The Green Forest tribune., 1916-06-16
EDIT ER J. L. RUSSELL
 HEARS BILLY SUNDAY

J. L. Russell, former editor of the Green Forest Tribune, but now editor
 and publisher of the Hale (Mo.) Hust-
 Ter Leader, writes on Billy Sunday.
 ''The H. L. Editor has attended a
 number of notable National gatherings
 in the years gone by and has mixed
 with circus crowds galore, but the jam
 we got into when we undertook to hear
 the famous Billy Sunday preach at
 Kansas City few night ago was the
 climax of all jams in which we have
 ever participated. ! Reaching the great tabernacle full
 ly two hours in advance of the hour
 for reaching, we were soon limited to
 the amount of space on the outside
 covered by our No. l0's, and not all the
 time that, though the crowd was ex-
 tremely orderly, and our neighbors ex
 ercsed much courtesy, though they
 had not even room to spare us to look
 around.
 "The crowd was held back from en-
 tering the tabernacle, pending the al
 lotment of seats to the various crowds for whom reservations had been made. On that particular night several hun dred, possibly thousand. seats had been reserved for the employees of the Union Pacific shops, q section or two for the employees of the St. James ho- tel, large space for the employees of the postoffice in Kansas City, also for the Order of Stags and others.
 'These delegations were all taken care of by tickets and although 800 ushers were buster than bees, it took considerable time to complete the job of seating these special crowds.
 When all had been taken care of for whom reservations had been made, the doors were all opened and the surging members of the common herd were ad | nitted as rapidly as the ushers could seat the people, and this process went )n until all the seats were filled, when the door keepers were ordered to ad- nit no more, leaving the remainder on he outside, many of whom stood in the hed or vestibule, that reaches around he editice and were permitted to look trough the ventilators and hear if hey could
 Our perseverance was finally re varded by securing a seat in the choir, which department is designed to ac- 1700 people. and if the fingers do not fill all the seats the re- ,ainder is given over to others.
 Our position was very advantag- c ous one, being close enough not only ) hear every word the great evange- st uttered bat also to observe him in ction, which is great feature of his II ermons powevoS, we hardly think at anybody in the tabernacle suffer- D
 much disadvantage on that score,
 his voice lisped we'll and the high h strum from which he preached made ST m easily visible to every one except ssibly those who were at a wrong M gle with one or more of the hundred 'ge posts thi4 are scattered through t tae tab9 eecle, to support the ., ild4e1p}g: or} 7as-, s5asp!..n5s lu tn ep,rlF>ntIa, AHted ea . 70 eh. hou ' ASen1ffe n1ffe ''fhe newspapers reported 16000 is M ople at the services that night and p' e estimate was surely low enough, f from the point of vantage from tf lch we looked into the sea of faces ST the great congregation we would we guessed it far in advance of that ti mber. S Arrival of the hour for services at night was signaled by brass \ nd from the Stags lodge of Kansas ;,, ty, that played Brighten the Cor II |, r." which brought forth deafening ID ger from the great congregation. Not only was this the greatest con- egation we have ever seen but the P ost orderly. No small children are a nursery being provided for h king care of the babies while the others attend the services.
 Special instructions are given for joking of the sound of coughing by d e use of handkerchiefs and you could most hear pin fall in the sawdust :, hen the congregation was fully seat '' l.
 The service we witnessed was the ,y casion of 150 persons 'hitti the wdust trail. 7"