The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1915-01-08
BILLY SUNDAY OPENS
UP IN PHILADELPHIA
Come on You Forces of Evil in
Philadelphia" He Shouts Leap
ing to Table-Twenty Thou
sand Cheer World Famous
Evangelist.

Saw leaDeQ aC a DOunQ TO Cne top Oh
table on the stage of his, Billy
Sundays brand new tabernacle at
Nineteenth and Pine streets Sunday
morning, smacked his hands together
with a report like a rifle shot and
raised his voice to a shrek:
"Come on, you forces of evil in
Philadelphia, that have made the
church door mat to wipe your dirty
feet upon; come on, you triple eX-
tract of infamy.
"Come on, you assassins of char
acter! Come on, you defamers of God
and enemies of His church! Come on,
you bull-necked, tle-browed, hog
jowled peanut-brained, weasle-eyed
four fushers, false alarms and excess
baggage! In the name o. Almighty
God | challenge and defy you! Pm
here for nine weeks. Come on, and
I'll deliver the goods express pre-
paid!"
4 Tremendous Roar.
Bill Sundays voice died away to a
whisper. His breath came in gaSpS,
The sweat streamed from his face.
He let himself down form the table
top, caught up a pitcher of water and
drained it at gulp-thCn the quiet
was smashed by tremendous roar
Nearly 10000 persons rose up from
the raw pine benches and eased their
feelings with u shout that must have
Jared Father Penn, so high and
mighty on his high perch on the City
Hall tower. 1t was such a crash of
heavy vocal artillery as is mighty
seldom heard outside of a national
convention when Mr.. Bryan, let us
say. or Colonel Roosevelt, swings into
the convention hall at the we'll known
and the keenly calculated dramatic
moment. The way the 10000 eX-
pressed approval of Billys', or to give
him his more dignitied and proper
churchly title, the Rev. William A.
Sundays method of preaching the
Gospel and beratng the evil one, was
more than interesting. 1t was start
ling for this old city.
But the thing that counted-that
explained the Rev. Billy's presence in
Philadelphia-was the palpable salts
faction, JOY and even eXaltation of
the hundreds of scholarly faced, gen.
tie spoken clergymen scattered
throughout the congregation. There
were 400 of them representing most
of the Protestant churches of the
city and the "Amens" and their fer
vent cries and gestures endured long
after the uproar of the laymen had
dwindled to murmur.
Why Sunday Came.
Do you understand now why Billy
Sunday has exploded from the small
towns to beat the old Nick around the
bush for nine weeks in Philadelphia
and to emit language that seems ac
tually to rise up and curl like blue
smoke among the rafters? If you are
in any doubt, the doubt can be resolv
ed speedily. Billy won over the
preachers of the city long before ne
ventured to come here and essay the
job of awakening Philadelphia to a
sense of their sins.
Along last March, when the once
fast centerfelder of Pope Anson's
Colts, and now speedy, very speedy,
evangelist, was dining the echoes in
Scranton at his business of convert
ing sinners and making teetotalers, a
good many very thoughtful persons
in this city (and they included many
levelheaded business men and ardent
church workers. came to the con-
clusion that the City of Brotherly
Love ought to examine the state of its
soul. A lot of people decided that the
churches were not eXerting the right
sort of influence with the masses.
There was not any team work and
tango parties were considerably more
popular than prayer meetings. The
Protestant ministers had heard OF
Billy Sunday, of course, but to put 1t
frankly, they had not any very strong
regard for him or his methods, for all
they could see at long range there
was too much slang and acrohatlcS
about the evangelist to suit them.
See for Themselves.
One of the newspapers suggested,
however, that a delegation of clergy
men travel to Scranton and study the
Rev. Billy-look him over and figure
out if his sincerity and forcefulnes3
wouldn't be good things to inject INTO
Philadelphia's lackadaiscal religious
attitude, and if they wouldn't out
weight his slang and decorating man
nemsms. The clergymen decided to
make the test, they went to Scran
ton, filed into Billys gospel taberna-
Gle, listened, and were impressed.
When they returned to the city and
talked things over they decided that
Philadelphia needed dozen of Billy
Sunday. They took up the project
vigorously. Nearly four hundred con-
gregations organized for the revival
that was to wake up the city. Busi
ness men got together under Joseph
NJ Steele as chairman of the general
committee of the evangelist campaign.
They divided the city into districts
for the purpose of getting out the
people. They built a tabernacle that
can seat more than 1900 persons,
and can squeeze in more than twenty
thousand. (They were squeezed in
three times day, morning, afternoon
and night, when the evangelist eX-
hnrted hardly less than GO 600 Ann