The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1914-10-13


est university of the world-life itself.
1t is in this university that w. A.
Sunday has acquired his Phi. D. and
L. L. D., and in that capacity he holds
fellowship with Abraham Lincoln.
Dwight L. Moody, William Lloyd Gar
rison, Giuseppe Garibaldi and the
many others whose lives shine as bea-
cons throughout the realm of history.
Persistently the worlds inquiry of a
man who has achieved is-what was
his education; thinking to learn
through that, the route by which he
blazed his way to an eminence which
makes men marvel. If it were the
way, and not the man, then all who
tread the path might hope to reach
prominence.
History will not endorse this philos-
ophy. 1t is the Individual, the aspir-
Ing soul, the endeavoring mind which
grasps each problem as it comes, and
solves it; which wrestles with each
difficulty, and throws it; and which
ultimately finds itself breathing in the
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 presuppose considerable AGA
demic career. This assumption, how
ever, does violence to the fact. Few
men probably ever came to their
ordination by a 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 I was little boy out IN Iowa"
he says, sat the end of the term Of school
Ii was customary for the teachers to give
us little cards, with a 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.
I can tell you. I never carried on 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-
fee, 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. 81 was a Ounce in arithme-
tic" he says, land grammar was not
my long suit, either"
One of the means which Sunday
employed to become self-supporting.
was that of acting as janitor in q
school house It was in this capacity
that an event took place which is fire.
quently referred to by the evangelist
In his sermons:
at was working" as he tells II. 'fn q
school house where I went to school
when a boy out in Iowa. I received the
enormous sum Of SIS per month for
sweeping out the building, carrying the
coal, and having the title Of tanitor,"
said Sunday.
Zone day went up to the bank to get
my check cashed. Another fellow was
standing beside me at the cashiers win
the same time. When I got outside ]
looked at the roll of bills In my hand and
discovered that / had $40. just SIS more
than my check called for.
'As I was standing IN the middle Of the
sidewalk debating with myself what to
do, along came a friend Of mine, who Is
one Of the biggest lawyers In Kansas
City. told MIN ABOUT the extra money
and he told me to keep 1t and nobody
would be the wiser.
well, I did. and when I was con-
verted years afterwards the first thing
that came to my mind was the s15.
went ahead for years until finally one
time / was down In Terre Haute with DR..
Chapman. Every time I got down %
pray. God seemed to tap me on the shoul
der and say, Remember the SIS
; well. one night went up to my room
In the hotel and wrote q letter to that
bank out in Iowa asking II the accounts
at that time had come out short and
explaining that 1t was Billy Sunday that
had taken the SIS and enclosed the money
with interest"
From an unfinished high school
course to an ordained minister Ia q
far cry, however, and there was many
q pungent lesson In the school of life
before this first acknowledgment by
the world of what he was, could take
place. It must not be forgotten that
one of the great elements of his sue
cess has been the remarkable familiar.
tty which he has with every phase Of