The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-28
FAMOUS EVANGELIST OF FIVE
CONTINENTS RELATES DEATH
OF HIS MOTHER IN Gypsy
CAMP AND HOW FATHER BE-
CAME SANITY MAN
by GYPSY dRoDNEY SMITH

by GYPSY tRoDNEY SMITH
CAS- published in the Brooklyn Easlel
have been requested to tell how grace
found me in my gypsy tent and ! will try
to do so. but at the same time l shall
speak concerning the Master whom
serve and who has done such great
things for me, and can and has done SO
much for you and all the world. l shall
close by giving a personal invitation, and
I hope many of those who have not ac-
cepted the Savior. will do so before they
leave this building tonight.
In spite of the skepticism of some of
you am a real gypsy We gipsies are
of real blood. we are the real thing. not
the counterfeits that sometimes go around
in wagons from place to place. We have
manners and customs all our own We
are so old, / do not know how old. There
are from two and half to four and
half millions of gipsies in the world The
question is frequently asked what a gypsy
is. There are all sorts of answers: "One
who tells fortunes" "a fellow who swipes
kids" 1t is not true The gipsies have
so many children of their own that they
do not need to steal any. or some of their
characteristics l shall not speak, but in
view of the fact that they have no Bible,
no schools, ne education. no religious
surroundings, they ere the most moral
people in the world. l never knew of
gypsy who was divorced, and yet they
have no Bible. I never knew a fallen
woman in a tent. And yet they have no
Bible. A gypsy boy is early taught to
honor woman. I never heard of gypsy
breaking into bank or reorganizing one.
And yet they have no Bible. When you
read cheap dime novels, go to picture
shows, say this to yourselves, What
would we do without Bible or without
churches and religious inf1uences?"
There is no vice in my veins, no alcohol
in my blood do not know the taste of
the stuff. Jesus saved me in my gipsy
tent before I contracted any evil habits.
believe it is better to have a fence on
the edge of a precipice than to have
hospital at the bottom. II any one here
has any evil habits I beg of you to give
yourself to Christ now and be freed from
them. The sins of the gipsies are not
so black as they are painted My uncle,
converted when he was 80, lived beaut-
full life for two years and died at 1O1, and
he was the father of 81 children.
Some of the sins of my people are drink,
pilfering. nothing big, and swearing. but
the biggest sin is lying The women are
hard to bring to Christ and will not come
to Him because of their fortune telling.
That is lying. A woman knows it, but
she continues the practice as a means of
making money for her sustenance. My
father is still living at the age OF 50, tall,
straight and weighs about $40 pounds. lie
is one of the saints of the world. on
July 16 when l left him for a world tour,
he came in for prayers-he lives next
door to me in Cambridge, England and
with him were the man servant the maid
servant and all the household The 9lst
Psalm was read and then / asked father
to present me to the throne of grace while
i was. away. lie said: NO. You are
where l presented you when I found
Christ my blessed Savior
God Saw Something
Some people are careful of what they
never possessed, therefore they are anx-
ious about the reputation of others The
gypsies Travelled ,he country without Bi-
BILE without church. and the church peo-
: pie left us there, never coming near us
and inquiring about our souls. probably
considering that we did not have any.
God saw something. however. in that
gypsy tent, for cut of it came six preach
+ ers One time the oldest child, daugh-
ter, was taken sick \ doctor was called
from the nearest Village. He examined
the daughter over the door and then told
father and mother that she had small
pox He told us to take the wagon into
a secluded lane near by. We did so. and
then my father pitched a tent under a
hawthorne tree. Father was the faithful
nurse. mother remaining in the wagon
to take care of the children. one after
another the girls We're taken to the tent,
where father faithfully watched over
them. Mother used to come as near as
B was safe to bring food. but one day she
went too near. She was a woman and