OteJSj^li Book, 1MB D-W W fcqj Copyright^?. COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; y REV. SAM P. JONES. "vX^-vvilXi, 0>G^vv\AAJ2_X VTlMA. Lightning Flashes and Thunderbolts A Series of Gospel Sermons and Talks by Rev. Sam P. Jones, the great Georgia evangelist, in Savannah, Ga., in 1901. Scenes and Incidents of the meeting. George Stuart and others. Compiled by J. S. Shingler. Ashburn, Ga. PENTECOSTAL PUBLISHING COMPANY. Louisville, Ky. v 3%5 Ls Copyright 1912 By J. S. Shindler ©CU328570 ■CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction 5 Jones' Meetings On 9 Here for a Fight 15 The Opening Event 2>2 Spoke on Opportunity 30 Grave them Gospel 33 iStuart's Moral Dance 40 Gone to Oartersville 43 Evils begin at Home 44 Cheerful Keligion 51 A Warm Sermon 54 Liens on the Tabernacle 64 Had Many Penitents 65 Gave Elks a Dig ... . 68 Back at Aldermen 77 Sam Jones' Different Sides 87 Siam Jones to Men 92 Warned of Death 108 Wouldn't be an Elk 117 The Saving Power 121 A Thief Disguised 134 Preached on Praying 146 Giave them Gospel 150 Got Back at Keilly 157 Paul's Epistle to Samuel 168 Not a Worship Disturber 174 A Sea of Dark Faces 176 Amusing Things of Sam Jones 186 Sam Jones in Jail 190 Sam Jones to Men 198 Won 1,000 Converts 209 Sthat the beet dance, the most select, is wrong in itself, and, therefore, they, knowing this, it was his intention to turn out of the church every person that again danced, or who allowed her children to dance. As he concluded the anecdote, there was a loud and fervent "'Amen" from the colored people, while the white people sait mum. This drew from Eev. Sam Jones the remark that nobody but the negroes said "Amen." Mr. Stuart replied that the others might not have answered, but ithat deep down in their hearts they knew him to be right. In continuing on the subject he said that the preacher that would go to dances, to the theater and to card parties was not fit to preach. "He isn't fit to," he was saying, when Eev. Sam Jones again broke in with "You'll be called vulgar if you don't look out." Continuing, he warned parents about letting >their children have their own way because, "Being young they ought to have a good time?" or "To let them sow their wild oats." "Children sow itheir wild oats?" he said, "and the parents reap them." At the conclusion of his address Mr. 'Stuart asked those that desired prayer to come forward, and his in- vitation was accepted by fifty or more, men, women and children. AND THUNDERBOLTS. 43 GONE TO OARTERSVILLE. REV. SAM JONES WILL RETURN TOMORROW WITH MRS. JONES. Rev. Sam Jones lefit last night for Oartersville to meet Mrs. Jones, who will return with him tomorrow morn- ing. Mrs. Jones is not in good health and didn't care to make the trip to 'Savannah alone. During their stay in Savannah Rev. and Mrs. Jones and Rev. Mr. Stuart will reside at the DeSato. Today's services at the Tabernacle will be conducted by Rev. Mr. Stuart, Mr. Jones, taking charge of the meetings again tomorrow. 44 LIGHTNING FLASHES EVILS BEGIN AT HOMiE. RET. G. R. STUART TELLS OP GAMBLING AND DRINKING. HEARD BY CROWDS OF PEOPLE. Rev Sam Jones and Mrs. Jones will arrive to- day. "Gambling's gambling, whether at home or in a den."— "The Man That Gambles is a Thief at Heart." Nominal Members of the Church Held up as "Devil's Decoys." — 'Story of the Educated Turkey and its Application — Many Penitents went forward and asked for prayers. Numbers of men voluntarily promised to drink no more. — Rev. Mr. •Stuart thinks it a "great meeting." In the absence of the Rev. Sam Jones, Rev. G. R. Stuart preached last night in the Park Tabernacle, al- though he had conducted both of the other meeting*, one in the morning and the other in the afiternoon. A telegram was received from Rev. Mr. Jones saying that he had found Mrs. Jones somewhat improved in health and that, together, they would reach Savannah this morning. Last night's meeting was almost as large in numbers, and centainly quite as good in attention and visible re- sults, as any that had been held during the present se- ries. Not only was the Tabernacle completely filled be- fore the service began, but a miscellaneous crowd gath- ered on the outside of the building, where, eight to ten deep, they listened 'to the entire service. The section of AND THUNDERBOLTS. 45 seats reserved for colored people was filled by 8 o'clock, though the service did not begin until some time after that hour. Before beginning the service Mr. Stuart announced that today, and on succeeding days, until further notice, the meetings will be held at 10 :30 o'clock a. m., at 4 :30 p. m., and at 8 p. m., either himself or Rev. Mr. Jones conducting them, as the strength of each and the cir- cumstances may determine. He itold his audience also that a minister of Savannah had been discussing with an old member of his church the results that so far had been accomplished by the meetings, and had been told by the old mian not to be surprised, as he had long been praying to God thait the ministers might be given the power to accomplish much in Savannah. In concluding the story, Mr. Stuart told his hearers to remember that in Georgia there are thousands praying for a like result, and in the United States by itens of thousands. The evangelist announced his text as Psalm 91 :3 : "Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler/' and said that he was going to preach on the traps of the devil in Savannah, and, he continued, "I'm a-going to sitay at home with you." He then exem- plified his text so that there could be no mistaking its meaning. "Surely he" — -that is God — "Shall deliver thee" — that is yourself — "from the enare of the fowler" — that is the devil. "Here David has pictured' the devil as a bird catcher, and as I tell you of your own life you will be surprised to see how like a bird you are. The first of these snares 46 LIGHTNING- FLASHES that I mean to talk about is the decoy." Here Mr. Stuart gave a most graphic description of a duck hunt when he had seen for the first time a decoy duck used. He and his companions lay in ambush, he said, while the decoys — a thing of wood and paint, had led the ducks to their doom. He was so impressed, he said, that he has since asked himself, if the devil, too, has a trick like that with which he, likewise draws his game to its doom. "Yes," he answered, "The devil has, and it's the nominal member of the church covered with eccle- siastical paint, but spiritually as dead as that old wood- en duck — .and Savannah's full of them. "There's not a vice in the world so gross that the devil hasn't something like it in the church. The devil knows that it won't do to ask a man to itake a big jump, all at once, and so he leads !by easy gradations, step by step to the lowest depths — the first step in this downward grade begins right at the church's door. Church members will, in a milder form commit sins that the most dissolute man of the world will. I'd as soon be a saloon keeper as to keep wine at home. There's more danger at the top than there is at the bottom. There is no difference in ithe world's ball room and in the social dance at home. Gambling in a den is no worse than gambling at home. A young man or woman can be as low as he or she can fall and have started that very fall at home. "Gambling's gambling. What is the difference be- tween gambling for money and gambling for things. Why, I have heard of women who gambled for 'things', AND THUNDERBOLTS. 47 cut .glass, and so forth, and she was for some reason, £0 successful in winning things thait she'd take them to the dealers and sell them — turn them into cash. What's the difference between that and gambling for money it- self. This town is noted for its gambling from top to bottom, and it never will be stopped until it stops in your homes; it starts there and ends downward. "Hunt out the drunken men and the -gamblers, and ask them where they took their first drink, or played their first game, and thousands of them will tell you "Home." "Occasionally ithe devil has for a decoy a Colonel, or a Major; a judge or some other "Big Ike" in town. Well, I can tell you what they are like by telling you a story — it happened in Meridian when a friend asked me if I wanted to see an educated turkey. 'An educated what,' said I. 'An educated turkey gobbler/ he answered, "he's trained to hunt. They turn him loose on a ridge in the woods and he goes about gobbling until he calls the wild turkeys in reach of the hunters' guns." 'Well/ I said, 'I've met the same kind all over the coun- try — Col. 