BILLY SUNDAY.

Taihape Daily Times, 2 August 1919, Page 2

BILLY SUNDAY.

Mr. A. E. Batt, who recently rcturncd from a trip abroad, had the interesting experience of hearing that remarkable evangelist, "Billy Sunday. Mr. Batt heard Billy Sunday speak to an audience of 25,000 people a‘ the Citadel in New York on a Sunday afternoon. This Citadel, situat~ ed on the ultra—fashionable Riverside Drive, was built for Ml-_ Sunday by his admirers. It seats 25,000 pOODI‘3: has a sawdust-on~earth floor, and the people, sit on rough benches, as in a circus -or stadium.

“There is no nonsense about Billy‘ Sunday,” Said Mr. Batt, “He flings off his coat, tucks up his sleeves, and sometimes rolls up his trousers in order to pitch into his audience with the greater freedom. And he does go it! He is a chock full of the quaint:-it slang phrases which "tickle the A'.l.‘Crican ear immensely. Not, of course. the educated people. Billy is not for them—doeS not pretend to be. He goes for the other felloW—-—thc tinderworld, the East-riders and so on, arid hits them where they live until man‘; of them ‘hit the trail for Heaven!’ Billy is a Salvation Army branderl ‘made in America’ in the one man. He has a tremendous following. _ln Ne N York he spoke twice a day for six weeks, Sundays included, and never {'o less than 20,000 people. He is said not to have any money. The cash side of the business was being attended to ‘ by the committee, and I know the! Y.M.C.A. and other bodies inter-esred in war work benefited largely by the New York campaign There was 21 choir of 5000 voices present the day]

I heard ‘Sunday, and they could sing’ When he left New York city for the Middle West his friends hitched a specialy truck behind his train lam‘. let"; “A present for Billy Sunday!” I‘ was a gorgeous linlousille car, pur chased and presented to Sunday in this unique way by Rockefeller, Waltz‘;maker and a few of his friends in thn millionaire class. I tell you, 'Blii_v §unday is a power in America”