Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1885-10-21
Sam Jones's Big Tent.

The tent can be seen from afar.
Along the center is a line of main
poles forty feet high, aud around Is
circle of stay poles. The great white
tent held up by these swung gracefully
from the long stay ropes running here
and there like the cables that spider
weaves. Ali around the outside were
the stakes driven securely into the
ground and holding the rUpes fast to
the ground.
As 1 entered the tent l saw a sea of
bright planks, arranged for the con-
course that will assemble tomorrow.
An old man with gray, long beard
and face marked by mountains OF rug
ged wrinkles came near me and sat
down. His light brown eyes had a
good humored twinkle, and proud he
was when he impaired the information
that he Was the guardian OF the tent.
As a laborer drove home a stake the
wind tapped q loose piece OF canvass.
and l turned to the tent keeper with
query on my face that he understood.
"Blow do Sn?' hefasked. Yes, it
will blow down if cyclone comes or a
hurricane happens along, but not for
any common wind.
"How big is the tent?"
sit covers sixteen thousand square
feet and it will seat six thousand people.
1t is a hundred feet wide and a hundred
and ninety feet long"
But that's no odds" he added, "a
man won't have 10 be IN the tent to hear
~ 80,
so thick if you threw your hat in 1t
couldn't fall on the ground, and then
people outside around the tent like
ring for twenty feet, and everyone
heard every woId that Sam Jones said.
You can lay out In them bushes and
hear every bit of it.
"ientlemen, " added the tent keeper,
I'm a man of some years, and I've
travelled, but Sam Jones beats all the
men l ever saw. BE has the power
over people that no other man that
ever saw had. Go to Nashville if you
want to get fight il half a minutel
How? Just cuss Sam Jones il Nash
vile, and-well, humpl'
''They like hlm?"
he took that population by storm!
This tent came from Nashville, They
studied the matter over and they decl-
ded 10 buy this tent for Sam Jones"
what did it cost?'
"There are different tales about that.
Some say 81, ,144, and some say 81, 300.
Nashville spent S35, 900 to get Sam
Jones and never wanted for a cent o
money while they were doing it."
"Have you been with the tent all the
timer
From the first day it was made I've
been sleeping IN it, -
Then you've heard a good many of
the evangelist's sermons?"
"Heard one day Of every sermon III
this tent. :"
"how has it been?"
I've seen ladies crowd into the tent
when the rain Was running branches
through it, and / tell you something
else I've seen. I've seen Sam Jones's
eye fash fire."
"Eh?"
Yes, 1 saw him at Murfreesboro,
when a man stood up and told Sam
Jones that he could go through the war
and swear and not steal, and drink and
not steal. He was standing over, say
about where that quarter pole Is,
and Sam looked at HIM, and then |
could see the fire fly out OF his eyes
as he said: "Wel, L guess If you did
it was because they kept everything
hid from yOu, and sir. ID less than two
minutes that man Just sneaked out OF
the tent, and We came 10 mud out that
in time OF the war lie was a regular
bushwhacker."
In a moment the tentkeeper added:
''He's caution, Ia Nashville Judge
So-apd-so went to brother Jones before
he comme need preaching, and said:
''NOw, Brother Jones. you know
Nashville Is a big town and we have
some rIeh people here and some that's
inclined to be kinder aristocratic, you
know and now, if 1 was You, I'd be
Just a leetle light on 'em at first, even
if 1 did get leetle harder after that
And then Sam looked at him and said:
Now, brother SO-and-so, l am Just
with you on that exactly, except that
we are Just crossways on 1t, II you've
got 10 cut of a dogs tail you cut of a
little at the end aud LET tat cure up,
and then you cut off a little more and
let the tail cure up and then you cut
Off some more tall and so on. If I've
got to cut off dogs tail I'm going to
cut it right square of at the root the
first lick.