Billy Sunday souvenirs sold at his revival campaigns

PUBLISHER OF SUNDAY SOUVENIRS IS IN CITY

H. A. Lorberg Will Remain Through Balance of Campaign.

H. A. Lorberg, publisher and dealer in postal cards, portrait buttons and other souvenirs of the Billy Sunday campaign has reached South Bend and will remain in the city throughout the balance of the revival. Mr. Lorberg, who has followed the party for years, has secured quarters at the Y. M. C. A. and will shortly open a place in this city, where his wares will be placed on sale.

Mr. Lorberg not only carries with him pictures of Billy Sunday, but he also has copyrighted photographic souvenirs of various kinds relating to other members of the party. He also has charge of the sale of a number of songs and books, which were written and published by various members of the party. Among these publications is the book of the Acts, written by Miss Grace Saxe.

For a long time Mr. Lorberg had difficulty in keeping possession of his book of hymns for worship in the tabernacle. This he overcome or attempted to overcome several months ago, by marking with letters two inches high on the backs of his hymnal “Thou shalt not steal.” The scheme has been effective, Mr. Lorberg says.

The South Bend Tribune · Mon, May 05, 1913 · Page 7 · (South Bend, Indiana)

Poem sent from Wilkes-Barre, PA to Billy Sunday c May 1913

Just prior to starting the late April 1913 South Bend revival campaign, Billy Sunday finished his campaign in Wilkes-Barre, PA. He was apparently sorely missed just days afterward as a citizen-employee from Vulcan Ironworks sent this poem to the South Bend Tribune, published Mon, May 05, 1913 ·Page 7.

Tribute to Sunday.

Tell your friends, we knew a fellow

Who’s the real thing through and through.

He’s a friend well worth having,

And he’ll be a friend to you.

When he came to old Wilkes-Barre,

Some of us were pretty tough.

And we thought that Billy Sunday

Was a grafter, sure enough.

But, one night we went to hear him—

With a banner and his band—

And we found that Billy Sunday

Is the best man in all the land.

How he hits the old ‘booze-fighter,’

And his cussing, spewing life—

Tells you how he starves his children,

Kills his poor, long-suffering wife.

Then he preaches Christ the Saviour

And His divine love, until

All the crowds just melt around you,

“Leaving God and you and ‘Bill.'”

When he says, ‘Don’t trust your feelings

“Come to Christ. He’ll never fail.’

And he holds his hand out pleading,

‘Fore you know, you’ve hit the trail.

Why, he makes sin seem so awful,

And religion seems so grand,

That you wish ten thousand “Billies”

Could sweep over this whole land.

But the best part can’t be told, friends,

How God fills your heart with peace,

And with hope and strength and courage,

And with joys that never cease.

So, three cheers for “Billy” Sunday,

Yes, three cheers, and three times three,

For the man who makes salvation

Plain to men like you and me.

And through all this great republic

‘Twould be mighty hard to find

Your grateful bunch of fellows,

Than his friends, the undersigned.

The South Bend Tribune speculated in 1913 that Billy Sunday would be a good ‘politican.’

SUNDAY WOULD BE GOOD VOTE GETTER

POLITICAL WRITER LOOKS OVER BASEBALL EVANGELIST.

COULD HAVE CROWD SURE

Billy’s Fearlessness and Independence Would be Bound to Win Masses if He Was Out for Office.

BY THE POLITICAL WRITER.

It may be said safely that a good percentage of the men and women who sat in open mouthed amazement at the tabernacle yesterday and saw Billy Sunday sway thousands by his magnetism, hypnotism and Lord-knows-what-ism afterward asked themselves the question: ‘Why didn’t he go into politics?’

Billy Sunday’s most bitter enemies must admit that he is a leader of the natural-born species. His characteristics, his personality, his impulsiveness, his methods and that seductive ‘come-on-I’ve-got-you’ smile make him a power whether it be in evangelistic work or in a ‘swat the fly’ campaign.

Could Get Votes.

Billy Sunday, c. 1908. Author’s Collection

On the political stump Billy Sunday could get votes. It is idle to deny that fearlessness and vote-getting go hand in hand. They are so closely interlocked that there has never been a great vote-getter who was not brave and courageous in saying what he wanted to say regardless of the fear of adverse criticism. That’s just Billy Sunday’s line. To him a liar is a liar, a hypocrite is a hypocrite, a man is a man and a woman is a woman. He calls a spade a spade and does it from the housetops.

