This article by Kevin Gilbert originally appeared on the Saratogian Lifestyle site on February 20th, 2017.
“Why anybody should hold a grudge against a barber shop is more than the citizens of Mechanicville can understand today,” The Saratogian reports.
Investigators have “not the slightest clue” to explain why someone apparently set off a bomb in George Stone’s Viall Avenue barber shop early this morning. The explosion “roused most of the residents from their beds, and laid the barber shop flat in ruins.” It was powerful enough to blow the shop’s back door 150 feet away from the building.
The only physical clue is a foot-long piece of fuse. Stone “was at a loss to account for the occurrence, and could think of no one who had any reason to blow up his shop.” His losses are estimated at $500; it’s unclear whether Stone was insured.
THE MORMON MENACE?
“Another Civil War, this time between the East and the West, rather than the North and the South, is predicted by Mrs. Lulu Loveland Shepherd unless the Christians of the East at once rouse themselves and throttle the power of the Mormon church,” The Saratogian reports.
Representing the anti-Mormon National Reform Association, Shepherd issues a dire warning to the audience at First Presbyterian Church tonight. Mormonism, she claims, is on the brink of taking effective political control of the United States.
Mormons allegedly control the governments of eleven western states. “When two more states are within their power the Mormons will be in a position to control the United States Senate and then they will begin to carry out their sworn purpose of choking polygamy down the throats of the people of the United States.”
Mormon political power is fueled by Mormon wealth, the lecturer claims. Mormons reportedly dominate the American sugar industry, while the Great Salt Lake in their Utah bastion has “sufficient salt to salt down the earth for a million years.” In addition, the Latter Day Saints control 65% of the stock of “all western railroads,” according to Shepherd.
Woodrow Wilson was reelected President in the closely-contested 1916 election due to Mormon influence, Shepherd claims. Wilson, a Democrat, overcame Republican challenger Charles Evans Hughes’ strength in the Eastern U.S. thanks to a “last moment” switch by LDS president Joseph Smith, the nephew of the church founder of the same name.
Shepherd warns of the subtle ways Mormons use to win people over, from the tourist attraction of the Mormon Tabernacle to a swarm of missionaries all over the country.
“If there is not a Mormon missionary in this audience it is the first time since I have been speaking in the Capital district,” Shepherd tells the Saratoga gathering.
— Kevin Gilbert
Original Source available here.
In between writing short stories she’ll never finish and marathoning Marvel movies, Megan Finley is often found missing the loves of her life, her two cats Leia and Loki. Her passion for “geek culture” extends into her passion for academics, as she is an optimistic MA student with plans to be the next Professor X (with hair). Her life’s dream is a simple one—to drink a hot chocolate in every Disney park in the world.
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