Judge Burgess addressed the Joplinites as a man redeemed by a previous Sunday Revival four years earlier and rose to speak to them of what to expect from imminent arrival of the Reverend Sunday.\u00a0 He began with a tantalizing disclaimer, \u201cI will attempt to tell you something of Mr. Sunday and his wonderful meetings.\u00a0 But it is impossible ever to attempt describing a real Sunday meeting.\u00a0 The only way such a meeting can be comprehended is for it to be seen\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Burgess described the opinion of the evangelist by the citizens of Aledo, prior to Sunday’s arrival.\u00a0 They had \u201cthe same idea of Mr. Sunday – that those of any other city had \u2014 ideas merely gotten from rumor and hearsay that Mr. Sunday was simply an erratic grafter, who had discovered his wonderful gift of eloquence and personal magnetism, and was using this gift in a religious way merely because of the money he might thus gain.\u201d\u00a0 It was an idea that was likely shared in Joplin by those less eager for Sunday’s presence, and a skepticism that had originally painted others like Burgess in Aledo.\u00a0 But, Aledo stated that as Sunday began to preach and he witnessed the effect on others, \u201c\u2026we unregenerated people began to sit up and notice.\u201d\u00a0 For the power that Burgess ascribed to Sunday was one of indifference to appearance of proper church membership and an unflinching readiness to call out anyone that \u201ca sinner is a sinner, no matter what kind of a front\u201d the individual might put up.<\/p>\n
![\"Billy](\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8473\/8369408410_75e3cf3522.jpg\")
Rev. Billy Sunday<\/p><\/div>\n
The challenge that hypocrites would be spotlighted by Sunday undoubtedly was an exciting one for those who believed themselves immune and a nerve wracking one for those who feared public humiliation at the hands of the Evangelist.\u00a0 However, a desire to call out hypocrites was not limited to Sunday nor reserved for his arrival.\u00a0 The Democratic newspaper, the Joplin Daily Globe<\/i>, opted to beat Reverend Sunday to the punch with a front page column in its morning edition, published the day of Sunday’s expected arrival, which repeated the findings of a Grand Jury on the recent crackdown of prostitution.\u00a0 The report stated that contrary to published reports, the crackdown that netted two madams and their ‘sinful sirens’ had been the order of the police judge, Fred W. Kelsey, not Mayor Guy Humes, and in fact the arrest had \u201castonished the mayor, chief of police, city attorney and other city officials\u2026\u201d\u00a0 The report concluded that prior to the arrests and thereafter<\/i> [Editor’s emphasis] that \u201c..bawdy houses, have been, and are now, running wide open to the public.\u201d\u00a0 Finally, the Globe<\/i> alleged that the same women were now hidden away in the countryside by the actions of the Republican city officials, as part of an attempt to create an appearance of cutting down on crime.\u00a0 Of note, the Grand Jury Report declared it had found no appearance of an agreement or contract between the city officials and the criminal offenders.<\/p>\n
At the same time as the Globe<\/i> pointed fingers at Mayor Humes, police chief John A. McManamy continued the civic crusade against crime with a crackdown on turkey raffles (the day before Thanksgiving).\u00a0 Described as a dice involved ‘wheel and paddle’ method to turkey distribution, and a corruption of a more charitable means of giving, the police chief declared that the turkey raffle was too close to real gambling for his liking.\u00a0 As a result, the fowl affair was shut down. \u00a0It was only a few hours later in the afternoon, when a train pulled into Joplin and the Reverend Billy Sunday disembarked.<\/p>\n
Around 6:30 pm, the excited crowds filled the tabernacle located on Virginia Avenue between Fifth and Sixth Streets and took whatever seats they found open and not reserved.\u00a0 The reserved sections were set aside for boys and girls, families of the ushers, and the deaf and hard of hearing.\u00a0 In addition, a telephone-like apparatus was setup with a microphone by the podium to handsets in the back, for those who failed to reach the hard of hearing section to hold to their ears.<\/p>\n
\u201cBilly Sunday Starts Fireworks\u2026\u201d was the headline the next day of Sunday’s first sermon.\u00a0 True to the words of Judge Burgess, the papers offered little to describe how the reverend began his sermon, instead relying on his words to convey the explosion of fervor and energy that the former ball player brought to the stage in front of likely more than 6,000 spectators. \u00a0What was noted was that Sunday was \u201csmall and wiry and as active as a cat.\u00a0 He is constantly on the move and his every gesture indicates the vast reserve endurance which has helped to make him conspicuous\u2026\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Additionally, Sunday, was described as being, \u201c\u2026no bigger than the proverbial cake of soap after a hards day’s washing\u2026\u201d Sunday, as he began, \u201c\u2026dramatically hooked his clinched fist through the ozone and declared he was in position to defend himself and his policies.\u201d\u00a0 Like Mayor Humes, against whom the paper compared Sunday, Sunday was a fast talker who said, \u201c\u2026as much in an hour as would an ordinary speaker in two hours.\u201d \u00a0Before he began in earnest, Sunday admonished the young people to silence, requested that mothers leave their newborns with caretakers by the doors, and then started his challenge to the people of Joplin.\u00a0 \u201cThere are liars everywhere\u2026and no doubt there are plenty of them here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday launched into a session of brutal honesty, at least from his perspective, \u201cYou must remember we did not beg the privilege of coming to Joplin; we were sought.\u00a0 We turned down one hundred other cities in order to come here.\u00a0 I presume I will say a whole lot that you won’t like.\u00a0 I’m not like the local ministers.\u00a0 They couldn’t be like me.\u00a0 If they said some of the things I will they wouldn’t hold their jobs three weeks.\u201d\u00a0 The reverend then explained his plans, \u201cMy aim is to create a kind of evangelism that will reform drunkards and prostitutes; to restore happiness to the homes.\u00a0 Those who have friends they want to see led away from hell will give me their support.\u00a0 Those who don’t care where they or their friends go or what they do are opposed to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reverend also addressed the issue of collections.\u00a0 \u201cIn one day a circus will take $20,000 out of the city and it won’t leave one incentive for anyone to lead a better life.\u00a0 We surely ought to be able to get one-third as much in three weeks as the circus does in one day.\u00a0 God’s hardest job is to convert a stingy man.\u201d\u00a0 The money, Sunday explained, went purely to the operation of the meeting and saving souls.<\/p>\n
