The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1916-06-10

Night 10000
Total. $1,000
Previously. I. ....... 1926 900
Grand total 9 1854 900
Thursday was "backslfders' day" in
the Billy Sunday Tabernacle. Seven
hundred and twelve church members
who had backslidden, drifted away,
grown cold toward the church, and
were dancing, playing cards, going to
theaters and amusing themselves in
other ways condemned by the church,
returned to the fold, reconseerated
themselves in the service of the Lord
and pledged themselves to abandon all
those worldly things that had weaned
them away.
Sinners who had not once been
church members were not invited by
Mr. Sunday to come down the saw
dust trail Thursday afternoon nor
Thursday night. In his call he ex-
pressly stated that he wanted only
those to come who were then, or had
been, in the church, and had been in
dulging in the amusements he con-
demned in his sermons, and who
would reconsecrate themselves. The
122 who came at his call in the after
noon and the $50 who came at night,
a total of 712, will be reckoned in with
the grand total of converts, because
they are as much converted from their
evil ways as those others who have
never been in the church.
Total Now 1o,o15.
The total of converts now is 10,015.
The campaign will swing into its sixth
week next Sunday morning, and those
who have watched the progress of
Sunday revivals in other large cities,
expect the total of converts to be close
up to the fifteen thousand before the
end Of next week; and they look for
a total of twenty thousand converts
before the close of the campaign, two
weeks from next Sunday.
Two great audiences, $4,000 in the
afternoon, 10000 at night. heard Billy
Sundays sermon on Amusements."
Billy stripped for it, taking off coat
and collar, and tossing them back
ward to Mrs. Sunday, for the heat be-
meath the roof was almost unbearable.
Vi
most immovable throughout both ser
mons. Sunday was bitter in his de-
nunciation OF card playing in the
home, which he said, led to gamb-
ling; Of dancing, which furnished
three-fourthS of the recruits to the
brothels, and theaters, which, he said,
had degenerated until the plays they
presented were mostly leg shows.
al Must Cry Out"
with the wall of lost souls ringing
in my ears can't remain still, 1 must
cry out he shouted. Il don't give
three whoops this side of -- eF, er,
er, well, any old place, what your opin-
ion is, I am going to preach the truth
to you while l am here even if l have
to put our trunks in a wheelbarrow
when these meetings are over and
take Nell and the children and hoof
it back home. You're going to get
the truth from me, no matter whom it
hits" and he gave it to them.
He made it plain that he was not
fighting the theater as an institution.
He did fight the saloon as an institu-
ton; it has no right to exist; but the
theater might be reformed.
Raped Sunday Shows.
1t was a disgrace to Kansas City
that its theaters were open on Sun
day. and that they played baseball
here on that day.
Speaking about the burning of the
Iroquois Theater in Chicago, when 500
were incinerated, he said:
"One hundred Methodists were
burned to death there; and Cooper,
president Of the Epworth League, and
two Congregational preachers. They