Billy Sunday undoubtedly would achieve as much success in politics as in a religious movement. Perhaps the latter critics are possibly more charitable in the belief that this gives the one under the acid test a greater opportunity to show his good. Billy Sunday does not seek charity or consideration, but rather goes after his auditors hammer-and-tongs.

Like a Fighter.

In politics that would result in delivery of the goods the same as in religion. All men like a fighter and Billy Sunday yesterday demonstrated that he can scrap from the drop of the hat. Such an individual would have followers in politics, followers of all kinds and description from curbstone heelers to nation wide statesmen.

Under a convention system Billy Sunday would shine. Any man who can double himself into a knot, hit the floor and ceiling alternately, chase from one side of a platform to the other, shake his fist at a packed auditorium, telling all of them that they are doing wrong and telling some of them that they are quite on the direct route to hell—any man who can do so much in one breath and get away with it would have no trouble in turning a political convention into his way of thinking. If Billy Sunday appeared at an old time county convention and made a speech as dramatic, as fiery and as spectacular as he did yesterday, the delegates would be fairly falling over one another trying to get aboard his political band wagon.

“A Real Dandy.”

Asked what he thought of Billy Sunday, Gov. Tener, of Pennsylvania, who played ball against him back in the nineties, made answer in his semi-soliloquy and semi-quiz fashion: “Wouldn’t he make a dandy in politics?”

Those who know something of politics and who have heard Sunday quite agree with Pennsylvania’s chief executive.

The South Bend Tribune. Sat, May 03, 1913 ·Page 13

In the same edition of the newspaper, this story was also posted.

SUNDAY WOULD LIKE ONE POLITICAL JOB

EVANGELIST LETS OUT SECRET OF AN AMBITION.

Billy Pines to Get on School Board Some Time so He Can Raise Salaries.

Billy Sunday let his audience in on a nice little secret ambition of his, during his talk at the tabernacle last night. Mr. Sunday does not particularly aspire to the job, but if he ever gets into politics he wants to be a member of the schoolboard. This he confided to the crowd during his eloquent discussion of home problems.

The evangelist gave his reason for wanting the job, in the following manner:

“I would like to be on a school board so I could double the pay and arrange 12 months work a year for every school teacher under my jurisdiction. It is a disgrace, the wages we pay ministers and school teachers. Raise teachers’ salaries and we would have better influence for good among the scholars as a result.”

Billy halted his speech for a moment, then added:

“There is one thing I would do if I was a member of a school board and that is I would give back to the teacher the right to lick our boys and girls. It was one of the greatest mistakes of the nation in depriving them of this right.”

Billy Sunday believed (c 1913) that the Y.M.C.A. was drifting from its core mission

Y. M. C. A. Drifting Away.

“They are fighting and talking about the needs of an institutional church, they are having gymnasiums and socials. But don’t forget the fact that salvation is the prime end of everything. I don’t object to the gymnasium and all such things if they make them a means to an end. But remember that salvation of the soul is the end which we need. That is what is the matter with the church to-day, she is losing sight of that one fact. The Y. M. C. A. is drifting away from what it used to do for the people. I don’t object to the Y. M. C. A. I don’t object to gymnasiums. I do object when they make that the prime thing, putting in pool tables and such things. The church and the Y. M. C. A. and the Salvation Army are getting away from the fact that the salvation of the soul is the supreme end. I want to see the salvation of the soul the supreme end of the world.”

Citation: The South Bend Tribune. Sat, May 03, 1913 ·Page 12

Helen ‘Ma’ Sunday was an artist

Citation: The South Bend Tribune. Fri, May 02, 1913 ·Page 11

MRS. SUNDAY ARTIST.

Wife of Evangelist Has Done Work in Oils.

Mrs. Sunday is an artist of considerable merit. The evangelist’s wife in years past, has executed scores of oil paintings. Mrs. Sunday studied for several years in Chicago and spent much time at her art work afterwards. Her brother, W. J. Thompson, has a set of seven handsome oil paintings from Mrs. Sunday’s brush, which she presented to him as a wedding present.

The South Bend Tribune. Fri, May 02, 1913 ·Page 11

‘Ma’ Sunday. New York World Pictures.
April 8, 1917.
Author’s Collection.

Ma Sunday
1906 postcard. Author’s Collection.

