Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-01-07
BILLY" SUNDAYS
MUSICAL AIDE HAD
CURIOUS CAREER
Homer A. Rodeheaver,
Farmer, Miner, Law AS
pirant and Musician in
Succession.

The Rev, BILLY" a. Sunday may be the
farmer" when II comes to planting the
religious seed, but IT is Homer w. Rode
HEAVIER who does the preliminary tllling.
There are no two ways about that. No
more potent instruments to harrow the
ground of an unregenerate audiences
emotions were ever user to greater effect
than the slide trombone and the dramatic
vibrant voice which this redoubtable
music master Is bringing to bear upon
tho multltudes OF Philadelphians and out
slders who day after day fill the taber-
nacle.
From the top of his carefully brushed
black velour hat to the tip of his black
patent feathers" little "Rodey'' is an
expert in humanity. He has reduced the
Psychology of crowds to practical work.
ing basis, and by some subtle intuition he
senses what 10000 people want--what they
need to have put into them-and he gives
It to them
He knows precisely when an old hymn
Will get across" just as he knows when
his listeners need something novel to
wake them up-a familiar anthem given
a different twist, new song they have
never heard before. He suits the music
to the mood of the majority, and before
he is half finished with them he has the
pulses of the sinner. the Skeptc and the
God-fearing alike pounding with the ex-
pectation of what Is to come. They are
marionettes I'm his hands. Only he works
the trombone instead OF pulling strings.
ITO get the people to concentrate on tho
platform, to make the thousands out there
forget the million cares OF busy day
and busy world is part of my job" he
will tell YOU and when you note the long
sweeping curl of his eye-lashes and the
mellow note in his rich barytone voice.
the "mash letters which he is said to
receive ever so often in his morning mail
are not difficult of explanation.
'It isn't hard to tell after the first
few bars have been sung just what your
audience needs. MAJ re IL isn't a song
at all, perhaps II is N story that they
want. And then I tellN Them One. Some
times humorous and sometimes pa
thetlc. sometimes It's an old song with
an extraordinary or an original twist
that will prepare them for the Gospel
messages that are to come. There is
no telling just what until you get up on
the platform and sound them. Then it's
easy"
He knows people. And he ought to,
for in the course of his 30 odd years
there isn't much that he hasn't done.
Born on a farm near Union Furnace,
Ohio, little "Rody' started life as a son
OF the soil. When his father decided to
move to the mountains of Tennessee. the
exigences of the situation demanded
that he look around for something else.
He entered the coal mines and later
forsook these for the sawmill. 1t was
while he was busily engaged as sawyer
that he thought II would be a pretty fine
thing to become a lawyer, and so he
worked in the mill and studied law In
a night class
''I didn't like that business Of study
ing and saving at one and tho same
time" he said humorously, land so /
put all my savings into what l took to
be valuable timber lands. The yield from
this was to pay my law expenses, but
unfortunately the timber lands were not
all that I had dreamed them to be, and
SO / found myself without anything.
"I abandoned law and became a trav-
cling salesman, driving a balhy mule
around the countryside in my efforts to