Billy Sunday His Tabernacles and Sawdust Trails

BILLY SUNDAY HIS TABERNACLES AND SAWDUST TRAILS T. T. FRANKENBERC r HE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY F Ln A LOS^ORNlANGELES BILLY SUNDAY His Tabernacles and Sawdust Trails Jl biographical sketch of the famous baseball evangelist By Theodore Thomas Frankenberg ' * Author, Spectacular Career of Rev. Billy Sunday 1 Essentials in Journalism," etc. THE F. J. HEER PRINTING CO.. PUBLISHERS COLUMBUS. OHIO 1917 Copyrighted, 1917 By Theodore T. Frankenbera All rights reserved NOTICE "Billy Sunday, His Tabernacles and Sawdust Trails" is copyrighted by the author and is his exclusive possession. All rights are reserved. Newspapers, magazines and other publications may reproduce reasonable portions, provided proper credit is given. Rev. Mr. Sunday has no interest in, nor authority over the book or its distribution. It is not one of those publications from the sale of which he receives a royalty. T. T. F. (3) 1500288 AUTHOR'S FOREWORD the collectors of Sundayana, if such there be, TOthe present volume will recall an earlier effort by the same author, which went to the world under the title "The Spectacular Career of Rev. Billy Sunday". At the time, (1913) the volume had at least the modest merit of being a pioneer in the field and of being as near a compilation of authoritative biographical matter as was available to the average reader. Several other books have made their appearance in the interval, and while they have enriched the litera- ture that relates to the evangelist, they have not added materially to the sum total of biographical informa- tion. In all that has been written it can not be urged with any degree of assurance that the critical estimate of the man has been fixed with anything like definiteness. But some things have been established by the lapse of four years. One of these facts is that the Rev. W. A. Sunday is important in history, and this quite aside from his teachings or the results attending his efforts. This, which was a question four years ago, is now beyond argument. To fail to appreciate this is to miss, not the genius of the man, but of the American people. Sunday always will have a place in American history, the same (5) O AUTHORS FOREWORD as W. J. Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Col. Wtn. Cody (Buffalo Bill), P. T. Barnum, Robert Ingersoll, and others who have stood out as the teachers of some one thing or idea. Not that these are the persons with whom he would naturally seek comparison, not that they are the men with whose names his is most frequently linked, but that they have been the em- bodiment of some idea or fact which for a considerable period of time has held a considerable portion of the American people in thrall. That Sunday has so held the American people not the worst skeptic can doubt. Having exercised almost a religous zeal in excluding from the pages which follow, anything that might seem to judge the man or his works, this would not be the place to give utterance to an opinion. It is doubtful whether a truly worth while judgment of the man and his works can be achieved until after he shall have passed from the field of active endeavors, until his work can be measured by the same standards as that of Moody, Wesley, Luther, Savonarola, and others. In the meantime, revised, extended, and brought down to date, "Billy Sunday, His Tabernacles and Sawdust Trails" holds fast to the ideal that animated the earlier work, to present in concise form the facts of the man's life, to cite authorities and references, and to give to the reader opportunities for ampler research if that is desired. It is some compliment to the earlier work that not once has any important statement in it been questioned. So far as possible all references have been checked and verified again. The new matter that has been added has been credited AUTHOR S FOREWORD 7 to its sources as .also the matter retained from the earlier edition. The author believes that it is the last word in authoritative compilation of facts about the life and work of one of the most discussed men in the public eye today. As such it is commended to the army of friends and supporters of Rev. W. A. Sunday. Theodore T. Frankenberg, Columbus, Ohio. February, 1917. CHAPTER I What Manner of Man Is This the early part of the second decade of DURINGthe twentieth century, those writers who con- cerned themselves with the career and ac- tivities of Rev. William Ashley Sunday, known far and wide as "Billy" Sunday, were at some pains to explain that he was or would be a national character. How much of this explanation is due to the peculiar psychology of the American people and to business conditions, it might be difficult to say. Mr. Sunday is a product of that part of the United States commonly designated as the Middle West. Magazines and literary efforts that are sup- posed to have more than a local circulation come, for the most part, from the East, so that there is a general practice of apologizing for anything which does not originate in the vicinity of Boston, New York, or Philadelphia. But the day of explaining or apologizing for has not that ex- Billy Sunday passed ; any complete planation has been offered, nor is being offered, but there is no longer need of making excuses for any tale concerning him, so long as the account adheres to facts and has either the merit of novelty or inter- esting presentation. That Sunday has fame commensurate with the greatest of the popular heroes of the day, there is no (9) IO BILLY SUNDAY room to doubt. What ranking history will give him, it is too early to attempt to state. At the hour when all but the very largest citiest have felt the touch of his magnetism and when campaigns are pending which will include even the world's metropolis, it would be difficult indeed to assign him a fixed place in that rare galaxy of international and historic interpreters of the gospel who have extended from the days of St. Paul to the present, and who have included Luther, Savonarola, Peter the Hermit, Wesley, and many others of varying types of the same great faith. The effect which Mr. Sunday has had upon the communities he has visited, has extended over too wide a territory and over too long a period to question its magnitude or importance. That he is the greatest evangelist of the present century, is conceded by practically all who are not opposed to him for some reason or other. A few, it is true, deny him that title, but they are those who place an extraordinarily strict construction upon the term. The merest statement of his accredited accom- plishments is startling. More than 150 series of meet- ings held throughout the length and breadth of the land, resulting in the professed conversion of more than 500,000 souls, is a record which, on its face, will challenge comparison with the most conspicuous in ancient or modern history. To establish the justice of comparison, it is not necessary to go into the merit of the methods employed, nor the motives that have operated to do this, would be to vitiate all standards and compel history to be rewritten from the time when Constantine swung an empire into the Christian WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS II fold and became an object of suspicion for all suc- ceeding generations. Early missionaries who made their way north from Italy into the wilds of Gaul, Germany, and the British Isles are accredited with wonderful results in converting the natives to the Christian faith. Yet, it is admitted history that in many instances, a tribe or clan followed blindly in the wake of its leader and re- ligious observances were laid on and off like a mantle. Neither will the history of the modern church stand scrutiny if the inner motives that prompted all of the leaders are questioned in the light of high moral standards. Henry VIII divorced England from the Roman church that he might divorce himself from an objectionable wife. The princes of Northern Ger- many espoused the cause of Luther, because it gave them a pretext to war against the domination of the House of Austria. Yet, in the history of the world and the advance of religion, all of these men and their actions have played important and lasting parts. Criticism is, and always has been, directed against the methods and the results achieved in evangelical and general Christian work. A careful contemplation of history simply compels the conclusion that there are at the present time no recognized standards whereby the work of various men in various ages may be measured successfully. It is only possible, therefore, to estimate Rev. Mr. Sunday by comparing his admitted achievements with the accredited achievements of the great historical evangelists, and with these it would seem that he ranks in every way a peer. 12 BILLY SUNDAY In recent years there has been an ever increasing amount of trained observation and criticism directed towards his work, from which a consensus of judgment may be established. As early as June, 1910, Dr. Thomas E. Green, writing in Hampton's magazine, said, after an extended description of the man's manners : "That's Billy Sunday, America's great evangelist. On the platform he 'plays ball.' Attitude, gestures, methods he crouches, rushes, whirls, bangs his message out, as if he were at the bat in the last inning, with two men out and the bases full.

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