The Washington herald., 1915-01-14
THE OPEN FORUM.
Woman Writer Discusses the Methods
of Billy Sunday.

Editor of The Washington Herald
| Although you have been devoting con-
siderable space to Billy Sunday, perhaps
space to a protest against his style of
performance. For. 10, II appears to
some that while he is firing of broad
sides at whisky and gambling, and so
on. he is, himself. really playing upon the
same class of emotional and irresponsible
excitement reused by such practices. and
so works his audiences into a sort of
frenzy which same could be induced by
passing around cocktails. His chief as
sets are noise and slang. and the at
mosphere of his meetings similar to a
dog fight; but, as We are passing through
hysteriCal era this must be borne with
! as part of it, 1 suppose.
Some are urging in his defense the old
bromide that he reaches" people who
could not be reached in any other way.
But what does he reach? Certainly not
their souls. AS for the type of emotional
feeling induced, we have most OF us
heard the story q may not get all the
details cOrrecO about the young orator,
or actor, whose grandmother was an old
time, shouting Methodist, and so in order
to demonstrate his argument that such
displays are only Mysteries, he got up
before the old lady and began ener-
getically eXhOrting, while using para
graphs from the almanac, and soon he
had her shouting GLORY" and Amen" 1"
As for my argument, not being of the
sort called "pious" nor even church
member, I can hardly be accused of
bigotry. or religious prejudice or dogma
tism. But, I do have some regard for
the fitness of things. and for harmony,
and feel that the jarGOn of the slums
is not suitable for any kind of religious
meeting. in church or out; neither is
hOrseplay suitable And since Billy is
so fond of shouting about fighting the
devil" I can readily imagine the afore-
said devil sitting back at ease and chuck
ling while Billy runs his business for him,
for the devil, you know, engages all sorts
of assistants. and is best served by those
who wear some sort of disguise. And as
Satan is always up to date he finds the
use of the latest slang most handy
for destroying all our ideals. Am per-
fectly willing to assume Billy's good in
tention, however. as he may not realize
whose cause he is serving.
On the other side of the question, IL
is largely true. as the devotees of horse
play salvation claim, that there is too
much formality and bigotry and narrow
dOgmatism in some of the orthodox
Churches-at any rate, in the past. And,
not being a habitual churChgoer l am
perhaps more sensitive to atmosphere
than many of the regulars. and so, on my
last visit to a church, I was depressed
by the stiffness, formality and ugliness
of the service. There was nothing warm
or inspiring about the whole proceeding,
and no beauty. But, unless the re-
spOnSible pastors can arouse real feeling
within their own domain, there is no
hope in adopting the manners and jargon
of the slums. or even the baseball field.
And, although it is being urged in this
connection that religion should be made
more a matter OF everyday live. and not
restricted to the Sabbath. yet this can
not be accomplished by dragging it into
the gutter. We must have ideals. Life
has many phases, and when an artist
paints a picture. say a landscape, he
puts in all the COlors. and the light and
shade in the right places. with the noun
tains and the blue sky overhead and
the foothills and valleys below; and all
is set forth in perspective by means OF
the light and shade, and so he represents
the landscape as created in all its
variety and beauty. But, let us imagine
him mixing all the colOrs together in one
paint pot. and slapping the mess all over
the canvas alike-Where would be the
effects? The only appropriate title would
be "A Composite Smear" And this is
what these pseudo refOrmers are trying
to do with modern life
HINDA BURKE.