MANNERS & MORALS: Preview for the Prophet

MANNERS & MORALS

As Dominion Ruler of the Church of the Universal Triumph, the Dominion of God, Inc., of Detroit, the Prophet Jones (who calls himself the Rt. Rev. Dr. James F. Jones on more formal occasions) feels it necessary to maintain a certain sartorial splendor. The Prophet wears topaz and garnet rings, a $17,000 diamond bracelet, and says he had 400 suits the last time he counted them. Nevertheless, since June 1949, two of his female followers have burned with a desire to equip him with more truly Universal raiment.

There were several reasons for their truly Universal sense of debt to the Prophet. Before he admitted them to the church, they had simply been plain Chicago schoolteachers, the spinster sisters Evelyn and Esther Jackson. But the Prophet grandly gave them titles, and they emerged the Princesses Bluntella and Essentina. On top of that, in 1949, he "cured" their 70-year-old mother's goiter by sending her to Gary, Ind. four times to get a drink of water in the bus station.

The spinsters' brother, Sterling, promptly bought the Prophet a $3,900 Lincoln as a token of gratitude. The two women decided to give him something even more wonderful—a full-length let-out white mink coat with a raglan flare-back, shawl collar, scarlet silk lining and deep flap pockets lined with velvet. This took some time. The girls had to scrape up $2,000 for a down payment and agree to pay off the total price of $12,900 plus carrying charges at a rate of $475 a month. The astounded New York furrier who was commissioned to do the job had to go slow too—everyone who worked on the coat had to wash his hands every half hour to keep it white.

Last week the coat was done. The two Princesses took it out to the Prophet's ornate, 25-room "French Castle," knelt and presented it to him. Tears came to the Prophet's eyes as he slipped it on. He intoned "God's will is done." It was only a preview, said the Princesses, "of things to come from our most fortunate gratitudes."