'Gobbler, and Dr. Gobbler; Maj. Gobbler and Judge Gobbler.' " "Now I want to tell you something — 'Sam Jones and George Stuart have been all over this country ; we know all of its organizations from top to bottom, and when- ever you hear us jump on anything, although there may be some good men in it, the institution itself is pulling men to hell. You may talk of 'Masonry' and of 'Odd- fellowship/ but you can rest assured that they are 48 LIGHTNING FLASHES founded on the spirit of /the teachings of Jesus Christ or they wouldn't have lasted; and nothing can last that isn't founded on good. "Take the club, and God save us from these gilded palaces that start our boys on the downward path — .the club is like an egg — fresh when it is started, but growing worse the longer it stands. There was an old "Col. Gobbler" once, w'ho invited me to go through his club. The first room we came to was a reading room; my guide pointed it out with pride, saying, 'In there is to be found the masterpieces of the world/ I looked at some of ithe books lying there and found enough fire and brimstone to burn up every man in town, but my guide informed me that they believed in liberty of thought, in liberty of action and he went — gobble, gob- ble, gobble. And so we went on until we came to the buffet, where he said every kind of drink was to be had. Tt's a saloon/ I said, and then he started with his liberty of thought all over again; — ■''Gobble, gobble, gob- ble.' ' "Listen ! When he says beware ! There is danger there." Mr. Stuart (then told of a young man who had taken his 'first drink in the home of his future wife and at her special request, and that this had been the cause of his afterward becoming a confirmed drunkard. "Don't be a devil's decoy," he warned, "Stand on the one side or the other. The trouble with old Savannah today is that she needs a straight line between the church and the devil so that the people can get on the one side s>r the other and fight it out. AM) THUNDERBOLTS. 49 One illustration that the speaker used to enforce his argument against drink and gambling was that of fish- ing for sea gulls. He described the operation as he had once witnessed it, and then said, "I never before thait time knew where Webster got the word 'gulled' from. It means f you think you are going to get some- thing, and the something gets you.' The devil never gives you anything that is not a gull rope. I remem- ber the case of a Savannah man that some of you may know, Eeese Fowler, a plasterer. He played cards one night and won $20. When he went home he put the money on the table. 'A night's sport,' he said, f and I have made that. Goodbye trowel, I've found a better way to make money than with you.' "God pity the man/' continued Mr. Stuart, "who has found a better way than to be honest. Every man that gambles is at heart a thief. Gamblers are spend- thrifts ; gamblers are outlaws, both of God and man ; and gamblers are thieves at heart. Well, Eeese Fowler con- tinued his new life, sinking lower and lower, until one Sunday morning in a room over a saloon he was killed by another of the profession." In another anecdote told of a friend in Tennessee, Mr. Stuart told how by hard work and strict Christian honesty, he had acquired a business and home, "and/' he said, "there was not a dirty dollar in it." In quot- ing the story he said, addressing the audience, "You can build out of corruption, you can build with your liquor money, or you can build with your gambling money, but you can never be happy in a place so built." 50 LIGHTNING FLASHES The evangelist talked of prohibition, and said that though it had long been delayed and might not come yet for a time, he felt it would come, and believed the happy time would be ait hand when Christians voted as they prayed. This statement was greeted by hearty cheers. In concluding the sermon Mr. Stuart told of the con- version from the drink habit of two men, relations of his, of which he gave a graphic and pathetic account. Miany of his hearers had been visibly affected during the sermon, and when the invitation was made for pen- itents to come forward there was an exceptionally large number that responded, some of the men not only ask- ing for prayers, but also promising, voluntarily, that they would never again drink. After the service was concluded Mr. Stuart expressed himself as well pleased, saying thait it had been "a great meeting." AND THTMDERBOLTS. 51 CHEERFUL RELIGION. AS MUCH RELIGION IN LAUGHTER AS IN WEEPING, SAYS EVANGELIST STUART. Rev. George R. Stnart again conducted the afternoon service at the Tabernacle yesterday, and preached in his customary characteristic and forcible style on "How we may serve God." His text was Psalm 100 : "Serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing." f&aid the speaker, "There is naiturally too much grumbling among those who call themselves Chris- tians. There is as much religion in laughing as there is in crying. Love God and all mankind, he said, and you will be the happiest person in the world, for the world is full of beauty when the heart ie full of love. Christians ought to be cheerful. I am tired of Brother Grunter and Sister Complaining, and I haite to see Christians disgrace the Saviour that way." Here the speaker related an experience that he had with an ossi- fied man who though he had no use for any of his limbs or body, yet was a Christian and quite cheerful, ex- plaining that God had use for some to run,, some rto walk, others to talk, and once in a while, for one to lie on his back for 'Christianity's sake. Again he repeated the statement that it was as religious to laugh as to cry. "Man can ithink," he said, "He can weep, and he can Jaugh. If he only thinks he is not wholly a man, he is as cold as a dog's nose; if he only cries he is as sad 52 L1GHTNMG FLASHES as bread that didn't rise; while if he only laughs he is a fool. The complete man laughs, weeps and thinks. Every man that has stirred the world has made it think, and laugh and weep. Moody did it, and Spurgeon did it. The Gospel does it by touching every key in the whole gamut of human life and feeling." In another part of his sermon he discussed the acts of God, which first cause human suffering, but which in the end are for some good purpose. ^God does not say," he said, "that all things are good, but that all things work together for good." He cited cases where death or other misfortune had brought repentance and conversion to persons, and said that even infidels,brought like Ingersoll, in the presence of the death of a loved one, could see the "Star of Hope, and hear the rustle of wings." "God's work," he told his hearers, "is divided into two kinds : that of saving sinners, and that of helping saints. Going to church, reading the Bible, attending Sunday school and prayer-meeting, is not serving God. Truly to serve God, one must do something to help another." This he illustrated by a story of one man that hired another to do six things ; he was to eat, drink and sleep ; plow, sow and reap. He did the first three things, but neglected the others. f Thou fool/ said the employer, 'I hired you to eat, drink and sleep that you might be able to do the other work." "Now," said Mr. Stuart, "Beading the Bible is eat- ing, secret prayer is drinking, and resting on the prom- ise of God is sleeping; but if you do these only you A'ND THUN'DEiE&BOLTS. 53 are not serving God: what have yon done for Jesus? Yon are but serving yourself. Here he turned to the ministers on the platform and told them ithat if they didn't watch out they'd let a lit- tle too much ministerial courtesy stand in their way. He advised them to go down among the congregation and help by their sympathy and advice those that might be won to God. "Help ithose you can," he told the con- gregation, "and God will help you." 54 LIGHTNING FLASHES WAS WARM SERMON. REV. SAM JONES' VIEW OF SOME OF SAVANNAH'S OFFI- CIALS SAYS THE MAYOR IS "MY MEAT." Hot Roast for an Alderman on the Tabernacle question. — The crowd the largest that has yet at- tended any of the meetings. — (Kept excellent order and was swayed by the speaker at will. — Mr. Jones put questions to the rising vote, and his views en- dorsed, the congregation agreeing with him that every word he said was true. Rev. Sam Jones returned to 'Savannah yesterday morning, accompanied by his family. Last night he started in on Savannah, and some of its customs and officials in a way that fairly electrified the audience, which, by ithe way, was quite the largest that has ever attended a meeting of this sort in Savannah, numbering, as it did, about 8,000. But immense, though it was, perfect order was kept, and, except when a roar of laughter followed some characteristic remark of the speaker, there was not even a rustle to be heard in the vast auditorium. Mr. Jones' peculiar mood, as it afterward developed in his sermon, might have been discerned even in his preliminary remarks, though the very nature of his sub- ject made him less caustic than he was later in the evening. He began by suggesting that the people were missing AND THTJNDEKBOLTS. 