"BILLY" SUNDAY'S WAR CAMPAIGN

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2494, 22 June 1915, Page 10

"BILLY" SUNDAY'S WAR CAMPAIGN

Although America remains neutral, an American ally is hastening to Britain's aid. The belligerent is none other than "Billy" Sunday, America's latest sensational evangelist, who is described by American newspapers as "the preacher with a punch/' No American hall is large enough to hold the vast audiences which flocK to hear him, and enormous conventicles, holding from 20,000 to 40,000 people, are usually built for him wherever he takes the field. Ministers all over the country compete to secure Sunday's services for purposes of religious revivals, in which "Billy" is assisted by his wife, "Ma" Sunday. He was formerly a baseball player, and in haranguing the crowds he makes abundant use of tlio richest vocabulary of baseball slang—a form of speech not likely to be understood in England. He has been invited to England by Mr. Henry Randall, a well-known temperance worker, to help in the forthcoming "war prohibition" fight in Great Britain. Before deciding upon an invasion of England, which is admittedly a tough nut to crack from "the standpoint of a baseball evangelist, Billy says he "must 6oak the call in prayer.' That is his way of saying, "invoke Divine guidance. Ho told an American interviewer, "I want to help King George, Lloyd George, Kitchener, and Randall. In fact, I am anxious to take a whack at the boose devile, wiherever his head is up for a good target." "If I go to England," he says, "111 want nothing but expenses. The English are putting up a wonderful fight, and we must ali help."