The Washington times., 1917-04-28
EVANGELIST PAYS
MOTHERS TRIBUTE
wild BiII,,' Donovan and Irwin
Cobb Hear Sermon by
Billy Sunday.

NEW YORK, April 2S.-The pre-
lIminaries and preludes of any one OF
Billy Sundays nightly gospel meet
ings are scarcely less lively and en-
PERTAINING than the crowd gathering
period before a worlds series base
ball game or a big football game
Billy will say as much himself, and
so there can be no shade Of impro-
priety in the Characterization. For
Billy is out to beat the devil and he
used all the modern frills. some OF
which would have lifted the old-time
preacher from his seat in the taber-
nacle and sent him running to a
Broadway door in sheer fear OF an
offending Providence.
Last night, before Mr.. Sunday went
into action and began TO preach
sermon to mothers which was based
on the rescue OF Moses from the bull
rushes at q time when the Hebrew
people were far more interested In
making bricks than In computing IN
tsrest, the atmosphere was delight
fully worldly.
All over the vast barn of a meet
ing house people were laughing and
chatting. Up front people in the
more favored locations were craning
their necks and gossiping about a
few celebrities whose faces. made
familiar By the newspapers, were to
be distinguished
The traditionally, so to speak, Wild
Bill Donovan, manager OF the New
York Yankees, OF the American
League OF Baseball Clubs, had slipped
In bashfully to take q seat with Sec
retAry Billy Fleischman, of the same
club, and near to q pulchritudinous
young woman who was there to write
her Impression Of how RJllY's style
appeared to a leading light of Mr..
ZiegfeId's Midnight Follies- Also
Irwin Shrewsbury Cobb. /of Paducah,
KY though not very recently. was
on hand, having brought his charm
ing little daughter Elisabeth to hear
Billy.
GreetH GBII. Donovan
When Billy entered the Taber-
nacle, coming forward with his ner-
vous, running walk, he caught sight
of ~BnI" Donovan, ran over to a cor
ner Of the platform, knelt on one knee
and talked baseball for q minute or
two. Twenty thousand pairs of eyes
followed his gestures and there was q
ELu14o ON twenty IQOuHdnQ IdCeS-
Billy took his sermon text from
Exodus H., 9: Take this child and
nurse II for me, and I viii give thee
thy wages" He told the story Of
Pharoah's death decree against the
Hebrew male children, Of the devotion
and faith OF Moses mother when she
placed her baby IN an ark ,and set
it down among the bullrushes, of its
discovery by the kindly hearted prin-
cess Of Egypt. and OF the mother
being sent for to nurse her own child
And upon this story Of the faith
and devotion of the mother of Moses
Billy constructed the theme OF his
appeal to modern motherA
Mothers are always brave where
the safety Of their children Is con-
cerned,7 he went on Fathers often
give up The old man oftan goes to
boozing, takes q dose Of poison and
Jumps off q pier, but mother will
stand By the home and keep the little
brood together II she has to wear her
nails 70 the quick working over a
Washtub."
Tribute To Mothers
Somebody has said" continued
Billy, that God could not be every
where 80 He gave US motherA And
there's more truth than poetry in that
statement II every boy and girl to-
day had q good mother the saloons
and brothels would go out of business,
the devil would hang crepe on his
door, bank his fires and be in bank
ruptcy By July 4. Talk about great
mess: Wait till you get to heaven and
see the names that God has put in
his hall Of fame. You'll see a lot OF
old scrubwomen in that exclusive
place, you can bet your bootsI
81 want to tell you women that fool
away your time hugging and kissing
q poodle dog, drinking a society bran
mash, and sopping up cocktails and
playing cards, that these things are
mighty email business compared to
molding the life of a child. It's the
mothers that count There's nothing
TO show that Moses daddy ever did
anything for him. The devil gets
into many q boy by getting into his
daddy frst Moses got his backbone
from his mother. Just as many boys
of today get theirs from their moth
ers, and not from their whisky-soaked
old fathers"
Billy ran along earnestly. discuss
ing the varied power OF a mothers in
fuence. Even her cradle songs were
a power for God, 'the best music ever
heard. for no brass band can hold a
candle TO mothers song. Calve,
MeIbG, Eanes, Schumann-Heink were
cheap skates compared to mother.
They couldn't sing at all compared to
mother"
When Billy called for trail hitters
last night COT responded. and these,
with the POS of the afternoon. made
e05 for the day.
pIruunun CAcI &c uCpE