St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-06-01
THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT.
Ben Hogan Uses 1t Now Instead Of
His Fists.

THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT.
Ben Hogan Uses 1t Now Instead Of
His Fists.
An audience that filled twO-thirds of the
chairs on the floor of the Exposition rink
was present last evening to hear Ben
Hogan, ex-pugilist and gambler. tell the
story of his life. 1t was past 8 o'clock
when he appeared on the stage, wearing a
Prince Albert coat, standing collar, and
looking as much like professional preacher
as the average clergyman, save that the
shape of his head and his evident supply of
muscle and bone were little out of keep
ing with ''the CLOTH" He has improved in
his diction since he was in this section of the
country before, and his language savors less
of the prize ring than he has been given
credit for when quoted verbatim by the
press in various parts of the country. Less
violent in his gesture, he is too, than would
be expected, though toward the close he
moved about freely and swung his ponder
Gus fists with something of the force that
gave him his reputation in the palmy days
of Joe Goss. His theology is Of
THE oLD-FAsHIoNED SORT,
he says, and as he spoke last night of the
future life, little doubt could be left as to
his belief in the definitions of the old YER
sion of the Old Testament. He
made fair impression in the
audience. which was about a
representative gathering, though there were
some evidently in attendance, largely from
curiosity. The exercises were opened with
'sHold the Fort" sung by the audience
fbo of 10 in
the rear of the room helping the ushers and
shaking hands with such as he recognized.
HOW HE BEGAN 1T.
If / was to give you history of my
life for the past twenty-five years shouldn't
get through until tomorrow morning"
said the speaker in opening, ''but / can tell
you some incidents in it during the evening.
l 'Spose it seems strange to you that man
that put in thirteen or twenty-five years
sporting in various ways, ignorant, hating
temperance and everything else good,
should stand up here and
try to tell you anything about living cor
rectly this evening. I assure you l never
got classical education and 1 was no Sun
day school boy. l was living among crooks
and naturally got crooked myself. 1 was
stuck on the toughs, and the tougher the
llldl3 tllC UCbt0I llO COu1u dllo tllO SllChCl
he could gamble, the harder l wanted to
train with him and the more hung around
with him. To make long story short, l
was sport. I said I would go to Paris,
finally, and start saloon or hotel where,
perhaps, little gambling could be done on
the d. g., you know. Perhaps some of
YOU OLD TIMERS
moy remember John Morrisey and Bill
Del +bo1 ~,
to set me up in biz, and / was again, against
all odds. quit drinl1in' and gamblin' until
l got to Paris and to be dead sure Of it, ]
till got there. Well, l got away one day
o. the boys. ''Come on and have drink, y
says they.
1 did take one bottle while I was a-telling
them how it was that l happened to quit
drinking, and after the one took another,
and after while they says, ''COme on,
we'll go up and get stack o. chips and put
in the night" / went, leaving my wife,
and put in the night. Wal, / tell yer,
when came back to her and found how
she hadn't slept wink, l says ''This shan't
occur again." No, this shan't occur again
mot till Tomorrow You ladies know how
u1OC uHO llACu Uillcs OuO III ulu W.
cur again, and for four days I was foolin'
and felt / must make it up,. so
l gave up my trip to Paris and set up a
sporting trip with Joe Goss, to take in Chi
cago, st. Louis and around to San Fran
cisco. That settled the hotel biz across the
water.
The speaker then related how he had
pooda his for h fr;,a To-
Goss, how his wife had urged him to leave
one evening with his wife and had come to
a prayer meeting.
Warming up somewhat, he continued:
When l heard the music and see the lights,
[ says to my wife: ''Come on, let's take it
the man that looked like the box clerk,
whats the fare?"
IT'S FREE SAYS HE.
s'What," says |, "a free show on Broad
way! Pm goin' ill.," and grabbing my wife
ing from the Gospel hymns and finally they
takes down Bible and begins to read.
''This is the wrong show for us" says 1
to my wife, lets co." but she wanted to
stay and wouldn't come, and finally gets
Ad1ly tIilu OctfO W Al OCl13 w dl, l. IL ~ yOu
for half an hour, just for spite" and so we
stayed. While we was there heard them
read from the book how it wasn't right to
drink and gamble, and it came over me
that was goin' straight against the teach
ings of the book. says, ''I'm disgracin"
my parents. Pm goin' to quit, and 1 made
a resolution that wouldn't lead the life l
had been any more. l thought he was Civ
iDO If mt FOR. mr., ho,,aft
He then related at length how he had
finally signed the pledge. He had broken
it once, but had signed it again, believing
at the time that he ought to keep on signing
until he could keep it. Finally he had
made prayer, short and in plain words,
and had never since gone back to his old
life
He met Mr.. Sawyer of the Y. M. G. A.
in New York and told him what he was
doing, when the following talk place:
you're been regenerated," said Mr..
Sawyer.
''Regenerated? What's that?"
'sYou're been born again." said Mr. Saw
yer. II
$50 ON, guess not" was the reply,
and said the speaker, it was long
while before could believe that he was
not making fun of me-
MAKES NO MONEY.
From this to tine close of his talk, Mr..
Hogan related his experience in preaching
his gospel and of the influence which he be-
lieved made it possible for a man who has
been familiar with the life of q sport in
getting hold of this class of men. He said
he believed in hell and that he had al
ready had ga taste of it on earth
during the fifteen years that
he had been a rough. A collection was
taken up toward the close to meet his ex-
penses. He claimed, in his appeal for a
liberal donation, that he was not working
for money, and said that all over his bare
outlay should be given to the poor cal
though have been preaching in this way