South Bend pondered what to permanently do with the tabernacle at the beginning of the South Bend campaign

Citation: reported in The South Bend Tribune. Thu, May 01, 1913 ·Page 11

TABERNACLE MAY BECOME MARKET

PERMANENT RETENTION OF BUILDING IS URGED.

Disposition of Large Structure When Sunday Campaign Ends, Causes Speculation Among People.

The permanent retention of the Billy Sunday Tabernacle as a public market house is one of the latest suggestions made relative to the future of that very large structure.

South Bend has been experimenting for some time with a public market and the interest which it has created makes many feel confident a permanent market in good quarters ought to be established. Those who favor the use of the tabernacle believe that while the location may not be the best, it is probably the best that can be found at the price and under existing conditions. Surrounding the tabernacle is sufficient space for a hay market, while the interior of the building is large enough to accommodate an indoor market for many years to come.

This is only one of a number of suggestions that have been made for utilizing the tabernacle when the Sunday workers are through with it. The possession of a structure as large as this is beginning to be regarded as a great advantage to the city and it is not impossible that before the Sunday campaign ends a movement may be started that will result in the retention of the building for a market or some other purpose.

The South Bend Tribune. Thu, May 01, 1913 ·Page 11

TABERNACLE MAY BE LEASED FOR SUMMER

Business Men Believe Building Can Be Left Standing for Time.

Business men and members of the different political parties in South Bend are still in favor of securing the Billy Sunday tabernacle here at the end of the campaign and using it for public meetings this summer and fall. As a rule the tabernacles are torn down at the end of a campaign but it is thought that if a combined effort is made the building may be left standing for a time at least. The tabernacle belongs to the St. Joseph County Evangelical association and it is probable that some overtures will be made for securing the building for public purposes before Billy Sunday leaves South Bend.

The South Bend Tribune. Wed, May 28, 1913 ·Page 12

Billy Sunday on ‘Revivals’? c. 1913

What of Revival?

So what’s the nature of a revival? He was praying for a revival. As a nation we are facing the danger of the dominance of the material over the spiritual; we are commercially drunk. Take a bushel of nickels and walk down the street of the average town and you can lead the bunch so close to hell that you can smell the sulphur fumes as it belches from the inferno below.

The biggest coward in America today, the biggest coward we have in the profession of christian religion, who is afraid to come out and declare himself in a campaign like this, is the business man. He is afraid that some saloon keeper, some brewer, some black-leg gambler, some madame of the red light district and others of that kind—they’re afraid they’ll lose their trade by it, and by the eternal God they ought to be punished before the moon changes.

[Cont.]

All Kinds of Revivals.

Listen to me. In the economy of nature God provides for an occasional copious downpour of rain. You would be a fool to growl because it didn’t rain all the time. God has arranged His spiritual kingdom so that He has a copious downpour of spiritual blessings. God is rolling in spiritual wealth as well as material. It is not thought unwise to have a revival in business, oh, no—every town has its commercial club. It is not thought unwise to have a revival in politics—on, no.

Some people are scared to death that somebody might be saved from hell by out-of-the-ordinary methods.

Political leaders will hire leaders, newspaper editors, publishers, and will spend money for voters—in order to get those who are indifferent to the political situation interested—that is nothing under heaven but a political revival and you don’t hear anybody growl about it—you didn’t hear anybody growl about it this last election—that is, nobody but the republicans. Well, I am one myself.

In the business world, listen. In the business world men must make the market as well as the goods for the market. He must make the goods, then he goes into the market. He’s got to do both. You’ve got Chambers of Commerce, you’ve got all these institutions to create a demand for the product—these are business revivals—you have auto shows, they are auto revivals—you have county fairs which are nothing but revivals where they show cows, pigs, chickens, bread, butter, horses, and all the products of the farm. Then what the revival is to business, what the election is to politics, the revival is to religion; what health is to the individual the revival is to religion. Martin Luther saved Europe—a spiritual revival under Martin Luther was the cause of the reformation, nothing, but a revival, and why any Lutheran will snap, snarl, growl about a revival when his church was born of a revival I don’t know.

When Revival is Needed.