55 much by not attending the morning and afternoon meet- ings of the series. "I mean some of yon people that are crowded out at night/' he said. "I have never fancied an owl religion that waits for the night to go to services. Some of you fellows are afraid that if you leave your business for five minutes or an hour, you'll lose some- thing. If I had the money thait you have, and as little religion as some Off you I'd just come to these meetings, bring my dinner and a nickel, and I'd stay. "Now, if you'll keep perfectly still you'll all be able to hear me ; I'm not hoarse, just got a frog in my throat, you see I'm down where it's damp ; this is a wet town." The evangelist's text was taken from Proverbs 11 : 19. "As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pur- sue th evil pursueth it to his own death." "When a good man dies," 'he said, "he goes straight to heaven, just as surely as if I dropped this book, it will go straight to the floor ; when a bad man dies, he goes straight to hell , just as surely as this book would to the floor if dropped. The good man goes to heaven because he is good, and the bad man -goes to hell because he's bad; this is the logic of the situation. "To see this exemplified" he continued, "go to the funeral of a good man; the minister will say here lies the body of our departed brother, but his spirit has gone home to live with God; and looks of .approbation will be seen on the faces of all that hear him, be rthey good or bad. But take the case another way; go to the fu- neral of a man, who ? though he may have belonged to the church didn't live right. The hypocritical minister 56 LIGHTNING FLASHES may say the same thing, but he has violated the princi- ples of truth, the people know it, and they have no further faith in him. I tell you, the common convic- tions of humanity are in harmony with this book." "My purpose tonight is to show ithat f He that pur- sueth evil pursueth it to his own death.' Sin is not only a wrong, it is .a disease. If one persists in drinking, one becomes a drunkard ; if one continues to lie, a liar, and everywhere I've been, except Savannah, to be a liar is a terrible thing. The trouble is men look on ithe act it- self and never see the reflex action on the character." Mr. Jones compared the effect of sin, persisted in, to the slow but deadly poison of a serpent. "I don't need any teacher or a Bible," he said, "to convince me that sin is the ruin of men, of municipalities, of states and of countries. Right here in this town, I can show you characters showing all the horrible ravages of sin. Whether it be the millionaire or the bum. He that sits in the chief seat of the synagogue, or that grovels in a den, the ravages of sin will tell on him. Like the virus of the cancer which kills at last, the virus of sin is as deadly. "Again, he that pursueth evil not only pursueth death, but pursueth death to his conscience. Every sin is a stab at your conscience, but there are a thousand men in Savannah tonight as .conscienceless as if dead and damned. The trouble in this country today is tha-t you have stabbed to death the conscience of the indi- vidual, the municipality, the 'State and the country. You know that as a nation we have no conscience. The AMD THUMDEEBOiLTS. 57 national government is in league and co-partnership with the infamous liquor traffic, and both the Repub- licans and the Democrats, if they can hut win by it, are willing ito continue so. What do the damnable, dirty, politicians of this town care if every mother's son is debauched, if they can get into office and run their lit- tle mills. If Savannah had as much conscience as she has pride I'd have some respect for her. And this want of conscience has crept into the very churches, affecting deacons, and stewards, and vestrymen; aye, in some cases, ithe very ministers of God. The State of Georgia as an organized and economic body has no conscience; we levy blackmail from every saloon keeper to get money to send our children to school. Why, I'd rather my boy go to heaven sober, knowing only his a, h, c's, than to go drunk to hell and be able to read Greek. Why, if ignorance barred men from preferment you've got aldermen in this town that couldn't be eleated dog-pelters. "I was born and raised a Democrat, I lived and moved among the Democrats, but I've got to that point when I think that the highest demands of patriotism and loyalty are those (that shield the wife, protect the mother and send the boys home sober. Yes, I've been with the damned, dirty, whiskey-soaked, red-nosed Democrats; I've made speeches for them, and Fve toted a torch light in the procession till it burned my fingers, and I've gone home drunk on their Democratic liquor. And all the time I was making speeches, and they were cheering me, there was my sad-eyed wife at home. But 58 LIGHTNING FLASHES bless God, I've quit it, and now they call me a mounte- bank, a blackguard and a fool, but thank God I'm a so- ber and a happy fool. "You, in this town, can have your own political elec- tions and buy your voters as we buy mules in our coun- try. But if I were here and loved my home I'd sooner commit suicide than see it. And look at your preachers, when these politicians want office they turn from your preachers with contempt and say, 'Give us the gamb- lers and the saloon keepers and we'll go into office.' You know it. I'd as soon go to Alaska for pineapples or to hell for waiter as to Savannah for an honest pol- itician. They can send your children to hell and yet say that if they had known of my work out here to save them they'd refuse me the use of the place. Listen ! If I were running a soap factory in hell and they hauled me the carcass of an old alderman like that I'd say leave it out. "Hear me, my countrymen, you talk about a man having stabbed his country's conscience to death, the time has come in this so-called Christian country of ours when we ought to lift our prayer that these con- sciences be resurrected. At this point, Mr. Jones referred to a certain of- ficial and asked!: "Who'd accuse him of having a conscience ? I'm just asking a question. Will everybody who believes he has a conscience please stand up?" There was a roar of laughter at the first question, and no response whatever to the second. No one either AKD THUMMEfiBOLTS. 59 spoke or made a move to stand up. "Gentlemen of the press/' said Mr. Jones, turning to the reporters on the platform, "put down the facts; don't cover up anything for either God or the devil; give us a square deal." Then turning again to the congregation, Mr. Jones said, "The personal character of the official re- ferred to above is out of my reach, but as a public offi- cial, he's public property and he's my meat. "'What we need in this country," continued Mr. Jones, "is to put into every office in this State, from that of Governor down to constable, a man that has the fear of God in his heart. You may tie a thousand-pound rock around my neck and drop me in the Savannah riv- er, but every little dabbling wave that passed over me would say, 'You have drowned an honest man who had the courage to stand up and preach conscientiously to you/ "Is life so dear, is peace so< sweet, that you don't dare help yourselves? Every preacher in this town ought to be a mixture between a billy-goat and a mule, so that he could butt with one end and kick with the other. To do good here we must put our people on their feet to loo'k and long for better things." "Listen! I put you on notice now; I'm going to make every man and woman in this place endorse what I say before I get through or make them hug those benches like sick kittens, Bud. And you shan't say I didn't give you notice. You can think and get on your feet or you can think and get under the bench. You'll do one or the other, but you'll indorse every- 60 LEQtHTNMO FLASHES thing I say, not the sermon as a whole, but every sen- tence, every word, and every syllable of it. "He that pursueth evil stabs conscience to death. 'When he does he is already in the way the devil wants to have him. And ithere are a lot of yon old deacons, and stewards, and vestrymen down there, all you lack being in hell, you old devil, is to die. When the con- science is stabbed to death the man is out of the reach of God." Turning to the ministers on the platform he said: "Brethren, are you praying? Well, iit's a good time to pray, for we want to say those things in this town that will make iSavannah a better city than it has ever been before since it was incorporated. "He tha/t pursueth evil pursueth not only death, but the death of sensibility) — sensibility the parent of sen- timent, which is the power that allows us to enjoy the grandeur of the sunset, the beauty of (the landscape and the fragrance of roses — the power that keeps us close to mother, and in that way close to 'God." "There are men in this town who have killed their sensibilities and are so dead to all ithat is noble and pure that I had as lief shake hands with a dead man as with them. 'Every sin is a direct stab at sensibility. "Again, he that pursueth evil not only pursueth death, but pursueth death to the intellect until after stab, and 'stab, you reach that point where you believe a lie the truth, and the trutfti a lie. God pity the man who stabbed his brain with sin until he can'it take hold of truth. What a contempt I have for these big, AND THUNDBBBOLTS. 61 brainy fellows who sit around and drink champagne and curse and stab their brain until they become an enemy to God and society. I would like ito see every office in the State filled -with men like Judge Jackson, noble hero that he is. I say now, right here, that I'll ^ever vote for any whiskey-drinking, cussing dog for office. I'm too much of a gentleman myself. Here he turned to the ministers again and said, "There you preachers are a-sitting, and I know you agree with everything I say, yet you're as silent as tomb- stones without an inscription on it. If a man can help me dig dirt out of my ditches and I couldn't help him, I'd at least stand on the hank and say amen while he worked. 