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Saintuary

 

 

 

CHAPTER XI

 

 

Following the third anniversary conference, money came in for investment in the "stock" of Zion Land and Investment Association­ but it was soon enough evident that the five thousand investors with five thousand dollars each were more than 90 per cent in either the General Overseer's op­timism or the distant future. Zion City Bank "stock" was sold to a goodly number, but mostly in little blocks of from one to five shares each. Some money was deposited in both savings and commercial ac­counts. But the returns were disappointing. Herbert was put to work on advertising.

As each piece of copy was finished, Herbert took it to Dr. Dowie.

“I am pleased," said the great man, "with the splendid way you have caught my ideas. We need only tell my people what Zion City is to be, in God's wonderful plan, and money will flow in. I tell you frankly, my problem will be not to get the necessary funds, but to find profitable employment for them. Deacon Halsey, dear, good fellow, seems disappointed that so little has been brought in. He need not trouble himself. He will have enough to do finding work for all the money. Tell Deacon Harrow I want these ads published in the next issue of (Leaves of Healing.' I want to see proofs of them. Is he getting the drawings made?"

 

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"Yes, here are the sketches."

"Ah, that is excellent. Stand by me while I revise your manuscript." And that meant a whole night's work, with two hours out for supper in the private dining-room on the third floor.

In Captain Erdman's office, as they passed on their way to the dining-room, the General Overseer spied a young man sitting on one of the hard chairs against the wall.

"Ah," he said, “were you waiting to see me?"

“Yes, Doctor," replied the youth, springing to his feet, "I had an appointment for nine o'clock."

He came out with vigorous steps and stood calmly looking the preacher in the eye. Standing beside him, Herbert was surprised to find that he was of only medium height. When he stood up, he had seemed tall. His erect slimness may have given the illusion. But his build was quickly forgotten in the arresting quality of his face and eyes. A clear pallor, like old ivory, glossy black hair and eyebrows, keen, fearless dark eyes, and aristocratic features gave him the look of a Spanish nobleman. An almost imperceptible hesi­tation about his lips gave his smile a peculiar charm, and when he spoke there was a deep undertone in his voice that told of controlled force. Herbert granted him almost instant respect-and curiosity. Evidently the General Overseer had felt the impact of that per­sonality, for he was not wholly at ease-an unusual phenomenon.

"Ah, yes," he hesitated, “let me see, you are--"

"Wilbur Glenn Voliva of Washington Court House, Ohio."

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"Oh, Mr. Voliva! Welcome to ·Zion Home! I re­call our correspondence. And have you come to Zion to stay?"

"If you'll have me, General Overseer."

"Do not trouble yourself about that. Look here," throwing an arm about the young man's shoulders and walking slowly down the corridor with him, "I have work of the gravest importance with Deacon Renbrush here, general manager of Zion Land and Investment Association, which will doubtless take us the rest of the night. We're just going now for a little refreshment. I am a very small eater-at times get so absorbed in my work for God and Zion that I for­get to eat at all unless those around me remind me of the needs of the body. But Deacon Renbrush and my good personal attendant, Captain Chris Erdman, must be fed, so we carry our problems to my dining-room on the floor below. Now you go and get a good sleep -have they taken care of you properly here in Zion Home?"

"Yes, Doctor."

"Well, you go and get a good sleep and then come to my office at half past ten to-morrow morning. I have many important matters to talk over with you. Erdman!"

"Yes, General Overseer."

"See that nothing interferes with my seeing Mr. Voliva at half past ten in the morning."

"Very well, General Overseer."

"And now, good night. Keeping close to God?"

"I'm trusting Him to keep me close, Doctor."

"Ah, that's a good answer. Good night."

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The young man started up the stairs. Doctor Dowie, Captain Erdman and Herbert took the ele­vator going down.

"Splendid fellow, that," remarked the leader. "Fine education and an excellent record. Has been a min­ister of the so-called Christian Church, but got dis­heartened by their apostasy. He'll go far in Zion."

Two weeks later Voliva was ordained Elder and his pretty blonde wife Evangelist, and they were placed in charge of the North Side Zion Tabernacle, in Chicago.

Herbert needed an assistant and finally selected Jesse A. Stoneham. This young man was a graduate of the University of Michigan, and had sold real estate in Detroit. He took charge of routine in the office while Herbert set out on his interrupted search for the site of Zion City.

 

 

CHAPTER XII

 

 

By late March that year the snow had gone. Parks and lawns were verdant with new grass. Before April was a week old, faint green jewels began to glow on trees and shrubs. The first robins ap­peared. Sunny afternoons people sat on the high front steps of their houses along scores of miles of Chicago streets.