A revival is needed when the worldly spirit is in the church of God. It isn’t necessary to do something grossly inconsistent. A ship is all right in the sea, but all wrong when the sea is in her. The church of God is all right in the world, but all wrong when the world is in the church. Some people come to church on Sunday morning and on Monday morning they take a header into the world and the church never sees them again until Sunday morning. They squat and take up a little space in the pew and stay there and put a little money on the plate, but you never see them again until Sunday morning. I tell you, I believe half of the church members could die and the church wouldn’t lose anything of its spiritual force; it would lose them in numbers, but it wouldn’t lose anything in spiritual power. I tell you, my friends, we need a panic in religion, the world don’t need informing, it needs reforming. We are going to the devil over culture clubs, as if the world needed informing. It don’t need anything of the kind. There are people who go to church and go to a certain denomination because their wife goes there. They got their religion and their property in their name. They go to that church.

Must Have Revival.

“I want to say if a public school teacher knew no more about the work and methods of teaching than the average Sunday school teacher knows about the will of God, she would not be on the pay roll 16 minutes.

“Go down to the dance halls, the nickelodeans, the picture shows, the cheap-skate dance halls — there you will find young girls with dresses to their shoe tops. I ask you, why? I’ll tell you: the spiritual destitution of the multitude. Thousands never darken the church doors. A revival is needed when sinners are careless, licentious. * * * A general revival of religion has got to sweep over this country or it will mean the dissolution of the church, the home and of the nation. I don’t care a rap how you fortify your shores; how many ships you build; America has got to have a revival or it means the end of your religion. Wealth and culture never saved Rome, Babylon or Nineveh, and if you have the sins of Babylon, you will have the judgment of Babylon.

“What is a revival? It is a campaign in the name of God against the world, the flesh, and the devil, and against a revival you will find every brewer in this valley; every whiskey seller in this valley; every saloon-keeper in this valley; every black-leg gambler in this valley; every she madam of the red light district; every man and woman that feeds and fattens and gormandizes upon the virtue of men and women so if you want to line up with a bunch like that, God pity you; that is the best compliment on God’s earth.

“Men say the day of the revival is over. Fellows harp on that in the Methodist conferences, in the Presbyterian meetings, in the Baptist associations. In the Congregational associations,—the day of the revival is over. No, it is not. No, only with the fellow who vomits out the sentiment; but it is not over with God.

The day of the revival is over. God Almighty leaned over the battlements of heaven and looked down into the coal mines of Wales and said, ‘Oh, Roberts!’ and out of the depths of the coal mine came that grimy, soiled man, with dirty face, with a little lamp in his cap, and he said, ‘what is it, God?’ And God said, ‘I want you to go and shake up Wales,’ and he gave Wales the greatest revival that ever swept over this land since the days of Pentecost. There was not a college professor or preacher in Wales that God would trust with the job.

Citation (excerpted): The South Bend Tribune. Wed, Apr 30, 1913 ·Page 14, 16

Sundayisms at South Bend, April 30, 1913

The South Bend Tribune. Wed, Apr 30, 1913 ·Page 14

FEW HOME RUNS BY BILLY

“You always get what you’re looking for in this world.”

“Gossips have tongues so long that they can sit in the parlor and lick skillets in the kitchen.”

“Lots of people join church for the same motive that a man blows a safe, for what they can get out of it.”

“If I should start with a wagon load of Bibles to-day and offer one to every person I met, who would quote for me 10 verses of scripture and tell me where they were in the Bible I would have a big bunch of the books left when I got to New York.”

“The ordinances of the church don’t save anybody.”

“I don’t believe that half the people in the churches of South Bend have been converted.”

“I thank God for the mutts in this world that hate me.”

“I have more good, true, loyal friends and more loyal enemies than any man that ever came to South Bend.”

“Some of you people go to church on Sunday morning; go to a ball game in the afternoon; and keep a case of beer in your cellar that the booze man slips in while your neighbors are away.”

“Some ministers say that I am too sensational. Well, I would be anything to save souls.”

“Every denomination today has a clique that bosses the minister.”

“Some people carry all their piety in their collar, plug hat and their cane.”

“If there is any one in the world that I pity it is the pastor of the average church.”

“You ring the church bell on Sunday morning, put a duffer up to a little stunt and all the time the old world is going straight to hell so fast that it is breaking the speed limit.”

“You back the church of God in on a siding, lock the switch, and let hell come rushing down the main line.”

“The man who seduces a girl should be shot and if I was on the jury in his trial he would never get away unless the ants should carry him through the keyhole.”

“I have as much respect for the man who knocks revivals as I would have if he should spit in the face of Jesus Christ.”

“One reason why the world doesn’t join the church is because the church has joined the world.”

“I have as much respect for the man who knocks revivals as I would have if he should spit in the face of Jesus Christ.”