'But, never mind, if you'll hold while I skin we'll make hides go down/' He described the awful accident that once befell a train because on a down grade the brakes refused to work. "The greatest power God has .given men is will power," he said, "and the next greatest power is won't power. The won't power is like the brakes to the train. Every sin is a stab ait the brakes, and tonight I am talking to men who have stabbed their brakes and are rolling to hell. "Many of you," he said, "have promised to stop drinking and have not done it; many have promised to stop blaspheming the name of God, and have not done it, and if you aren't careful, you'll sink into hell aft last as dirty as you .are tonight. 'God pity the men in Sa- vannah, who have gone where they can't stop. Brother, put on the brakes where you are. 62 LIGHTNING FLASHES "He that pursueth evil pursueith death to his own soul. What is death to the soul, what is death eternal ? You have seen the death of the body, the heave of the :bosom, the glare of the eye, the twitch of the musr eles. Is the everlasting death like this? Oh, that God would help us to shun the stab." Mr. Jones here called on every man, woman and child that had heard the sermon and who, by the grace of God, believed it to be itrue, to stand up. Apparently the entire congregation arose. "You reporters get up and see." Said Mr. Jones, "Ninety-three per cent, in- cluding the colored people are up." Then he continue'd, "Thank God, old 'Savannah's not so bad and ignorant •as not to know the itruth when she hears it." Mr. Jones concluded his address with some advice. "I want to see you, he said, "a 'Christian, noble and pure and good, but remember, a human resolution is no stronger than the man who maide it, and only God Almighty can keep a man on his feet. I know by my own case, he continued: "If I hadn't believed betting sinful I could have won every dollar in my county when I first reformed; every man there was willing to bet it wouldn't las|t. But it did; it was a case of stick and stick; I stuck thirity years and have got more stick- ability about me now than I ever had before. I like the old Presbyterian doctrine that gives every saint a chance to persevere. I don't like the way some of you persevere. Yes, I like the old creed, and old sort of Presbyterians that it made." Again he said that the reformed man was an en- A(ND THUNDERBOLTS. 63 tirely different person from his old self. What you want to do, he said, is to be born trie same night the old self dies. You, over there, sitting by your wife, you'd better be born (tonight, when your old self dies, and give your wife a decent husband and the town a decent citizen. '•Bless you, I'm not mad with this town for what you've done. You folks ain't easily stirred, but when you are stirred you are the sftirredest lot I ever saw. To the ministers he said, "Brethren, did you expect anything like this? You never expected it, did you? I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of you didn't have to pull your old pocketknife out of your pocket and prove to yourself your own identity." When the call for penitents was made the response was the largest probably that has been seen at any of the meetings. 64 LIGHTNING FLASHES LIENS ON THE TABERNACLE. NOT INTENDED TO EMBARRASS MINISTERS' ASSOCIATION. (The Morning News, May 17, 1901.) The filing of liens against the Park Tabernacle in the Superior Court yesterday by Capt. W. T. Gibson and W. V. Aimar & Co. for nearly $700 money and material advanced to the Raleigh Manufacturing Co., of which Mr. John G. Blaine is president, caused some talk. Capt. Gibson said last night that the liens in no wise intended to embarrass the Ministers' Association which had the Tabernacle erected, but are simply ifco secure himself and Aimar & Co. for the money and material they have put into it. Mr. Blaine, for the Raleigh Co., had to be paid $850 for the use of the Tabernacle. He has been paid $750, and is to receive the remaining $100 when the building is removed. The building it- self is the property of the Raleigh Manufacturing Com- pany, and in reality is only leased to the Ministers' As- sociation. It is a portable structure, and Mr. Blaine is already negotiating for its sale to several parties. It may be used as one of the buildings for the State Fair. The Ministers' Association is also said to be figuring on its purchase lor a permanent tabernacle. AND THUNDMtfBGLTS. 65 HAD MA-NY PENITENTS. REV. G. R. STUART PREACHED A STRONG GOSPEL SERMON. The usual sized! congregation was present at the after- noon service at the Tabernacle, conducted by Rev. G. E. Stuart yesterday. The sermon was a plain gospel one, though it abounded in the anecdotes, and graphic stories of personal experience with which the speaker has so well illustrated all of his previous sermons. It was also one of the most successful afternoon meetings that has been held, as an unusually large number of persons responded when ithe call for penitents was made. Mr. Stuart's text was drawn from parts of Matt. 5:29-30: "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee" — and) "If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee." "There is no compromising verse in the Bible," said the speaker, "and God does not compromise with sin. He does not tell you if your right eye offend you put eye-drops in it, or to put a shade over it, or to go to a doctor with' it — he tells you to pluck it out. Nor does he tell you if your right hand offend you to tie it behind your back. He tells you to cut it off. Now I want to talk to you this afternoon about some of these right eye and) right hand sins — and it would seem, that we're all apol- ogizing for 'em and fixed up for keeping 'em." Mr. Stuart then explained that almost everybody was 66 LIGHTNING FLASHES willing to admit that absolute holiness in living was necessary, if one would get into heaven, yet each not only found it hard, but sometimes even didn't try to get rid of the little sins. "Too many," he continued, "are satisfied with being average Christians. Now, my opinion of the average 'Christian is that if he doesn't re- pent, he'll go to hell." •(Jetting back ito the question of little sins, Mr. Stuart said that everybody had them, possibly just one. One man might be a good man, except that he drank, an- other would be all right if he always told the truth, and still another man's only failing might be he didn't pay his debts. "And now let me tell you right here/' he said, "The man that owes an honest idebt, and yet wears a silk cravat, steals the difference between the price of silk and cotton." Again returning to the questions of sins, he said, "That he had once read that worry and ill-temper are germs of all mental and moral sine. But that they could be overcome by God's help. He indorsed this statement, because he had proved it in his own life. In illustrating many of these points he told an inci- dent that occurred to himself or to members of his own family; then explained to his audience that he had been criticised for doing so, but continued to do it, because after all, families are alike, and he talked of his own family by preference, because he knew it better than he did any other family. Before he finished speaking he told the congregation that many of them were still victims of these little sins AND THUNDERBOLTS. 67 that he had been (talking about, not because they could not get rid! of them, but because they didn't want to, because they found it hard to do so. "Many of you in trying to die to sin," he continued, "are like Pat trying to commit suicide. A friend came along one day and found him suspended from a limb by a rope around his waist. 'What are yez doing?' asked the friend. '"'Com- mitting suicide/ promptly answered Pat. ,r But/ said the friend, 'that's not the way to commit suicide; put the rope around your neck/ " f Oh, no/ said Pat ; 'Faith, I tried that, and it nearly stopped my breathing.' " G8 LIGHTNING FLASHES GAVE ELKS A DIG.— &AM JONES HAD ANOTH- ER SAY ABOUT THE B. P. 0. EPS. THEY BUIN BOYS, HE SAID. A SERMON TO YOUNG MEN ON CHARACTER AND ASSOCIATION. An Elk who doesn't drink, Mr. Jones said, is like a fool in the Baptist Church who doesn't be- lieve in immersion. He declares that he is now on to the Elks. — Evils of evil associations. — iSavannah and the Whiskey Traffic. Gambling scored, and policy held up to the colored people as something to be shunned. "Associations fix the character of a man, and his character fixes his destiny. There is a sermon in that very sentence. I want to preach especially to you young men, and! may iGod sanctify every word I utter for the good of young men and old. '^Heredity is a well-established principle. Traits of character that are shown by the parents can be trans- mitted to the children. Not only the good traits, but the bad, can be so transmitted, and that such is the ease is the saddest fact in this life. All would like to transmit their virtues to their children, but who would want to transmit their vices? The boy of the drunk- ard is half a drunkard when horn. If his mother is a drunkard then he is a whole drunkard when born. AMD THUNDERBOLTS. 