A youth of Herbert's age ought to have been aflame with a new love affair. And he was, but his inamorata was Zion City. Zion was full of girls and he scarcely knew it. He was hunting for ten or twelve square miles of land which would prove worthy to wear bridal garments of beautiful homes and gardens, with a great temple as her diadem. If springtime distilled any sweet madness in his veins, it was for fair acres and majestic building sites rather than for ruby lips and sparkling eyes. Day after day he sought his ideal, riding suburban trains and driving many miles in livery rigs.

 

One evening early in April, just as the lights began to twinkle in Chicago streets, Herbert leaped from a train in the old Wells Street station-where he had landed in Chicago just six months before. This time he did not dawdle along, gaping at everything. He ran. Steps up out of the station and the stairs to the

 

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elevated were taken in leaps, three at a time. Whistling and jigging relieved his excitement until a Loop train came. He hurried in, but rode on the platform. Sitting would make the train seem slower. On the Loop he changed to the South Side El. The first one off at Twelfth Street, he started on a run for Zion Home, at the corner of Twelfth and Michigan, then stopped, laughed softly to himself, and walked on slowly. "No use running now," he thought, "it may be midnight before I get in to see the G. 0." But he was soon walking fast. Arrived at the Home, he took the elevator to the fourth floor and, finding Captain Erdman in his office, said, "Chris, I want to see the General Overseer just as quick as I can-I've got some good news for him."

 

. Oh, when you're up you're up,

And when you're down you're down;

And when you're in the middle,

Sure, you're neither up nor down,

 

sang the captain laughing.

"Can't be done, Herbert. Lawyer Endicott's in there now, and I expect he'll be there till ‘mornin' by th' bright lights.' "

"All the better, Chris. Endicott'll want to hear it too. Get 'em to see me a few minutes anyhow."

"Much as my life is worth, but I'll go to work and see what Murray says. Maybe he can break in with a telegram that came an augenblick ago. What's your news, Herbert? Have you found the site?"

"I've just gone and done that little thing, Chris­-and it's a peach, believe me!"

 

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"Good for you! Where is it?"

"Noble effort, Chris! But the General Overseer hears about it first. You know that."

"Sure I know it, Herbert, but you're so excited I thought you might make a slip and tell me."

"Well, I nearly did. But skip along and see whether Murray's his usual good-natured self."

Murray was cold, haughty, and disgusted until Herbert peeked over Captain Erdman's broad shoul­der and pleaded, "Oh, go on, Murray. Be a good guy, risk your life for me." The secretary grinned, gathered up his trusty bunch of requests for prayer, and broke in. He came out in a moment, smirking maliciously, and said, "The General Overseer will see you now, Mr. Renbrush," with an expression of coun­tenance which added, "and may God have mercy on your soul!"

Herbert found his chief and Attorney Endicott looking anything but delighted with his interruption.

"Well, young man, what is it?" asked Dr. Dowie, sharply.

Herbert was too happy to be squelched.

"General Overseer, I've found the ideal site for Zion City."

"I hope you have, Herbert, but your instructions were to look out a number of sites and submit them to me, with full information. I will select the ideal site. I am in the midst of very important business with Mr. Endicott, and cannot be interrupted now. I will send word when I can see you. By the way, where is this precious site of yours?"

Herbert choked back a mad impulse to snarl, "Go

 

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to thunder! You jolly well will send for me before you find out where it is-if you ever do."

He realized at once that he had been a poor stage manager. This was not the setting for his great an­nouncement. Suppose the General Overseer should balk at accepting his judgment! If he had to "sell" that site to his leader he had made a bad beginning. Now he must back up as gracefully as he could.

"Oh, I'm awf'ly sorry, General Overseer! I was so excited, I guess I forgot my manners. Please don't bother. The site will stay put, all right, and I c'n tell you about it when you're at leisure."

He was backing out as he finished his apology.

"You do well to be sorry," growled the preacher. "But I think Mr. Endicott will indulge you long enough to tell us where you think we ought to build Zion City."

"I-hr-r-umph-I am eager to hear," said the at­torney. "In point of fact-hr-r-umph-I am finding some difficulty in waiting." He laughed, his face and hair shining.

"Well," said Herbert, reluctantly, "the place I've found is on the North Shore, 'bout half-way between Waukegan and Kenosha-but I mustn't bother you any longer. Sorry, General Overseer, I butted in this way." Again he was backing away.

"Oh," exclaimed Dr. Dowie, "that's too far out!"

"Perhaps it is," admitted Herbert, hastily, still making his exit. "It's forty-two miles. But we can talk that over when you're not so busy. Good night, General Overseer. Good night, Mr. Endicott."