“You come up here and prove the things that are said about me and I will go to the penitentiary. But if you come up here and can’t prove them you go to the penitentiary.”

“If you want to elevate people then have got to live better than they do. Away with this 20th century doctrine of living as they do.”

“The difference between a grave and a rut is that a grave is a little deeper. There are two gangs in every church, the ruts and the anti-ruts.”

“I despise men who trim their sails to catch the passing breeze of popularity.”

“A boy can throw stones and break a window, but it takes a skilled mechanic to make one. Any fool can sneer at a revival—and you’re a fool if you do.”

“You might as well expect a mummy to bear children, and the children of hell to sing hymns, as to expect an awakening that doesn’t begin in the church.”

“The measure of preparedness determines your success.”

“Half the members of almost any church could die and the church not lose any of its spiritual force.”

“We are going daffy over culture clubs. The world doesn’t need informing, but reforming.”

“The less brains a man has the greater trouble he exercises to show what he has got.”

“You can not scald a hog in ice water.”

The South Bend Tribune. Wed, Apr 30, 1913 ·Page 14

Contributions and Converts 1910-1913 for Billy Sunday?

Contributions		Converts
Wilkes-Barre, PA	Feb 1913
$22,138.90		16,584
Columbus, OH	Dec 12 (1912) – Feb 1913
$20,929.53		18,127
McKeesport, PA	November 3-December 14, 1912
$13,438.00		10,024
Toledo, OH	April 9-May 21, 1911
$15,423.00		7,686
Wheeling, WV	February 18-March 31, 1912
$17,450.00		8,300
Springfield, O.	September 24-November 5, 1911
$14,800.00		6,804
New Castle, Pa.	September 18-October 31, 1910
$14,000.00		6,683
Erie, PA	May 28-July 9, 1911
$11,565.00		5,312
Portsmouth, OH	January-February, 1911
$12,554.00		6,224
Canton	December 31, 1911-February 11, 1912
$12,500.00		5,640
Youngstown	January-February, 1910
$12,000.00		5,915
Beaver Falls, Pa.	May 16-June 24, 1912
$10,000.00		6,000
Lima, OH	February 11-March 25, 1911
$8,000.00		5,659
East Liverpool	East Liverpool – September 15-October 27, 1912
$7,000.00		6,351

Source: The South Bend Tribune. Tue, Apr 29, 1913 ·Page 7

Billy Sunday’s view of Abraham Lincoln?

WHAT SUNDAY HAS TO SAY OF LINCOLN

THIS ARTICLE BY EVANGELIST ATTRACTED ATTENTION.

“Angels Hid Rail Splitter Where He Was Undiscovered for Years,” Says Leader of Revivals.

Billy Sunday has written many beautiful things which have attracted widespread attention, among them being his tribute to Abraham Lincoln. This was written and published for the first time about a year ago.

The tribute follows:

“The angels said, ‘Let us hide Abraham Lincoln where the world will never find him,’ and they hid his big kind, generous, humanitarian, sympathetic God-fearing soul in that long, lean, lank, homely, gaunt, ungainly body. They bronzed his cheeks until he looked like an Indian. They hardened his hands with toil. For employment they gave him common work, like poling a flatboat on the Ohio river and clerking in a country store.

“But, while drifting down the stream he was solving problems that would help him up the stream. And while clerking in the country store he was learning whole chapters from the book of human experience which became golden rounds in the ladder of fame up which he climbed to the top.

“For parents, they gave him common people whose names were unknown five miles away for a home, a log cabin in the wilderness. The battle would grow hard. He would grit his teeth, buckle up his yarn galluses a little tighter and determine that he would be somebody, anyway. He would spread the ashes thin on the dirt floor of his log cabin home and, with a hickory log in the fireplace for a light and a hickory stick for a pencil, he solved problems from Euclid and read the life of Washington and other great men.

“Finally, the angels could keep him hid no longer, and so one morning this old sleepy, dreamy, drowsy world rolled out of bed, rubbed her eyes and started on a still hunt for a great man. She struck a new scent and a new trail that led out through the woods into the wilderness and up a hill to a log cabin. She rapped at the door and Lincoln arose—so big, so high, so tall that the logs rolled down the roof and fell off and he stepped forth—a giant among men. Fame has placed him upon a pinnacle so lofty that he looks down upon all who attempt to reach his side.”

The South Bend Tribune. Tue, Apr 29, 1913 ·Page 7