The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-08-20
SAM JONES AT ST. LOUIS.
Selections From Camp Meeting Ser
mons Preached Last Week.

mons bresGheu Last '" eek.
God have mercyr' A deathly silence
fell upon the congregation of fully TO-,
600 people assembled in Camp. De Hold
lamont as Sam P. Jones. the great
evangelist, stood up and uttered this
exclamation. Sam was evidently deter
mined upon administering one of his
scathing rebukes to somebody, no one
knew where it was going to fall. The
speaker put his hands upon his hips
and drew a long breath. His eyes fair
~ flashed, and the congregation were
wrought up to a high pitch TO know
what was coming.
Then followed a most scathing re-
buke, first to the preachers, iwho had
refused to cooperate in the meeting,
and. second. to some of the papers for
their reports of his sermons, which was
full of pathos. and hardly a dry eye
was at intervals, TO be seen. Then
would come in 4 witty and sarcastic
application of his stories. He said at
the close Of his sermon that he wished
his engagements would permit him to
stay and carry on the meeting, and
asked all who would cooperate with
him. If he ever came aga n, to stand
up. The entire congregation stood. An
invita- tion for those desiring the pray
tended, and hundreds responded.
Considering the criticism which some
of the more straight-laced clergy heap
ed upon the De Hodiamont camp soon
after it's opening, one would naturally
have been surprised to see the big
guns" under the cent. But the bait was
evidently too enticing. Sam tod the
preachers that if he had fished all day
in the same hole and had caught moth
IN he would either al "a NJ
his bait or the hole, and more than
likely both. He applied this sarcastic
criticism TO the methods used by
preachers, and affirmed that many old
prea cheers had been fishing in the same
hole and with the same bait for years,
and had never caught a fish. 1t looked
as if his efforts to bring out the clergy
had been eminently successful. There
were the DDS, presiding elders, long
coat divines. and beardless preachers
too. looking as innocent as saints. Then
there were professional men-1octorS,
lawyers and professors. A glance over
the congregation was all that was
necessary to convince one that the
audience was composed of representa-
tive people from the best circles. While
not many were cut on dress parade.
yet the taste and elegance displayed in
the dress of the congregation spoke at
once that those present were of class
TO appreciate satire and wisdom put up
in blocks and dealt out in cart loads
by the noted son of Georgia.
Fully 10000 people listened to his
sermon, from which the following are
some of the extracts:
am not one Of those who say St
Louis is worse than any other city.
do not believe that. / believe there are
other cities worse than st. Louis, but
God knows that don't say much for
you. daughter. ] declare to you the
tine has come in this country when
fathers and mothers of the children of
the land ought not to be comparing
their city with other cities, but ought
to say. by the grace of God, our city
shall be the best city upon the face of
the earth" That is true. And / am
glad of this movement. / am glad of
my participation in this movement.
am perfectly willing to be caricatured
by your newspapers and made fun of
by your brewers in order that ] may
take part in this movement, and L dare
say that there was not an old bull
necked saloon-keeper in this city but
chuckled over the report of our meet
ing last night, as published in a small
afternoon paper God knows if our re-
ports gave that crowd real cause for
chuckling I would tuck my tail and
git.
If ! was an editor l would want no
better grounds for the discharge of a
reporter than the fact that he mis-
represented even dog fight. much less
a religious meeting. / tell you it is bad
enough to report me straight. The
Lord knows it is tough enough. But 1t
is terrific to go outside and put things
in my mouth i never said and none
of my kinfolks ever said. / am like
the old hard-shell preacher. He says:
"Brethren-er, / hev preached the gos-