"Come in, Herbert, and sit down," said the General

 

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Overseer, laughing. "You are very adroit with your precious 'good night.' Mind you, I don't say I like your choice. We'd do better to go inland, where soil is fertile and more rolling, and prices not so high."

"Thank you, General Overseer," smiling, and tak­ing a chair near the door. "You would naturally get the impression the land up there is flat. It is, looking from the railroad toward the lake. But west of the tracks it rises in natural terraces, to a hill almost in the center of the tract-a wonderful site for Zion Temple, General Overseer."

"Come, sit here at the table, Herbert," urged the great man. "I still hope you can find a better location to the west, but we may as well know about this favorite of yours. Why do you want to go up the North Shore?"

"Well, you know, General Overseer," said Herbert, taking the chair indicated, and trying to speak casu­ally, "from the very first I felt that Zion City should be built on the shore of Lake Michigan, between Chicago and Milwaukee. Everything was in favor of it. For one thing, I guess, I was prejudiced. I've always loved the old lake. It gives a majesty, a distinction, a something-or-other to a city built on its shore that no inland city can ever hope to have. Then, the lake shore is rapidly filling up with high-class residential suburbs. Its value is always rising. Nothing can ever depress it, permanently, because no one can add one foot to the length of that shore. There's only just so much of it, and when that's filled up, there isn't any more.”

"Good point that," acknowledged the General

 

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Overseer, looking at Attorney Endicott for acqui­escence.

"H-r-r-umph!" said the attorney, nodding and smiling. His nostrils quivered.

"I felt sure that Zion City ought to be built some­where near the Wisconsin state line," Herbert went on. "My first thought was to go up there and find it. But I wanted to be doubly sure, so I began in Indiana and worked clear round Chicago, from southeast to north. I tried to see everything in that whole terri­tory and to give everything that looked anywhere near right a fair chance. Well, I've got about a dozen different places for you to see, but I'd like you to look at this one first."

"Well, I shall consider that. How much land in the tract, and what is it like?"

Herbert pulled out a map, unfolded it and laid it on a table between Dr. Dowie and Attorney Endicott.

"Here is Waukegan, about thirty-six miles out. Here is Kenosha, in Wisconsin, about thirty-four miles from Milwaukee. They are about fifteen miles apart. Now suburban Chicago is pretty well built up right out to Waukegan. Between Milwaukee and Ken­osha there are five cities, including the sizable city of Racine. So the only really available place is between Waukegan and Kenosha. There's nothing in all that fifteen-mile stretch along the lake shore and the main line of the North-Western but a little state rifle­-range called Camp Logan.

"Now right here, about six miles north of Wauke­gan-forty-two miles from Chicago-the railroad runs about a mile west of the lake. The land between

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is all sand, covered mostly with rich, ·black soil, and nearly flat. A harbor can be excavated with sand-­sucker dredges, and it's ideal for factories-very little filling needed for spur tracks from the railroad.

"There's about a quarter of a mile of meadow along the west side of the tracks, then a marked natural terrace, rising thirty or forty feet. From that the land slopes up gradually to a broad plateau, two miles from the lake. About the middle of this piece south of Camp Logan is a pretty fair imitation of a hill, crowned with trees, mostly oaks.

"There are twelve or fifteen square miles around that hill that can be bought, I should say, for an aver­age of something less than two hundred dollars an acre."

Dr. Dowie's excitement had increased during this description.

“I want to see it," he exclaimed, leaping to his feet and almost dancing about the room.

And in ten minutes he had completed plans for a trip out there next day. From that hour until four in the morning Herbert showed his data on the site and described it in detail. Dr. Dowie was exultant, in­satiable. The idea of inspecting any other site was forgotten.

"I foresee the time, in the not distant future," he said impressively, "when a deep-water ship canal around Niagara Falls will make Zion City an ocean port. Stately ships, flying the flag of Zion, will go forth to all the ends of the earth, bearing not only the products of Zion's industry but 'Leaves of Heal­ing' in all languages and Zion messengers to all peoples

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with the glorious Full Gospel of Salvation, Healing, and Holy Living. Returning, these ships will bring the world's finest products of mine, soil, and handicraft for the use of Zion City and to distribute throughout this amazing western prairie and even to the mountains, at a profit. They will also bring hosts of Zion, from all nations, to Zion City.

As they approach Zion Harbor, upon the bosom of the great unsalted sea, pinnacles and towers of Zion Temple will stand on that mount in the center of our beauteous city like a beacon, welcoming them home. Herbert, you and I will see it. One day we will re­turn from far travels upon a magnificent Zion liner and watch for the rising sun to gild, with his first rays, the lofty heights of that temple."