69 It is as true that children inherit the vices of their parents as it is that they inherit their features. A lying woman need not he surprised at the vice when it exhibits itself in her son, and a drunken father may expect to see the love of drink develop in his offspring." "I declare that I think it no shame to inherit the sin of lying and stealing. The sin is not yours; it belongs to your forebears. You come by it honestly, and I do not see the sin in it for you. But there is a place where patrimony ends and volition begins. I'll give you an illustration of what I mean. An illustra- tion is easier for most people. It'll take and be under- stood where an (argument will fall flat. Suppose, when my father died, he left me a saloon. He didn't, I want you to understand, but for the sake of the illustra- tion, we will suppose that he did. I have traced the Jones family all the way back to Adiam, but I've never yet found a record of one that kept a saloon. There have been plenty of them mean enough to drink liquor, but there's never been a single one low enough to sell it. Suppose, as I was saying, that my father had left me that saloon. That would have been an inherited sin. But I wouldn't have had to run it, would I? If I had, that would have been voluntary, and I wonld have been low and mean enough. The thing for me to have done would have been to roll every barrel of liquor out of the joint and smash it in the street. Then I might have opened up ia drygoods store." "I've got no ipatience with people who are always laying the blame on their progenitors. It's like some 70 LIGHTNING FLASHES saintly old creature getting up in church and saying that 'It wasn't me that sinned, but the flesh.' Sup- pose some chap should go before a judge with any such story as that when he had been hauled before him for murder. 'It wasn't me that killed him, but the flesh. 5 Why, the judge would say: 'Here, Mr. Sheriff, take this flesh out doors and hang it. 5 It is not the flesh, any way. There is no meaner, lower or more depraved class of men in the world than soldiers and sailors. Whisky killed more American soldiers than Spanish bullets or Cuban fevers. That was a war with old John Barleycorn, instead of a war with Spain. The closer you put a fellow to the flesh, the better he is. The good wife, the good mother and the good children are what make a man good. You can't offer a man a higher motive than the flesh. How can a man with a wife and children ever become a bloated, whisky- drinking sot?" "Heredity or environment, which is worse? I 5 d rather risk my boy, with his heredity, in good company, than an angel from heaven among some associations. I'll give you an illustration again. This one will show you the influence of association. I got a little black- anoMan ratter out in Texas once. He was about the best that was ever made. He was a ratter from Ratters- ville. He'd not only kill rats, but he'd kill cats. You see be wanted the cats to know that he was out to take care ocf every rat on the place, and that he didn't want any assistance. lie was about the best black-and-tan that ever went into a barn. My boys used to brag AND THUNDERBOLTS. 71 mightly on him. 'Then I got a water spaniel and turned him loose in the yard with the terrier. I tell you, it wasn't three months before association with that rat dog had taught the spaniel more about the game than the ratter knew himself. My boys came to me and said that the spaniel could beat the black- and-tan all to pieces. There was that terrier, with the rat-catching instinct bred in the bone, and there was that spaniel, with never a thought of a rat until he got associating with that rat dog. Don't you see it? It was association. The terrier is dead now, but the spaniel is still at it — still catching rats at a great- er rate than any dog I ever knew. It's just like some of you poor fellows who have got your vices. You are living along under them, while the fellows from whom you got them through association are dead and damned." THU^BEiRBiaLTiS. 73 own name. Let all who want to attack me, from the alderman down, or the alderman up, put down their names, for I'm a great pedigree hunter. You see, I've got the advantage on my side, because everything that could be said about me has been said. I've said it all myself. I haven't kqpt back a single word of all the low, mean, things I used to do. I guess it would be different with the other fellows, though, and my hunting up his pedigree might discover something that he wouldn't want known." "I don't say hard things about saloon-keepers because they make money. Why, they ought to make money. A man engaged in a business like that ought to get paid for it. He sells the meanest stuff on the top side of the earth to the lowest characters that live, and then, when it is all over, he and the men he sells it to must all go to hell together. Tell me .a business like that oughtn't to pay ? I don't fight saloon-keepers. I fight institutions.. No, I don't fight the man, but I fight the town that will sell him a license to do business, thus dividing the proceeds of his hellish busi- ness with him. My objection to the saloon-keeper is the same that I have to the louse — he makes his living off the head of the family." "We wouldn't have to make a fight against the ga fab- lers and the saloons if their evil work were over. If the gambler never taught another boy to gamble, if the saloon never wrecked another home or if the dread infernalism of Savannah were to break no more moth- ers' hearts and send no more souls to the deepest depths 74 LBGHTNINiG ULAjSHES of hell, then we would not have to fight them. We would stop just where we are, and their race would be run !" "They say to me: f Mr. Jones, oughtn't good peo- ple associate with bad ones so as to save them?' Humiph. When you find a rotten potato what are you going to do with it? Put good ones all around it so as to save it? Jesus 'Christ went to the hog pen and fed them, but he didn't get over with them. Bun with drinking men and you'll get to drinking, run with gamblers and you'll get to gambling, run with the low, dirty policy writers (turning to ad- dress the colored contingent in the congregation) and you'll get to playing the wheel. "Suckers, suckers! God pity you hard-handed la- boring men. Those devils of policy people are tak- ing away from your wives and your families the money vou earn, taking from them the bread and meat that p 9 o it is your duty as husbands and. fathers to provide. Oh, you niggers; come seven, come eleven." (It was quite evident to see that the preacher didn't make any particular hit among those of the colored persua- sion who heard him when he called them "niggers." Some of them laughed with the good nature that is always theirs, but here and there could be seen others who appeared mortally affronted.) "I've traveled around this old world a heap, and I've traveled with my eyes and my ears open. I've seen things and I've heard things. Jump me up for a fool, and you are left to start with. I would rather AND THUNDBEBOLTS. 75 be a rascal than a fool. You can reform a rascal, but, look here, did you ever have anything to do with a fool? Hear me, boys. You stay away from bad companions and stay with good ones. 'But, Brother Jones/ you say, 1 can't stay in Savannah and not as- sociate with bad companions/ Stuff and nonsense! I've been here four days, and I haven't been associat- ing with any. And I ain't goin' to, either, and they ain't goin' to associate with me. If you were to ask a saloon-keeper down town which he would rather do, go up to the De Soto and spend the night with Sam Jones or go to jail, he'd tell you, *<3-o to jail.' " "There is the secretary of the Young Men's Chris- tian Association over there. He can tell you the young men who frequent that institution, getting temporal and spiritual profit from their associations there, and he can tell you others that you couldn't get within a mile of the place. G-od help the Y. M. C. A. God help anything in Savannah that will keep the young men from ruin. I guess you are begging your way, ain't you, brother? Yes? Do you know any good thing in Savannah that isn't begging its way. When a good thing comes to my town I'm goin' to help it in every way I can, but when a bad thing comes, I'm goin' to turn the business end of a mule upon it and send it over the fence. "The crowd you run with here is the crowd you've got to gang with in hell. That place is projected upon an intensified plan along the lines of evil that are practiced on this earth. I've preached in peniten- 76 LIGHTNING FLASHES tiaries. The worst men in the State are not always found in the penitentiary. 