Lady Evangelist Said to be Blind in Hospital: Nervous Breakdown Los Angeles, Aug. 19.
Mrs. Aimee Semple MacPherson] has suffered a nervous breakdown and has become totally blind.
'Thousands of followers of probably the best-known woman evangelist ive were startled at the tidings, which came as a complete surprise since she has been active and apparently in the best of health of late.' Recently she conducted a speci party of devotees to the Holy Land.
Physicians said to-day that they did not known whether Mrs. Me-Pherson's condition will prove only' temporary or permanent.
Throughout her extraordinarily. vigorous career, which included a period of missionary work in China /and which led up-to the construction of a great temple here, Mrs. Me-Pherson has been renowned for her enterprise and sensational "stunts." Probably the most notorious of her activities was the alleged kidnapping and trip into the desert, which led to an official investigation of various of the case reflecting upon of Mrs, McPherson and other witnesses-—United Press.
Los Angeles, Aug. 19.
The evangelist, Mrs. MacPherson, is critically ill, Her secretary says she has gone blind and that 3 had a nervous breakdown a fortnight Pherson's miraculous power to heal, cripples still threw away their ferutches, and the blind still shouted that they could see, but the newspapers, grown cynical with regard to Aimee, strongly suspected that Aimee hited her converts to perform nightly, a suspicion which practically, everyone shared.
Mrs, MacPherson made a tour of the United States, She invad~ a prize fight in' Boston one night and took her stand upon the squared ring with the boxers. 'Their antes did of disturb her' in the "Good evening brothers, good evening sisters;" carolled Mrs, Mac" Pherson, "will you not come to the Lord?"
The referee attempted to persuade her to be reasonable but Aimee steadfastly kept to her stand, Th referee called a policeman and the evangelist finally decided to do her work down among the crowd of brethren and sisters. The next d she announced to the newspapers that she had converted 8,000 worldly, minded people in one of Basto dens of iniquity. Boston profess to have no dens of iniquity and not over 800 people even knew who the lady was before they saw the an nouncement of their' conversion in the moming's paper. ago.
Her daughter has been summoned from Paris and her son from the Middle West.
Later, Reports are in circulation among the followers of Mrs. McPherson that she is not so ill as suggested, but that actually she is living in seclusion owing to a disagreement with her mother in_r¢ management of affairs of their Avg. 20.
Mrs, Minnie Kennedy, is in hospi al here with a broken nose that her temperamental" danehter it imée accused me of talking her secretary, Miss MacPherson decided that von y and her a barren field. No one
followers, alleged to be thousands, were growing a bit weary of her antics, So she announced that her work had called her to Jerusalem, She returned to America recently and, until her reported collapse, threatened to hypnotize her flock with more vigour than ever, The Indy evangelist in Sinclair Lewis! novel, Elmer Gantry, which an expose of the clergy in general fand" evangelists in particular, supposed to have been modelled fter America's Aimee, Whether oF hot she actually was her tactics, technique, and physique, axe certain" ly identical, replied that I was referring to her associates........then Aimee went wild, When I came to I was on the floor and my nose was almost killing Further sensational [came late to-day in the MacPherson, when it ws that her mother, Mrs. Minnie Kennedy, is confined to Brentwood Sanitarium with an injured nose and jaw.
Mrs. Kennedy admitted that had had a lively battle with, her! evangelist daughter as a prelude to fentering the sanitarium, We quarrelled," she said, "Aimee struck me on the nose.
The mother declared that she does not believe that Mrs. MacPherson really blind. She said that she is of the opinion that Mrs. Mac-Pherson underwent a "facial lifting" operation to improve her appearance, that the job was inexpertly done, Jand that 'a new operation will be required.
Meanwhile Mrs. MacPherson's story. of nervous breakdown and kindness, according to the mother, serves to keep her from the view of a public schooled to believe that she can perform miracles presumably including the remedying of a poor job of beauty treatment. Later.
Physicians announced late to-day that their examination of Mrs. Aimee Semple MaePherson's eyes indicated that they were suffering from temporary strain, but that she was not blind.—United Press.
The report that Aimee MacPherson, Titian haired exponent of religion has become totally blind will no doubt be received with varying sentiment by the countless hordes who have had her ardent personality thrust upon them. Three, years ago Mrs, MacPherson had the whole State of California searching for her when it was believed she had been kid-mapped, - "A suspicion of her hoax was revealed when certain pink trappings were found ina deserted bhut in Southern California, Later the evangelist was discovered in person with a wireless operator in Carmel. She later came hack to her tabernacle in Los Angeles. Thousands of people still filled the building, but it must be confessed that they came with curiosity and departed with laughter. here were still demonstrations of -Mirs. -Mac-
The Evangelist a Martyr?
Los Angeles, Aug. 20, Confusion and not a little tumult to-day continued to surround the situation regarding Mrs.
Semple MacPherson, the religious leader who was yester-announced to have become Bind through a nervous brooke down, Physicians adhered to their statement of last night, that her eyes were temporarily affected but that she was not blind, Officials of Mrs, MacPherson's Temple continued to assert that the "evangelist had gone blind, implying that she was a martyr to over-work.—United Pres
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