“These cranks pound and slap and otherwise punish their members.”

Buried deep in the annals of American theological history in the ass-stomping branch of Christianity described in the following article from the January 12, 1893 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Kalamazoo, Mich.–The noisy Carterites still continue their disturbance at Coloma, and the forbearance of the community has been sadly taxed. Recently Carter promulgated an order from on high to the effect that a tenth of all the property of the members must be paid into his hands for the Lord. It is also said that Carter threatened to kill his wife if she did not obey him. One of the members is reported to have willed his property to Carter in trust for the Lord. He is an old man, and was knocked down and dragged around in order to see whether he could stand the Holy Grace test. These cranks pound and slap and otherwise punish their members, while making the nights and Sundays hideous with their yells and howls for mercy. The thumpings they give each other are for the purpose knocking out the devils, they claim. Not long ago one of the members died, it is said, from the effects of the pounding he received when he joined the Chosen Seven. Carter was given a coat of tar and feathers some weeks since and the citizens threatened not only to repeat the dose but to run his followers out of town.”

From the July 26, 1890 New York Times:

“A duel recently took place in a traveling circus temporarily stationed in a village outside Paris, and very curious were the consequences. ‘Two acrobats,’ says a dispatch to the London Daily Telegraph, ‘quarreled, and resolved to fight a duel. The place chosen was the ring–after the public performance, of course–the conditions being two shots at twenty-five paces. As usual, neither of the combatants was hurt, and their wounded honors being satisfied the incident terminated. The duelists and their seconds overlooked the presence of two members of their company, who were quietly munching nuts in a corner. These were two trained monkeys, who had been taught to ride around the ring as soldiers, and to fire pistols en route. The monkeys saw the performance of their masters, and when the way was clear they resolved to imitate it. Gravely loading their pistols they faced each other–not at twenty-five paces, but at five–and fired. They both fell dead, one with its head nearly blown off and the other shot in the breast. At the sound of the shots the master of the circus rushed in and found the bodies of the imitative duelists in the ring with the still smoking pistols lying beside them.”

From the March 13, 1892 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Joseph Williams of Fiftieth Street in this city, and Joseph Driscoll of 7 Washington Street, New York, got into a row in a New Street pool room Friday afternoon. They began by calling each other names and then went out into the street to fight it out. Joe Ellingsworth, the prize fighter, urged them on, but he got disgusted with their lack of courage and gave them both a good beating.”