Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-04-25

rarified air which God has ordained
for the elect of history. w. A. Sunday
Is authorized to write himself, rever
end, an ordained minister of the Pres
byterian church, and that fact alone
would presupposa . considerable AGA.
demic career. This assumption, how.
ever, does violence to the fact. Few
men probably ever came to their
ordination by more peculiar route
than has the famous baseball evan
gelist.
The poverty of his youth and the
early life in the orphan asylums was
not conducive to deep learning or
profound thinking however intimately
1t might acquaint him with the Joys
and griefs of life. The country school
house undoubtedly gave him his first
rudiments of knowledge. From his
own lips there Is authority for the
statement that he was in no ways a
remarkable student:
when / was little boy out in Iowa"
he says, "at the end of the term of school
It was customary for the teachers to give
US little cards, with hand in one cor
ner holding a scroll. and in that scroll
was a place to write the name. Willie
Sunday, good boy Willie Sunday never
got hump shouldered Juggling them home.
can tell you. ] never carried off the
champion long distance belt for verse
quoting either. If you ever saw an
American kid was one."
Earlier than most boys, however.
he became convinced Of the value OF
an education, and by work and sacri-
flee, he made possible through his own
efforts what school training he re.
ceived. 1t was in the late seventies,
according to Mr.. Hall, Of Nevada,
Iowa, that he came to that town to
take up his high school studies, having
prepared himself as best he might IN
the country schools and at the orphan
ages. Mr.. Hall is authority for the
statement that while he attended high
school for several years, he did not
graduate. 1t was while pursuing this
course that he lived with Colonel
Scott, and by working for him earned
the privilege of going to school
According to the evangelist, his
choice of studies ran to geography and
history. II was a Ounce in arithme-
tic" he says, ~and grammar was not
my long suit, either"
Ona of the means which Sunday
employed to become self-supporting,
was that OF acting as janitor in a
school house. It was in this capacity
that an event took place which is fire.
quently referred to by the evangelist
in his sermons:
IT was working" as he tells 1t, 'Hn a
school house where I went to school
when boy out in Iowa. I received the
enormous sum Of S25 per month for
coal, and having the title of janitor,"
said Sunday.
zone day went up to the bank to get |
my check cashed. Another fellow was
standing beside me at the cashiers win
dow and we both showed our checks in at |
the same time. When I got outside I
looked at the roll of bills in my hand and
discovered that I had $40, Just SIS more
than my check called for. !
"As Twas standing in the middle Of the |
sidewalk debating with myself what to
do, along came friend OF mine, who is
one Of the biggest lawyers In Kansas
City. told him about the extra money |
and he told me to keep 1t and nobody |
would be the wiser.
"Well. I did, and when was con-
verted years afterwards the first thing
that came to my mind was the SIS. I
went ahead for years until finally one
lime I was down in Terre Haute with DR..
Chapman. Every time I got down to