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Re: Who was Harry Morse ?
Origin of term "holy roller"
San Francisco Examiner (6/11/1905)
A score of men hard at work building a gigantic ark can be seen any weekday just outside of the Holy Rollers' colony at Benton Harbor, Mich. Nearby Is a small menagerie, where Benjamin, prophet . and leader of the strange religious sect, la collecting the animals destined to be saved from the flood which he foresees In 1916. The workers, like all of the colony, are fine healthy specimens, showing no signs of fanaticism or Insanity as they put In their hours of hard labor each day. Their Holy flowing hair and broad felt hats are the only things unusual In their appearance. Arriving Prophet Benjamin la a tall man, forty-five old. with long, jet-black hair and beard and a face that remains ghastly white in spite of months of outdoor life, which here tanned the features of all his followers. The prophet, with plans and specifications not his hand, dlrects the men In this extraordinary . piece of shipbuilding.
The ark la not Intended to sail on ordinary waters there Is no need of building It near the water. Therefore the "Holy Rollers” picked out a convenient sheltered little valley far back from the water, where the craft will remain high and dry till the second flood. There are about three hundred "Holy Rollers” In the "City of David," as their colony is called. They refer to themselves as "Israelites," though there Is not a single Hebrew among them. They are called "Holy Rollers” because the names of the elect are inscribed on the "Holy Rolls," which are kept in a small shanty called a tabernacle ln the centre of the "City of David. ". Nobody but the prophet who has proclaimed himself the reincarnation of Noah is permitted to enter the tabernacle. When Benjamin's flood arrives, some time in the rear 1916, his great ark Is to be finished and all the faithful people and worthy animals are to be ready to come out of the rain, he says.
The press came up with the term to describe religious fanatics. Not specifically Pentecostals.
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