Morning journal and courier., 1886-04-09
SAM JONES, PREACHING.
A Description ofthe RevIvaIfst as he De flyers his Message to a Chicago Audience.

Description ofthe RevIvaIfst as he De flyers his Message to a Chicago
 Audience
 From the Chicago Trbune.l
 Sam Jones makes queer impression upon one who looks at him over long stretch of masses of heads and tries to estimate his qualities a speaker. But the first idea is, what a magnificent audience. The big, low rooted hall is packed with people, and banks of spectators slope up to the ceiling on all sides. The form that rises upon platform almost in the center has the eyes and ears of all that vast essemblage. There is no great CT opportunity for eloquence, for the speaker has an audience that hushes it's chattering ouli
 osity to catch his every word, and he has theme above all other themes that have call
 ed forth human eloquenee
 The figure is not an impressive one in it's quiet conventionality. The speaker in cut away coat, showing his watch chain, might be taken for a well-todo clerk or engineer. The f rst peculiarity is noticed when he lifts his hands. The lanky, cuff1ess wrists con- trast strangely with the whitely collared neck But Mr. Jones has not overlooked an article of his dress. When he lifts his arms in apostrophe or prayer that stretch Of bare wrist has its proper dramatic effect. He Is 8
 
 does not wish to have any more starch about him than is necessary. The voice has plain tive as we'll as penetrative quality; 1t rises and falls, slowly, drawlingly, and every phase | tipped with rising infection and twang. It is not wearisome; it is soothing It is the voice of one who has never been in much hurry, and it might have taken it's melan- | choly color from the loneliness of the mouI- taips. It is homely, but not rude.
 The sermon begins and one wonders at the speakers huency. He takes an idea, and he | spreads it out as thinly as they spread the butter on the bread at charity school He is never at loss for idea, for he keeps ring 1 ing the changes on the old one till something else occurs to him. When he feels for some thing fresh he passes his hand slowly over
 his head, running his fingers lightly through his hair He seems to have the assurance of | innocence itself; thoughts panting for utter ance do not stumble or crush each other at his lips; he never suffers from rush of ideas 1 to the brain. Other men may tremDle or | flush with the message that is in them and is struggling for deliverance, but Sam Jones
 has a calm consciousness of power that would l we'll become power that was greater. He soon makes joke. There is ripple of applause and a great gratihed cackl1nS. The fringe of spectators near the doors, who have been sitting and staring at one another with the indifference of sightseers, suddenly crane their necks and cackle with the rest.
  been waiting for. It is said that Americans | are fippant Some, indeed, speak of their fippancy as irreverence. But there are oth- 1 CTS that hold that humor, even if it sometimes runs away from the apron strings of taste, | is healthy child and will grow up rugged | and manly. MT. Jones, it would hardly be | original to say, is 8 humorist. It may be questioned whether the tragedy of life has l impressed him deeply; but 1t is certain that | the comedy has touched him aeutely. But l stop. He strikes pathetic chord. He speaks of maternal love. The tone is true, but not overwhelming. An orator would have swayed that vast audience, and for single l instant perhaps have fused all souls in sin | gle flame of feeling. MT. Jones is not mas | ter of his hearers. There is something want | ing in him to give him absolute control. The l expression of indifference returns to some the loose, flowing sentences slope lazily through the air Now and then, when point is to | be made, the speaker stoops low, and, lifting himself high while sweeping his arms, gives | forceful utterance to some epigrammatic 1 thought. This..is what breaks the monotony I Once an imaginative flight is attempted-the | description of caravan in the desert sending 1 the cry of 'Water found" from one voice | to another toward the rear. The figure is a
 fine one, the simile as it is applied is apt; but | before the effect of what is really eloquent is obtained the speaker branches off on a trivial story.
 It may be said that what is best in Sam Jones is his easy, familiar way. The very | fact that he takes no pains with words or with calculating effects proves that he is not | a really great speaker. There is something more than instinct in the triumphs of great