'They get the unfortunate ones there, those who were found out. I tell you, you poor white folks and niggers had better look out. You'd better behave yourselves, or they'll get you. Poor white folks and niggers have a hard time in this world. They get the kicks and knocks of fortune, with few of the pleasant pats. I hope there will be good places reserved for them in the next world." "You poor folks let the rich folks do all the drink- ing they want to. You let it alone. The dirtiest dog in this town is the poor man who takes a drink, knowing, when he pays for it, that it is taking some slight comfort away from his wife and family that might be theirs if he was not such a fool as to squan- der the money on his cursed thirst for whisky. Let the rich folks go ahead. That's the gang that doesn't like what I say. None of you poor folks mind what I say, do you?" Mr. Jones closed with a story of a Christian dinner party he had once given the young men of Carters- ville. He told it in an attractive style, and it was in- teresting. He told of the advice that he had given the young men, and it was such advice as could not but be followed with profit. He then invited penitents to come forward and shake hands with him. Many accepted the invitation. AN'D THTTN'DEBBOLTS. 77 BACK AT ALDERMEN. REV. SAM JONES SAYS THEY'LL LICENSE ANYTHING. FOR DEVILTRY UNLIMITED HE PLACES SAVAN- NAH ABOVE ALL OTHERS. Man who rents a store for use as a saloon not one whit better than the man who keeps it. Scoundrels .both, says the Evangelist, — 'Another dig at the Elks. He'll join the order if its members will take the pledge. — Roasts the city clubs. — They are Hog- wallows, says the preacher. — 'Savannah gets its share of hard talk. Mr. Jones talked to a crowd that filled, while it did not overflow, the tabernacle in the park extension. He jumped on the City 'Council, repeated his criticisms of the Elks, likened the city dubs that maintain bars to hog-wallows and rounded it all off with a good, long, hard roast of Savannah in general. And every time he had the crowd with him. Every time he turned loose hot shot about individuals, organizations or the city generally, the congregation turned itself loose and applauded. He talked.' plain, blunt talk and there was no difficulty in understanding what he said and what he meant. And the crowd, when he had brought his remarks to a close, arose and gave a silent indorsement, at his request, to what he had said. Opinions of the man may differ, as indeed they do; here in Savannah they run the gamut that lies 78 LIGHTNING FLASHES between the crown of the Messiah and the cap and bells of the Mountebank. On one subject there can be no diverse opinions among those who have at- tended a gathering at which he had spdken; that he holds his audience in the hollow of his hand and con- trols it at will, there can be no shadow of doubt. "In this tabernacle tomorrow night, I am going to speak to men only. I want to talk to men, too. We don't want any trundle-bed trash around here. I think this is one of the largest Saturday night audiences I have ever addressed. I want to make it the best. Usually we don't conduct Saturday night services in the towns in which we happen to be, but I wanted to hold one in Savannah. Tonight the devil is abroad and the old red noses are loading up for to- morrow." "My friend®, things have been told me to-day that have made me feel good. God is in this city, and, if you will watch and pray with us, I believe the next forty-eight hours will see things happening in Sa- vannah that will shake the old town from center to circumference. I mean what I say. You come out to these services and help us. Don't waste your time arguing with those who don't come and don't want to come. Don't waste any time defending me; I don't need any defense. If you finci anybody who has got something to say about me, why just give him two nickels, one to pay his way going and the other re- turning, and send him to me at the De Soto. I'll greet him cordially and won't hurt him either. AND THUNDERBOLTS. 79 "Don't you be worried aibout what people say about me. Why, bless you, because Savannah don't like me, is no reflection on Sam Jones. It's just proof that you are too mean to like a good fellow. "Let 'em talk. About Monday I hope to have the aldermen of the city interviewed, but I'd just as soon interview an oyster. I'm here now. They talk a little before I come and after I go they may have a few brief remarks to make, but they are not going to say anything now. They know I'm a great hand for pedi- grees and I'll tell you, Bud, there ain't many of your aldermen who want their pedigrees looked into. I'm not talking about their ancestry now; for all I know they may come from some of the best people who ever walked the earth. 'What I'm after is their moral pedi- gree. I'm talking about their daddy, the devil, and his gang." "You know some of these people say f If Sam Jones talked like (that to my face, I'd knock him down.' Well, what's that you are looking up at me with? Ain't I talking to that and ain't that your face? Bo you wear your nose on the back of your head? "I keep on repeating it. All I want any man who desires to discuss things with me to do is to give me his name. That's all — let him give me his name." All this was preliminary to the sermon. The text was: "What must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." "Religion is intensely a personal matter. It is not 80 LIGiHTNMG FLASHES a question for this State, or the city, or the ward of the city or the family, but for every individual man and woman. It is a question for me, and it is a ques- tion what I shall do. Not what I read, or think, or am told, but what I do makes religion and the dif- ference between the best man in iSavannah and the worst is the difference between what they do. Reli- gion, in its last and best analysis, is something to love and something to hope for. "It's truth I'm telling you, brother. It's what you do on this earth that is going to count when you come to answer up yonder. That old doctrine about 'If I'm to be saved, I shall, and if I ain't, I ain't,' won't do. That old Hardshell talk has played out ; you can't make any man that's got sense enough to be reasoned with believe a word of it. I don't know anybody of whom the devil has got possession more completely than an unconverted Hardshell. "It reminds me of the preacher who was conducting a revival in a Hardshell community, who asked an old sinner in the neighborhood to come over and hear him preach. The old fellow leaned over towards the preach- er and said brother, I've been listening to hear the still, small voice for sixty years, and I haven't heard it yet.' "Well,' the preacher answered, 'if I'd been listen- ing to hear a thing for sixty years, I'd either move up closer or pick my ears.' That's what you want to do, BUD." Mr. Jones said there was too much muddy talking about Christianity. "You want to talik sense to folks." AND THUNDEBIBOI/FS. 81 He illustrated his method of conveying truth with two or three clever anecdotes. Tell people what the central idea of a thing is and they can figure the rest of it out for themselves. "And what is the central idea of Christianity? What? It's cleanness, its decency, its purity, its right- eousness. That's what it is. You hear people talking a lot about being born again. Don't you worry about that, friend. You won't have any more to do with your second birth than you had with your first. "Now look at this handkerchief. If s a silk one. If I send this to may laundry woman and it comes back linen — 'Who's that striking that match and lighting cigars out there?" The speaker suddenly interrupted his discourse to inquire, looking at the same time in the direction whence had proceeded the loud screech of match drawn across rough wood. There was no an- swer. "Now I don't mind you smoking, but don't come so close to smoke, and don't come so close to strike your matches. You worry me. 'Get away down about the monument and light up, and then there'll be fire at one end and a fool at the other." The man with the match having been disposed of, Mr. Jones started in again with the handkerchief. He said that if instead of the silk handkerchief, he had sent out, his washwoman had brought back a linen one and told him it was the same, that the fabric had been changed in the washing he would know she was a liar and a thief. If the silk handkerchief came back clean, 82 LMHTMNG FQDASHES he would 'know the expected service had been preformed. "It's the same way about salvation. It don't make another man of you. You are the same old man, but you are a clean one. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was shed to wash the last speck of dirt out of your heart and leave it as it was before. "Salvation is a poor human being, with the dirt washed out of him. You stand up a clean man, lov- ing everything that is clean and hating everything that is dirty. "But you are the same old man. God hasn't made a new one. 'He hasn't made something out of nothing since he created Adam. Gk)d didn't create you out of nothing, sister; woman is not a part of creation. When he saw it was not good that man should be alone, he caused Adam to be overcome by a deep sleep and took a rib from his side and from this he made woman. Some say he took it from Adam's left side, nearest his heart, but I don't know. Some say he took it from his right side, from under his strong right arm, so that under that arm woman might find protection through the centuries; sometimes I doubt this, too. U I admire the manhood that looks after wife and children and I haven't got any use for any other kind. You talk about protecting woman and shielding her from insult and harm, and yet every bar sign that swings along your streets is an insult to every wife and mother in 'Savannah. You license them and use the money and then you run around prating about f the home of the free and the land of the brave.' You lying hound, you." AND THUNDERBOLTS. 