The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-03-10
SAM sMALL's CONVERSION.
Sam Jones' Able Lieutenant Tells His Own
Story to Chicago Reporter.
[ChicagO Inter-Ocean.l

sit was this way. The 18th day of last
September (Sanday) / took my wife and
children and went from Atlanta, my home,
up to Gainesville, fifty miles away, to hear
Sam Jenes preach in a big camp meeting.
1t was kind of Sunday excursion. ANY
change of life up to that time? No; there
had been no change of life up to that time
but for the worse. / heard Sam Jones
preach and j was convicted of my sins.
L was awakened. This was on Sunday.
went home aud got drunk again, and
/ stayed drunk until Tuesday afternoon.
Then ] went into my library at about
O'Clock, and prayed until / felt that / saw
my way clear. / had been thinking about
my condition, and felt that the time had
come to stop. / was getting over my depth.
/ looked the whole thing in the face, and l
surrendered to the Lord. Then i went out
and had 5000 circulars printed, announcing
that would preach that evening at the cor
ner OF Marietta and Peachtree streets. The
first job printer / went to thought was era
zy. You see, had been on drunk, and
my friends had often thought would go era
zy from drink, and so this man thought the
same and wouldn't print my bills. So | went
to another place and / got them printed at
last i had them distributed, and at the
place mentioned a great crowd assembled
when it came time for me to speak. told
them what had happened, what l was going
to do, and told them / meant business.
They could stand off and see me do it.
'As soon as Jones heard about what had
happened he telegraphed me to come up to
Gainesville and speak for HIM. Well, 1
preached the next two nights in local
churches, and on Saturday l went up aud
preached for Jones. From that day to this
/ have lost about a dozen days, speaking
some days from one TO four times. Yester-
day." and here was another complete over
turning of the erroneous theory of his being
converted some time ago, studying with
Bishop Beckwlth, ETC., yesterday | was five
months old in the Gospel
"How are you satisfied with your work? ~
Thoroughly, thoroughly. Ny best friends
said ought to have been in this work long
ago. My mother prayed and prayed for it
till her death. / fought it as long as could.
My work has been uniformly pleasant, and
feel that it has been blessed with success"
Now, how many have you convertedm
well, you mean the two of us, since
have been working with Jones? It's hard to
tell; it can't be told, but i can give you the
estimates of our work together. In st.
Joseph, Mo-, 1900; in Birmingham, Ala,
1900; in st. Louis, well, we can't tell, but by
the best calculation by those in the churches,
about l,600 in Cincinnati-there's ALSO
lutely no telling. The names of probably
1900 people in Cincinnati were handed in,
but there were many, many people who had
DtCD OOunCOsCO Win NAOANACo W hO
did not care to have their names given. II
is thought that the lives of from 10000 to
10000 people were affected by the meetings
~ am thirty-iye years old, and was born
in Knoxville, Tenn, on the Sd of July, get.
ting in one day before the celebration OF
the Declaration of independence. / entered
Emory and Henry College, in Virginia, q
Methodist college, in 1869, leaving college
in 1871. l then went into newspaper work,
first in Nashville, being engaged in various
places, in New Orleans and other points in
the South. was in all kinds of newspaper
work, running several papers of my own,
sometimes into the ground, or getting the
Sheriff to run them for me. l began the
old ST. papers in 1876. during the Presiden-
tial campaign. In 1873 l went with my
| family to Europe as an attache of the Amer
lean Commissioners to the Paris Exposition.
/ travelled about good deal in France and
England and saw all shades of life. In my
earlier youth was thoroughly trained and
indoctrinated in Bible truth, which now
comes back to me, and bring all the bal
ance of my knowledge to bear upon the en-
forcement of the truth"
''What of the future?''
There is no future-but Chicago. We
are going to get through with it first. We
take the work nearest our hand first"