and an occasional loaf of bread and but for the help rendered me by charitable people my four babies and I would have suffered far more creully than we have.

"I have been with these people for three months now and have watched them and they are immoral and indecent, they are breakers of homes, and makers of bums and loafers.

"Their actions in their open meetings are decidedly immodest and the things they do in their secret sesssions, which are held behind closed doors, are not fit for publication.

"I was present at the meeting in San Jose when Miss Moore of Oakland was made the subject of their influence. I have known of other such affairs and I know that their influence makes for anything but good.

"Mr. and Mrs. Sparks, who are now conducting the Oakland mission at Tenth and Webster streets, where there at that meeting and it was them that my jusband has followed up here. Thye were formerly the leaders of the sect in San Jose and I believe were chased out of there by the highly incensed people of the town."

Sparks declares that he was not responsible for the leadership of the band at San Jose and at the time of the collapse of Miss Moore, who is now slowly recovering from the effects of the mental excitement to which she was subjected at the meeting of the Holy Rollers in that city refered to. On that occasion it is declared she was subjected to an influence akin to hypotism and led to such a pitch of excitement that she fell on the floor in an insensible conditon and remained so for several hours.

"Ther leaers of the band would not allow anyone to touch her," said Mrs. Holland. "They declared that she was receiving the "Spirit" and that it was blasphemous to try to break the spell. Her own mother, who was present, was not allowed to try to revive her. They often take those who have thus received the "Spirit" into an inner room, after the public meeting is over, and keep them there for hours and tat this tiem they undulge in practices that are unspeakable."

Following her terrible experience, Miss Moore, who was a well known and highly respected Sunday school teacher and religious worker, was taken to her lodgings in San Jose and there revived sufficiently so that her mother coudl bring her back to the family home at 1284 Franklin streat, Oakland. There she was kept under the care of physicans and the police were appealed to to prevent her being sen by any of the Holy Roller cult for fear their terrible influence might again be cast over her. For a time it was learned she would never recover her mind, but, although her nervous system is badly shattered and her physical health affected, her family and friends say that she is gradually gaining her former normal self.

"I have seen a young girl, whom the speakers had tried to influence, taken, against her will. from the audience into the mysterious back room where the secret sessions are held. and the door locked to prevent the entrance of any of her friends," said Mrs. F. M. Mummert, wife of the maganger of the Boys' Retreat and who lives near to the hall formerly occupied by the Apostolic Faith sect on Harrison Street.

"During the servies both emen and women would become so enthused by the strange influence of the leaders that they would fall to the floor and roll about together howling and screaming in unintelligible jargon. Their actions were positively indecent and the jibberish they gave voice to was idiotic. They believe that this raving is the "gift of tingues" and think the people thus affected are taking in the languages of long dead apostles and religious teachers of foreign lands.

"We who live near to the hall where they held their meetings were often disturbed by their wild disturbances and have often had to appeal to the police when the nice was continued until long after midnight. The band always had a watchman out and whenever the police came near they subsided.

"On one such accasion," said Mimmert, "I climbed over the roof of the verandah and started to rap on the window of their rear room,the "inner chamber" or "holy of holies" I was bent on stopping their noise only. The window was open, and before I rapped I looked in and the things I saw in progress there quite substantiate the charges Mrs. Holland has made."

The Oakland band is now composed of about thirty people and is led by Sparks and his wife. They hold mightly meetings on the street at Ninth and Broadway and semi-weekly meetings at the rooms formerly occupied by the Peniel Mission on Tenth Street. Sparks declines to assume any responsibility for bringing Holland to Oakland and for the destitute condition of his family.