83 "Poor humanity is all out of harmony with itself. That's whatfs the matter. Some of the people talk about man coming from a monkey; say he started as an animalcule, then was changed into a bug, and from a bug to a fish, and froam a fish to a squirrel and from a squirrel to a monkey and from a monkey to a man. "Well, I don't believe we were built that way. I don't believe we came from monkeys, but when I look down at some of you fellows, I think you are heading that way. "You ain't headed right, my friends. You haven't been put together according to the book of instructions. You show me a man who hasn't been, and I'll show you the worst out of whack old sinner that ever dis- graced this town. "You ain't headed right. When you start down town and stop in a saloon and spend the money that would buy your wife and children some little com- fort or stop in a policy shop and gamble away what you have scraped together, you ain't headed right. ""Why I received a letter to-day from a man who complained about my speaking disrespectfully of the infidels. He thought (I ought to treat them with more consideration. He wanted me to call a damnable old buzzard a mocking bird. "I've got no respect for an 'infiddle.' You're noth- ing but an old mouth going around talking, and if somebody would come along and smash your mouth, it would smash the whole dog, from snout to tail. "Don't talk to me, Bud, about your Savannah men. 84 LIGHTNING FLASHES You make me tired. There isn't a dirty saloon in this country that the law and decent men oughtn't to close up at 9 O'clock in the evening and let the men who hang around them go home. "Why if I wanted to commit any deviltry on earth I'd come to (Savannah to do it. If I wanted to run a policy shop, or a turf exchange or a saloon, open three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, or a hoochee- eoochee dance in the middle of your principal park, why ! Fd come to Savannah and apply for a license to the magnificent, Daniel Wehster.like, wise aldermen of the city of 'Savannah." "But I tell you what I'd do. I'd close up when Sam Jones came to Savannah." "Isn't it a farce? Isn't it a travesty upon the ad- ministration of justice and the law, when the dirty, devilish crowd here is more afraid of Sam Jones than they are of judge, jury, mayor and the whole crowd of 3'our immaculate aldermen? "And there ain't a one of them that's got a thing to say aibout Sam Jones. What I said about the alder- man who wouldn't have let me have this place in the park, I stick to. If I did run a soap factory in hell, I wouldn't have his carcass if it were brought to me. I. would not have a deoderizer strong enough." "Listen. There ain't a dirty old scoundrel in this town who rents his property for a saloon, who is one whit better than the damnable bull-necked scoundrel who keeps the place. "Why, brothers," said Mr. Jones, turning around to AM) THHNI>E[RBOiLTS. 85 the preachers who sat with him on the platform, "don't you say Amen to that? I'd say it if they licked me for it before I got home. "I haven't got any respect for the man who goes around saying: 'I don't make any (pretentions myself, but I've got the hest wife in the world.' Well, what's your wife got, you old devil, you? "You young bucks sitting over there, if you want to know how cussing sounds, just go home and have jour pure and innocent .sisters reel off a yard or two. You say you are gentlemen, but if to be a gentleman a man has to run around with your crowd and do what you do, I'd rather be a bob-tailed yellow dog. "You can't be a gentleman in Savannah without drinking whisky. That's right. You can't be a gentle- man socially, I mean and not drink. Ain't that so?" asked the speaker of the preachers on the stage. They couldn't agree on this proposition and Mr. Jones let it pass. '"When the physicians disagree, I guess its left for the patient to do the best he can for him- self." Mr. Jones turned loose again on the Elks. He told a story, that in turn had been told him by one of the local ministers, who had been asked by an Elk to join the lodge. According to the story a brother Elk had remonstrated with the first for extending the minister the invitation, on the gro-und that an Elk lodge was no place for him' and the Elks themselves would lose re- spect for him if he joined. And it isn't ; a preacher has no iplaee in a room where 86 LIGHTNING FLASHES they guzzle beer. They've got preachers in there, I know, and if I was a beer-swigging preacher I'd join them too. If they'll stop drinking beer and whiskey and sign the pledge I'd join them any how. I'd like to,because they are good-hearted, clever fellows and I've no ill will against them. "Fve got as much respect for them, anyhow, as I have for your city clubs. I don't care whether a bar is kept in a hovel or in a club furnished with all im- aginable comfort, it's the same sort of a dirty hog- wallow to me. It's leading your boys to perdition. It's truth I'm telling you, and I'm 1 not afraid to say it. They say some of these people are going to hurt me, if I talk against these clubs — that they are going to clean me up. "Bud, I don't need any cleaning up; I took a bath before I came here. Fm opposed to everything that's got whiskey or beer in it, and Fin going to fight it while I have breath." The sermon was brought to its conclusion from this point. A tender story or two, the evangelist told of the comfort, soothing, healing balm that had come to men through salvation. He asked the professing 'Christians in the audience, who had felt themselves benefited by the services to stand up. Three-fourths of the crowd arose to their feet. Then he asked the unsaved who felt that they, too, had received inspiration from the gatherings and felt that they wanted to be saved, to rise. A large ad- ditional number was added to the standing throng. Then the audience was dismissed. AND THUNDERBOLTS. 87 SAM JONES' DIFFERENT SIDES. INTERESTING INCIDENTS. After the services at the tabernacle a night or two ago a policeman approached Rev. Sam Jones and of- fered to escort him to his hotel. "I think it advisable for an officer to accompany you, Mr. Jones," said the blue coat, "as the temperature of your assertions may have aroused the wrath of your critics." "My friend," said the evangelist, "I'm not afraid of any man on earth or devil in hell. I don't want any protection." A 'Cotton Exchange man was asked the other day what the members think of Rev. 'Sam Jones. "His severest critics are those who have not heard him," was the reply. "For myself, I have attended several of the night meetings, and as a result my form- er ideas of Mr. Jones have been modified. Like many others I thought the meetings would be more for enter- tainment than a factor for good. It seems to me that any fair-minded person would indorse such utterances as he has made so far. Everyibody hears something which does not set well on their stomachs, but it must be borne in mind that the speaker is addressing himself to a congregation composed of classes that warrant him adopting as many different styles and methods to suit." The two met in a down-town square and began talk- ing albout Sam Jones. 88 LIGHTNING FLASHES "What do you think of him, anyway? queried the reporter of a man who hadn't warmed a church seat in years. "Jones is all right. He said some things, though, that I thought could have gone unsaid. While I'm not a psalmsinger, I claim some good qualities, and one is love for my family. Jones talked about love for his family when I heard him last, and that touched me to the heart. That sermon lined me up in the Jones' column, and I became interested/' From this the man related verbatim a pathetic story told by Mr. Jones. With the warmth and earnestness born of conviction, he was beginning to disclose facial evidences of the touching effects of Mr. Jones' story, when he turned abruptly on observing an incident nearby : cr Well, did you see that blank, blank, blankety, blank? him, if I were in reach I'd break hie blank- ety blank head." After cooling down, the man realized the abrupt- ness of his change from pathos to profanity. "I'd give Sam Jones $1,000 to stop my swearing. You see I broke loose here before I hardly knew it. I'm full of cuss words, and when I see anything like that over yonder I go to cussin '. Yes, Fm going out to hear Sam tonight." Some } r ears ago Mr. Jones held a revival up in Ten- nessee — at Knoxville. The meetings were held two miles from town at a park owned by the street railway company. 