Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-06-30
KILLS SALOON IDEA
BILLY SUNDAY, EVANGELIST,
AND Ex-BAsEBALL PLAYER,
AT cENTERvILLE.

AND Ex-BASEBALL PLAYER,
AT cENTERvILLE.
Wave of Revival Strikes Town and
Will Result in Utter Defeat of sa-
loon Pettion-Sunday Given Big
Collection.
Centerville, June pa mighty
Shout went UP at the big tent Sun
day afternoon where $500 men who
assembled to listen to Billy Sunday
felt the great revival wave sweep over
them, and almost a hundred profess
| ed conversion. Prominent business
men. lawyers, professional men and
others were in the number. People
drove twenty miles to attend the
| meeting, and collection was taken
for Sunday, and he got $1,000. Coun-
t y officers, the police force and men
who have been circulating saloon pc
titions have protested, and their
names are being taken off the petit
ton, recently circulated by the score.
| 1t will be buried deeper than on any
previous attempt.
! No one talks of anything but the
meetings, and the meetings break ND
in shouting, in which hitherto staid
! business men and non-church mem
bers lead.
| Used to Run Races.
From running a foot race for $500 a
! side to running Gospel train is a
\ long step. but it is Just the step that
Evangelist "Billy' Sunday has taken
/ during his career, and he doesn't mind
! telling people about it. That he was
/ as much OF a success as an athlete as
/ he is an evangelist there is no doubt
and the fact is amply proved by the
1 stories of his prowess not only as a
runner but as baseball player. He
/ was one Of Captain Adrian c. Anson's
finds" The veteran knight of the dia-
mond caught BILLY" in .Marshalltown
\ Years ago, Just after he had won local
| fame as a runner, being a member of
/ tho fife company. The story of his rise
in the baseball world is familiar to the
old fans, and his base running and
/ lightning out-feld work ara still held
Il up by several captains as models. He
stayed exclusively in big league com
pany, severing his connection with An
son the Chicago National league team
\ and the world of sports to take up
/ evangelistic work He has been in OF
1 tumwa several times and some years
I ago, he conducted q series of revival
4 meetings when he won many friends
Y among the church people and others
\ who only went to his meetings because
\ OF his own personal magnetism.
i Sundays Big Face.
i He has told many stories of his odd
career, but one which has notSbeen told
!. often, and which deals with his early
Il days, is told by Jesse NJ Beck, editor
! OF the Centerville Iowegian and for
-tmerly OF the Courier, and later man
Mr.. Sunday,who is holding meetings III
\ Centeryille submitted to en- interview
4 by Mr. Beck, who asked him about
Muscatine and the Iowegian tells the
story as follows:
Yes, sir, know something about
Muscatine, said Billy Sunday, ex-
baseball star and at present just as
big star in the revival field, that
was whore | made my start that took
me into baseball, ! This was inter
esting to the Iowagian editor, as he
knows Muscatine pretty well, having
from there
: come from there to Centerville, so the
J story was wanted right away. 1t was
A this way, said Sunday: THAT was the
!. day of great tiremen's tournaments in
this state. guess they have them YET
+ but if they come UP to what they had
then they have to hurry some. / was
a green country fellow stumbling over
!. clouds up in Story county, but those
4 Marshalltawn fire boys heard | could
run some so they wanted me on theil
team to go TO Muscatine to the tourna
ment | Joined them and we did some
I pretty speedy work, tell you. When
) we got down to Muscatine We cleaned
up just about everything there was go
ing Made run of 300 yards with
cart In 81 seconds and a fraction if
remember right, That was going some
We would have taken on every
speed prize there if one of ouI
fellows hadn't fallen down on coup
| ling.
But to get to the baseball part Of
it. Those Muscatine sports thought
they had something pretty stiff in ths
way of a runner over there and we got
10 trying ourselves little together
Finally we pulled out for twenty-five
yards and showed him my heels. THAI
4 riled him up some and he said he hat
a hundred / couldn't do it on 10(
yards. l told him didn't know what
hundred dollars was. but up steps 9
Marshalltown fellow and says here's
your hundred that Billy can do it. Wei
! we began getting ready for business
and when we ran the race S100 de
pended on it. 1t was easy. beat him
clean ten feet and was the hero O.
the day and those Marshalltown fel
lows couldn't do too much for me
, The long and short of the whole thins
was that Cant. Ansan's attention was
! called to my running ability and gen
araI athletic prOficiency and III WAS