The Evangelist and the Elks
A visiting revivalist stirs controversy in Moscow, Idaho, and brings his tent-preaching tour to Walla Walla.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Charles S. Barrett, an evangelist and member of the Moody Institute of Chicago, arrived in Walla Walla yesterday and preached to a large audience in a tent at the corner of Newell and Howard streets. Mr. Barrett recently gained notoriety in Moscow, Idaho, for a sermon in which he remarked, 'Hang an Elk over a clothesline and he would drip beer for two weeks.' The comment caused intense excitement among the Elks, though local reports from the North Idaho Star suggest the situation was exaggerated by sensationalist reporting. Barrett’s meetings in Walla Walla are scheduled to run twice daily until August 31st.
“Sensationalism in the pulpit is more discreditable than sensationalism in journalism, and is too often the chief asset of so-called evangelists.”
This story highlights the 1903 friction between moralizing evangelists and the fraternal orders like the Elks. It also serves as a sharp reminder of how early 20th-century 'yellow journalism' amplified small-town feuds into regional scandals.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.