Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-10-18
.THEATER, CARDS
DANCE HELD AS
WORKS OF DEVIL
Sunday In Talk on Amusements
Lambasts and Mimics While
Audience Shrieks.
BIZ GOTTA BARTHOLOMEW.

While the audience shrieked
With laughter and clapped their
hands till the rafters rang, Billy
Sunday, the mimic, last evening,
sAlmmeyed, jelly-wiggled, bunny
Rugged, tangoed and high-stepped
across the platform at the taber-
nacle in imitation as he imagined,
Of the way the modern "hotbeds OF
immortality" are danced, and as an
exhibition of the graceful results
that are achieved. He essayed
anything in the dance line and
seemed most proficient and his
ludicrous description Of the mod
ern dances was a scream and again
and again he was compelled to stop
while the audience shrieked with
laughter.
Mr.. Sunday deviated from the
rule that he has established since
he has been in Rock Island OF
preaching pure gospel sermons, for
the talk was less a sermon than II
was a dissertation on the evils that
surround the theatre, movies, dance
and cards and if there was any
thing that Mr.. Sunday left unsaid
that would lay bare these popular
amusements, it was because he did
not happen to think Of it right
then. And Tom Keene certainly
made no mistake when he assured
Sunday that he would make a peach
OF an actor for it left nothing to the
Imagination as he shivered and
wiggled and gyrated and high
kicked and twirled across the stage
getting fun out Of the motions OF
the dance.
At the outset of his talk Mr..
Sunday said that he was not giving
his opinions or theories. He as
sured his hearers that he was Civ
ing them a message that has burn
ed it's way into his soul and heart
and he said, my words may = be
strong and blood red. but please re-
member that with the cry Of lost
souls ringing in my ears, l can't
do anything less than cry out 1t
seems to me that if I'd stop and re-
fuse, the rocks would cry out and
protest.
Judged by the court of public
opinion, l might be denounced by
some Judged by the court OF hu-
man desire, l would be denounced
BY all that want to feed and fatten
and gormandize. Judged at the
court of conscience and purity I'd
receive a universal thank you for
it." was his reason for the talk OF
last evening.
Theatre Gets It's.
Mr.. Sunday declared he has moth
ing against the theatre as an in
stitution, but that his quarrel Is
with the rottenness that is per-
mitted to exist in connection with
the theatre, with the impur1ty that
surrounds the majority of the plots
around which the plays-of the mod
ern stage are built.
He told OF the prevailing condt-
tions that exist behind the foot
lights and said that 80 out of every
100 actors or actresses fail and be-
come human deTelicts and drift
wood and get as a reward a pass
ing notice in a newspaper in some
obscure corner that death has come
in some actors home at such and
such a time. He admitted that the
people of the stage have among their
humber some of the finest on the
earth. and had high words Of
praise for them and the character
of the plays that they are in. But
he added The rogue and scoun-
drelism and mans infidelity are
what form the groundwork or
most plays"
y He denounced the practice OF
keeping theatres open on Sunday
and said that they have no more
right to run on Sundays than do
the dry goods stores and groceries.
THE movies and autos take more
young people away from the
churches than any other two things
together and the automobile is re-
sponsible for the beginning of lives
of crime in an alarming degree. 1
have no quarrel with the people of
the stage. Mary Pickford Is a fine
fellow, so is Doug Fairbanks and
Charles Chaplin and a whole lot Of
those fellows. ! know them all"
Cards Start Gambling.
"And cards, why" said Sunday,
'they were invented to amuse an
old, idiotic king who wanted some
thing to while away his hours and
he used them to play solitaire" He
told of the gambling games that
entice the young and old alike to
lives of crime and said that they
can't be beat. He spoke of the
pack of cards as the opening door
to many forms of society and of the
resultant cells. 81 compliment you
on your knowledge. I don't say ig-
norance, when you say that you