The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-06

oers Of this mans personal staff when 1t comes to knowing how. 1 know of but one exhibition of concerted intelligence which may be compared with 1t and that Is the fashion after which the crews un- load the show trains and put up the big top when the circus comes to town.
 The revivalist had finished his talk with one of those characteristic prayers of his directed toward the Judgment seat on high in a conversational tone which only would be used by one who felt himself to be thoroughly in the confidence of and on the basis of thorough acouain- tanceship with the almighty It was more than friendly, that prayer was; 1t had all most the tone of familiarity in it. Drip ping wet with sweat and with his over worked voice worn down to a reedy whine, he finished the petition and gave the invitation to the congregation. Then. as he Tipped up the trap door at the front edge of the platform and with the agility, of an acrobat, jumped down into g. niche below to greet those who might respond. took note of the ushers form ing human aisle in the space beneath him. I took note likewise of perhaps dozen of his squad of trained workers who, explained by young George Sunday, the evangelist's son and with Homer Rodeheaver standing high above like a field marshal to oversee their labors, now filed down into the press and took their ordained stations at suitable intervals
 HESITATE AT FIRST
 For perhaps half minute longer there was no general movement anywhere to be seen in the crowd; only their bodies twisted and rustled nervously as ripened wheat in a wheat field is moved by a sud- den summer breeze Human beings in the mass being much like sheep. these people were waiting, like sheep, for some one to start the procession; then they would be prepared to follow readily enough Weaving his arms to and fro Rodeheaver repeated in different words, the summons which his chief had just sounded.
 Come on," he called, come on now. Come on, you who want to give your souls to Christ and accept him as your personal savior. Come now
 The great choir at the back of the building swung into rousing gospel hymn. The component stalks of the human wheat field all swayed forward.
 As If obeyfng a command, four young chaps, wearing the blousy uniforms of apprentices in the United States navy, rose up from a front bench where they sat, and with their faces all serious, ad- vanced to the scarp where Billy Sunday was balanced He God-blessed them most heartily and. bending forward, slapped them with hearty smacks on their ultramarine blue shoulders- Behind them, coming next. was little boy not more than 8 or g years old with a shining. proud, shamed little round face above a broad white linen collar. and behind the boy old woman who walked with a limp and used cane. Now all over the building forms were rising up and show ing out into the open. The choiristers up- lifted their voices, as singers inspired, until the sonorous refrain of the chorus roared like white caps beating upon a shingly beach The trail- -hitters wera on their way
 TRAIL LETTERS WELL HANDLED
 TRIAL LETTERS WE'LL HANDLED
 Left to themselves, those who pressed to the front, streaming through every available passage and every bench-lined alley-way toward common center, would have mixed together in confusion: they would have milled about like cattle in a pen. But they were not left to their own devices. Trust the Billy Sunday organi- zation, schooled by years of experience, to look out for that. Directly beneath the wooden ramp wherein their chief was perched. seven men, all wearing badges to show wherefrom they derived their authority, were lined up in a formation suggestive of plow-share, with its point at the apex was the most important and necessary figure of all. In dress and ap- pearance he suggested the head floor walker of smart department store; in action though he was more like the man who sells admissions through the window of the ticket wagon of the same circus which I mentioned few paragraphs back.
 As the converts came funneling down the lanes and gpOltfng into the SDace where these seven meg were posted the squad split them apart so that they were diverted into two streams which. moving one abreast, passed in opposing files from different directions beneath the plat