More to the point, Sunday fearlessly scolded the crowd, \u201cWe need more people right with God, in almost every church there are two classes; the ruts and the anti-ruts.\u00a0 A revival comes naturally in its proper place.\u00a0 A revival of religious interest is a necessity.\u00a0 It is a predominance of the material over the spiritual that is facing us.\u00a0 This is the busy age; It is the age of ‘isms and ‘cisms; there is more today to turn people away from God than ever before.\u00a0\u00a0 When I see the street loafer standing on the corner discussing the greatest questions of the day and propounding a solution for everything, when I see him arguing and chewing, spitting and cursing, I k now it won’t be long before \u00a0the sheriff gets him; and there are too many of his class, his type is seen in other forms\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Sunday continued that in the present day, everyone shifted the blame from themselves to something else, but the reverend refuted this fiercely decrying, \u201cWhen things go wrong, the people, not God, are to blame.\u00a0 Citizens of Joplin, you are to blame. Citizens of Joplin you are to blame.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday asked the question, was a revival worth it?\u00a0 Was even an improvement of six months’ work worth it? The reverend answered in the affirmative, \u201cIt is worth all a person owns to have peace and contentment brought to the home for six months.\u00a0 It is worth much to a woman to have her home made bright and to have her husband come home sober instead of having him brought\u00a0 in drunk to curse and damn her.\u201d Even if the husband fell off the wagon, Sunday proclaimed, \u201cIt will be appreciated, you can’t tell me it won’t.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Billy](\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8106\/8505476652_2dcda4b2a6.jpg\")
Sunday, as he began, \u201c\u2026dramatically hooked his clinched fist through the ozone and declared he was in position to defend himself and his policies.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n
The reverend then directly addressed the work ahead for the city, \u201cJoplin has an enviable reputation throughout the country.\u00a0 It is recognized as a hustling, bustling city.\u00a0 It is looked upon as a place of money.\u00a0 But there are knockers here as elsewhere.\u00a0 They are always busy with their hammers and they don’t observe union hours.\u00a0 When our lives are pure and there are those who are interested in the moral betterment of the municipality, a city takes to a revival just as water seeks its own level.\u00a0 There are experts in all lines, in medicine, in law.\u00a0 This is the day of specialists, and the evangelist is one of them; his work is different from that of a minister.\u201d\u00a0 Sunday then explained that, \u201c\u2026a revival is the conviction of sin.\u00a0 Inside the church there must be a spiritual revival before it gets outside.\u201d\u00a0 The problem, Sunday continued was that,\u201d\u2026the average church worker’s faith is almost ready to snap; the average citizen spends too much of his time in his commercial interests.\u00a0 In Joplin there are many people devoting all their time to zinc mines and zinc mining stocks and letting their kids go to hell.\u201d\u00a0 Sunday then condemned, \u201cYou can walk down the street with a basket of nickels and lead four-fifths of the people to hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday also addressed the subject of the local minister.\u00a0 He accused preachers of being unforgiving and so caught up in factionalism with other reverends that they were just as quickly find themselves on the way to hell as any other sinner.\u00a0 Some of the biggest devils, Sunday growled, were baptized.\u00a0 For Sunday, salvation was found through faith in Jesus Christ, not in organized religion. Churches were fine so far as they were \u201cin the world, but all wrong when the world is in [them]\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Sunday then proclaimed, \u201cYou can go to hell just as fast from the church door as from the grog shop or bawdy house.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the clock neared 9:30 pm, Sunday concluded with a catalog of those who would fight against the revival.\u00a0 They were the blackleg gamblers, the bartenders and saloon proprietors, and prostitutes, as well nefarious and slinking politicians.\u00a0 None the less, Sunday declared, \u201cBut I’ll give the devil and his gang the best run for their money they have ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus, Sunday had established the battleground upon which he intended to fight.\u00a0 Like many of the pre-Prohibition evangelist of the day, alcohol existed as one of the chief evils of society.\u00a0 Remove it and those who supported its distribution and a society would be down the path to peace and happiness.\u00a0 It was one of the chief pillars of vice that Sunday fought against and would become an even wider electoral battleground in only a number of weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fifty Days of Sunday: The Fireworks Begin The dedication of the Sunday tabernacle began with five hundred strong choir voices shaking the rafters of the structure with \u201cWake the Song\u201d and \u201cCrown Him King of Kings.\u201d \u00a0On Sunday night, November 21st, the tabernacle was filled with six thousand \u201cearnest, enthusiastic listeners,\u201d who were eager to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221,37,2765,263],"tags":[2766,2773,2772,1325,328,2811,31,2806,2807,2812,2770,2810,2768,2774,2808,2781,2809,2775],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}