The age-herald., 1900-12-17
Fills the Auditorium With a Vast
 Crowd
INT EXISTING PROGRAMME
Professor Hamill Delivers Address on Sunday School Progress, and pr. Steele on Sunday School Helps.
 The Institute Adjourns.

Auditorium yesterday afternoon to attend
 the metng of Sunday schools of Jef- ferson County. The Auditorium was packed and damned with men, women and children until there was no standing room
 left and hundreds of the little fellows were either standing or crowded between the
 seats. A conservative estimate of the num-
 Der present would not place 1t much below
 5OO0
 It was the grand rally of Sunday schools of the county held in connection with the Sunday School Institute, which began in
 the Cumberland Presbyterian church, at
 Fifth avenue and Eighteenth street, Friday afternoon and closed last night at the same place The superintendent and officers of the Sunday schools throughout the county were invited and urged to attend the meeting and to bring their schools with them. The programme stated that the different Sun
 day schools would assemble in their respec- tive churches and begin the march to the Auditorium at ? o'clock, but numbers of
 them from suburban towns and the country
 precincts began arriving in the city by 1 o'clock and went directly to the Auditor ium from the cars. The city schools began
 arriving at the Auditorium before the ap- pOlIlltu tllHc, Dul IL was lOllS dlleI A.oV clock when all had been seated and the | convention could proceed with its business without Interruptions Col E. L. Higdon, | Capt. Hughes B. Kennedy and Lieut.. Lu- l cien Brown who acted as marshals and | had charge of the corps of ushers, were kept busy directing the officers and pupils l of the schools to the sections reserved for l them, but the house soon became so crowd | ed that it was with the greatest difficulty l that any one could pass along the aisles. Called to Order.
 Promptly at 2:3O o'clock President Von | L. Thompson of the Jefferson County Sum | day School Association, called the meeting 1 to order, but the noise in the house, caused l by the arrival of hundreds of persons who
 were still coming in and trying to find | seats, drowned the sound of his voice, and only the few hundred on the stage and inn
 mediately in front of 1t could hear what | he was saying. The services began with an l overture by the Apollo Club, and this was l followed with a song by the convention | standing. Almost the entire congregation l joined in singing "All Hail the Power of | Jesus Name" Mir. Thompson then called
 on Rev. L. W. Curtis to open the services | with prayer
 The primary children of the different | Sunday schools joined in singing "The Twinkling Stars" led by Miss Brower By this time every seat in the orchestra circle, and the balcony and nearly every seat in the gallery was occupied and com parative quiet prevailed MT. Thompson
 announced that the next on the programme
 was an address by Prof. Hamll, sec-
 retary of the International Sunday-School
 Association, on "Sunday-school Progress"
 Prof. Hamill appealed to the audience to keep quiet while he spoke, as he wished to
 be heard by all in the house. He was given the closest attention. He said that all chill
 dren wanted short speeches and on asking
 them if they did not chorus of voices re-
 sponded in the affirmative.
 Sunday School Progress.
 Proceeding with his address Prof. Hamill said that Sunday-school progress was di-
 vided into five words First, Plant About
 a hundred years ago, the speaker said, the first Sunday-school was established in Lon don by Robert Raikes, who had the assist ance of four women. The Sunday-school
 seed was planted at thaL time and out of
 that seed has grown one million Sunday
 schools with about twenty-five million pu-
 pills. He referred to visits he had made to
 the Western frontiers, to the Chinese quar- ters of of the large cities, and the Italian, Polish and other foreign quarters
 of different cities of the United States and
 of the Sundayschools provided for the
 children in those places. He said the best thing that can be done for a city is to fill it with Sunday-schools. After the bowels of the mountains surrounding this great city of Birmingham shall have been emp tied of their ores and their coas and other minerals, he said the Sunday schools would endure.
 Second, Unite. He said that in 1892 the
 Sunday-school workers of the United States
 and Canada began to get together in great
 meetings like the one he was addressing
 Two conventions were held and then a
 silence fell upon them which was only dis
 turbed by the sounding of the drums of
 war, and then another convention was held
 After the war regular conventions were
 held The speaker said he attended an in
 formation convention in Londan when tse
 roll call of nations was made. Australia
 had fifteen delegates present, Great Brit
 ain 200 and the United States 25O, and sev.
 eral other countries various numbers 2.less
 conditions have grown from the seed Sown by Robert Ral6es and from the union of
 forces.
 Improved Conditions.
 Third, Improve The speaker compared
 the conditions of the Sunday-schools in this
 State when he was a boy at Tuskegee and
 other places and of the manner in which
 the Sunday-schools were then conducted
 and drew comparison with the present
 conditions and the helps that have since
 been added to facilitate the teaching of the
 Bible. He said that when he was a boy
 there were no illustrated papers for the
 Sunday-school pupils and that he had to
 memorize certain number of verses in
 the Bible for each Sunday. He referred to
 John Wanamaker's Sunday-school in Phil
 adelphia, where 5000 children go every Sun
 day; of John R. Peppers Sunday-school at