Month: July 2025

Billy Sunday favored women’s suffrage.

BILLY SUNDAY IS FOR SUFFRAGE FIRST, LAST AND ALL THE TIME

Woman suffragists ought to like Billy Sunday.

“Do you favor woman suffrage?” he was asked the other day.

“Why not?” he hurled at the reporter just as though the latter were an “anti.”

“I don’t know,” murmured the representative of the press, in a tone measured to encourage Mr. Sunday to a further discussion of the subject. And Mr. Sunday was quite willing to talk about it. And talk he can on any subject.

He launched into one of the most picturesquely worded and one of the most emphatic indorsements of woman suffrage that its most ardent supporters could ever wish to have, “Why shouldn’t women have the franchise? They are as worthy of it as the men,” was the substance of what he said.

There are 6,000,000 women and girls working for a livelihood in this country, he statistically declared to the reporter.

He urged that the working woman fills an important place in the industrial and business life of the country.

“Take them out of the offices, mills, factories and stores, and you’ll miss them quickly enough.” These 6,000,000 women so engaged were advanced as one of Mr. Sunday’s reasons for granting the franchise to women.

All an interviewer of Mr. Sunday can hope to do is to get impressions. In answering one question he said enough interesting things on the equal suffrage question to fill a small volume. He invented enough aphorisms and sprung enough epigrams to make an issue of Elbert Hubbard’s Philistine look like a mere sample package.

If you go to interview Mr. Sunday take the best stenographer in the state with you. No, take two or three. Mr. Sunday uses words with exceeding celerity. He confessed that he could use as many as 350 a minute. The interviewer gained the impression that he was trying to break the speed limit yesterday.

“There’s only one stenographer I have known who could get my speeches in full,” he said, “and he missed one word in ten.”

The South Bend Tribune. Thu, May 15, 1913 ·Page 9

Poem: Hit the Trail

“HIT THE TRAIL.”

BY J. ANDREW BOYD,

Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

—

Mister Man, it’s up to you To “Hit the Trail;”

If you’d show that you are true,

Just “Hit the Trail,”

Some will laugh, and some will jeer,

Some will point at you and sneer,

But be brave and never fear,

Just “Hit the Trail.”

—

If you want to start out right,

Just “Hit the Trail,”

To fight the devil with your might,

Just “Hit the Trail,”

Walk up like a hero brave,

Prove your soul you want to save,

Let old Satan rant and rave,

Just “Hit the Trail.”

—

You will need a courage high

To “Hit the Trail”;

Say, “I’ll do it if I die,”

So, “Hit the Trail”;

Grasp the preacher by the hand,

For the right then take your stand,

Join the brave and happy band,

And “Hit the Trail.”

The South Bend Tribune. Thu, May 15, 1913 ·Page 8

Did Billy Sunday have more than one copy of his sermons?

TO HAVE SERMONS DEPOSITED IN VAULT

BILLY SUNDAY GOING TO TAKE PRECAUTION AGAINST FIRE.

Citation: The South Bend Tribune. Tue, May 13, 1913 ·Page 7

Just Now, Evangelist Has No Duplicate Copies of His Famous Addresses—Ackley Does Work.

“No, I have only the one copy of each of my sermons,” replied Billy Sunday to a question as to whether he had duplicates of his sermons.

“These sermons are not in full,” continued the evangelist, as he showed the books in which he keeps the addresses that sway so many thousands; “they are just mere skeletons of the sermon and no one else but myself can read them, or at least I don’t think that anyone else can.”

Mr. Sunday was asked if he could remember the sermons if they were stolen and he replied that he recalled the majority of the material that composed them. He says that he intends to have duplicates made of the sermons and have them put into a safety deposit vault so that if one is stolen or should be destroyed by fire or in some other manner, he will have a copy.

“I thought at first that I would be able to get them copied this summer,” he said, “but it don’t look like the work will be accomplished, as I have so much to do this year.”

B. D. Ackley, pianist of the Sunday party, and secretary to the evangelist, copies the sermons of Mr. Sunday. This work takes up quite a bit of the pianist’s time, as Mr. Sunday is continually adding and detracting from his sermons as he acquires new material from many different sources.

“I always let Ackley fix up the sermons. He has a knack for doing things up pretty and nice,” said Sunday, while talking of his work.

“Now, boss, just because we have company you don’t need to make fun of me to my very face. He knows that I can’t fix them right,” said Ackley, as he turned to the visitor.

“That is all right; you do it just to suit me,” replied Sunday.

It is probable that sometime within the next year or so the evangelist will have all his sermons duplicated and deposited in a safety deposit vault.

The South Bend Tribune. Tue, May 13, 1913 ·Page 7