The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-22

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 enth district, and made quite fine town moving picture palaces last Sun 1 day night.
 1 As I said just now, the audience saw on the second visit was substan- i tially the same audience which l saw on the first trip, but, within a week, | it had been transformed. Then it had been restless; waves of nervousness ran. through it in nipples which almost were visible to the beholding eye, looking from the press stand out and down from above the level of its heads.
 One felt eXuding from it, at times, a radiation of disappointment, almost of resentment, due l am sure to the | fact that the methods of the evan gelist had not been so sensational nor his behavior quite so grotesque as the advance notices had led it to expect There was no longer curiosity but, in stead intentness. First, Sunday had caught these people; then he had gamed tn hem; now he was training them Indeed they already were trained As olfe man, those twenty odd thou sand sang when he sang. prayed when he prayed, enthused when he enthused thrilled when he willed them to be thrilled To me it was a marvellous
  man who is so full of magnetism his clothes won't hold it in. so full Of personality that he sweats its out through his pores like precipitation, so full of a sincere belief the message i which he brings is true message, i that sometimes the words he strives 1 to utter congest in his throat and al- most choke him.
 To win for him, Sunday has all of this-self- -contaned-plus the machin- cry of a business organization which l is so perfect that, were it devoted to | rounding up dollars instead of round- l ing up human souls would pay an eN- tra dividend every month.
 HIS ORGANIZATION BIG AID
 It would be unfair to give all the credit for the success of Sunday re- vivals to Sunday himself his organi- zation divides it with him. fifty fifty. | He may garner in the sheaves when 1 the harvest day comes, but his hired helpers have fallowed the soil and planted the seed and drilled the local volunteer workers against the time of getting up the crop.
 And of these paid aides the great est is0todeheaver-Ho of the trom- bone. Better than any man I ever saw since the long-gone days when San key played Sankey to Moody's Moody,
 
 knows the trick of pumping spirit into a crowd with music-knows just when
 to start 'em singing and just when to
 stop em again. A student specializing in the effects. of harmonic reactions upon human beings could get enough
 material out of watching him durin s
 one evening to write a whole book.
 Rodeheever was born in the high
 lands of the southern Cumberlands
 down in east Tennessee. but he has done a lot of travelling about since
 first he took his trusty slip-horn un-
 der his arm and left his native ridges.
 He must have spent quite a spell of time in Boston, for he has amalga- mated the Bostonese broad Ca upon his southern mountaineer's@ flat drawl, and sometimes the results of this fusion are peculiar. For instance. when he speaks the word "afternoon" he I pronounces it like this: t'artfer-nune 7" The first half of that word is true 1 Boatonese. but the last half belongs to east Tennessee.
 RODEHEAVER'S WORK There was one moment though on the last night I was there when heswa all southern It happened after MT. Sunday had finished his sermonizing and had tilted great silver water bottle up to his lips. demijohn fashion, and let a quart of ice water go slucing down his throat to cool his tortured vocal chords and had been led away, limp as 8 dish J rag. to be rubbed with alcohol and dumped back into condition again by 1 his private bath rubber RodeheaYer was rounding out the service with more mu- sic-music by Rodeheaver. music by two humping good pianists, music by the big choir, music by the crowd At one side of the platform an old negro woman stood up waving both her brown hands aloft to catch his eye.
 Hello Mistah Rodeheaver," she shout ed in a lull, Don't you member mel"
 For all I know. the whole thing may have been planned and rehearsed before hand. Be that as it may. Rodeheaver' face registered surprise and joy as he looked her way and saw her and recog- nized in her an old friend.
 Come up here, Aunty" he clarioned.
 Up she came, and they shook hands and then together, standing side by side they sang old-times darl1y camp-meetins hymns-"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot anc "Chain the Lion Down, Good Lord' anc "Get On the Gospel Train" while theiI northern born hearers sat under the spel of the lingering African cadences and the eyes of an occasional southerner grew moist with recollections of his childhood Oh yes Sunday may be the star, but when it comes to stage-managing the production this man Rodeheaver jus naturally Boscos Belascc. His cos tune is that of a prosperous undertaken his platform manner is the half-confiden tial, half-paternal manner of veteran high school principal his voice is a, sweet as a chime bell, and he could SC duce graven image into trying to chan gospel tune.
 But you forget how cleverly Rode beaver has paved the way when hs su perior officer goeointo acton--which il a compliment to Sundays magnetic qual ity, without in the least reflectng upor the capabilities of the other man. Watch ing Sunday at close range and trainin; upon him your faculties rather than you emotions, you marvel that his method should be so effective In his manner