'Considering the disadvantages there, the AMD THUM)tERBOI/riS. 89 meetings were very successful. Before they were clos- ed, however, the good people of that bailiwick learned what Mr. Jones thought of those who didn't even care to help bear the expense of the meetings. As is fre- quently the case, the incandescent lights strung to the trees began dancing and flickering about the time the speaker was warming up in his appeal. Added to this the collection was small, some had contributed almost nothing and many less. When the receipts were an- nounced Mr. Jones advanced to the front of the plat- form, braced his right shoulder against the corner post of the platform and began shelling the crowd. He wondered what such a crowd expected of a preacher. If the whole gang had heen taken by the heels, he said, and shaken upside down only scattering pennies and pocketknives would have come. With Mr. Jones on his present trip is a gentlemanly little fellow who followed the evangelist thousands of miles before it was discovered that he was part and parcel of the evangelists's party. This man sells the song books; but at that time he was only handling pic- Cures of Mr. Jones, which found ready sale among Mr. Jones' thousands of admirers all over the country. He sells both pictures and books now and between the two finds the profits enough to keep him going. "They say Mr. Jones is a money-grabber," he said. "If he is he has never asfced for any share of the pro- ceeds of my sales, though he could have legitimately charged me for this privilege if he had chosen to." 90 LIGHTNING FLASHES "Are any of these song books returned and money asked for at the close of the meetings?" "Yes, occasionally. Sometimes a half dozen books are bought for one family, and 'when the meetings close they return all but one or two." "Is this Savannah meeting an unusually large one?" "No; all Sam Jones' meetings are large. I have never yet seen a Jones meeting a failure, and never expect to see one. It's success everywhere he goes. Mr. Jones understands the people and he soon makes them understand him. Thenceforth it's all right." This is why one man won't go to hear Mr. Jones: "Grant that I should attend a Jones meeting, during which I might desire to retire. Suppose that on my way out I should be insulted by Mr. Jones, shouting, as he has previously done, 'There goes a man to hell.' The next day there would be trouble that wouldn't compensate me for the good." Eev. Sam Jones and a \pleasant party were the guests of the Savannah Thunderbolt and Isle of Hope Rail- way yesterday on a trip to Thunderbolt, Isle of Hope, and around the city belt. A special car tendered by Mr. J. H. Fall, vice president of the railway, left the Boston Street Junction, at 3 o'clock carrying, besides Mr. Jones, Rev. G. R. IStuart, Mr. J. H. Ramsay, Rev. W. A. Nisbet, and Mrs. Nisbet, Rev. Ed. F. Cook, Rev. J. D. Jordan, Rev. Osgood F. Cook, Rev. William F. McCorkle, Rev. D. W. 'Edenfield, Rev. J. A. Smith and the Misses Jones. At Thunderbolt, a stop was made for a short time in AND THUNDERBOLTS. 91 order to inspect the new Casino, and then the trip was continued (to Isle of Hope, where another stop was made. The trip was in every way a most enjoyable one and was much appreciated by those in the party. "Paul Pry," who recently printed a card relative to Eev. Sam Jones in the Morning News, has received many letters from others who share his views. The latest received is from Mississippi. In it the writer, who evidently is under the impression that Paul Pry is conducting a paper, asks that space 'be accorded him io express also his views of the Mr. Jones. 93 LIGHTNING- FLASHES SAM JONES 1 TO MEN.— ARRAIGNED THEM BE- FORE THE BIAR OF THEIR CONiSOIEINiCE. EVILS THEY SHOULD SHUN. — PROFANITY, GAMBLING, ADULTERY AND DRINKING. 'City and County Officials were roasted to a turn. — Mr. Jones was abusive, but his words struck deep. • — -Hearty and frequent applause marked' concur- rence in niGet of his thrusts. — Mayor and Alder- men, Judges and Solicitor General all came in for a share of attention. — Great audience of men stood at close of the service to show a desire for better things. Sam Jones 9 stag party at the Tabernacle last night fulfilled every promise that the evangelist made for it. Metaphorically, blood and hair were spread all about, the crowd furnishing the blood and hair, and the ground was "tore up," Mr. Jones, as he promised, fur- nishing the ground. The gathering for men only was the greatest that has yet attended a service at ihe tabernacle. It was thought likely that, when the congregation was de- prived of the women, who have usually predominated, there would not be enough men left to fill up the place and leave the usual fringe , about on the outside, but those entertaining such expectations did not find them realized. There was a larger gathering of men than iAiND THUNDERBOLTS. 93 a municipal election can get together around; the County iCourt House. There were more men than there are names on the list of registered voters in Chatham County. Packed and jammed into the tabernacle, elbowing and pushing their fellows along the benches until room could .be made, standing in the aisles and all about the gates and on the outside, masculine humanity per- spired without complaint, being highly interested in the evangelist's sermon. Shorn of a, feiw remarks that were for the ears of men alone, the sermon was much like those that Mr. Jones delivered during his stay in Savannah, save that there was, perhaps, more abuse in it and more epi- thets and contemptuous expressions. The crowd was well pleased, though, as was proven by the salvos of applause. The sermon, too, was indorsed, and the arrows and darts of stinging sarcasm that were let fly found marks in city and state officials. It was such a roast as those officials never before had put upon them, and it couldl not have been pleasant to them, were any present, to hear the adverse praise that was bestowed upon them. The service, of course, was without the aid of the feminine voices that are usually heard in the choir. But there was a tremendous crowd of eager choris- ters, accompanied by Rosenfeld's orchestra, of the male persuasion, all anxious for places upon the platform. Seats were at a premium, anyway, and the man was lucky who could get one. Even places on the ground 94 LIGHTNING FLASHES were not going ibegging. As soon as he began his re- marks, Mr. Jones invited all who were standing in the aisles to sit down on the ground, an invitation that was received by those whose view was obstructed, with applause. After the sermon had proceeded for some minutes, a shower fell, but the preacher was in no way dis- concerted. "Now, everybody keep still. God ain't going to break up this meetin' with no shower. You fellows on the outside there needn't be afraid of water, nohow; fire's what you'd better worry about. You'd better stand a little ducking than miss the sermon. There'll be a warm time here directly. Just crowd into the aisles and have seats. If you can't find no- where else to sit, why sit on the ground." That brought the crowd in, and they sat about in the aisles, escaping the rain and keeping fairly com- fortable during the hour and thirty-^five minutes that Mr. Jones preached. At one time during his talk Mr. Jones said: "You all just keep quite a little while longer and I'll be through. I knolw I've been talking about an hour and ten minutes, but I haven't got more than afoout two hours more to talk." This brought applause from the crowd, which seemed per- fectly content at the prospect of listening for two hours longer. "I hope to see results from this service that will tell on Savannah for 100 years. So let's be quite and attentive. When a minister of the gospel has any- thing to tell me, I have three questions that I want AM) THUNDERBOLTS. 95 to ask him. I want to know if lie is posted on his subject. When he has shown me that he is, I want to know if he means kindly toward me in what he says. When he has answered me in the affirmative, I want to know if he lives what he preaches. If the three questions are answered affirmatively, I throw wide my heart and listen to all that he has to say. "Now, am I posted? That's a question you can answer for yourselves. You watch me as I go along and see if I don't know what I'm talking about. As to feeling kindly toward you, I tell you that, as sure as I live, I haven't a thing in my heart against any man on earth. Well then, do I live what I preach? Now, you know that a fellow that throws as many rocks as 'Sam Jones does couldn't live in a glass house. No, sir, they would have broken up my house long ago. But I'll tell you this right here, if I didn't stand bet- ter in 'Cartersville than most of you folks out there do in '^Savannah., I wouldn't criticise a nigger, I wouldn't. "I take this text from Genesis, 'Escape for thy life.' It doesn't take God long to tell about the crea- tion. He announces that fact in pretty short order, but he goes right on down through the ages giving warn- ings and directing man how to look after himself. We all love this life. Despair is the only thing in this world that is stronger than the love of life, and sui- cide is the last resort of despair. I have a trinity life, a physical, an intellectual and a moral life. The phy- sical and the intellectual life can be shattered and broken by indulgences that impair health, and so is it 96 LIGHTNING MiA'SHiBS with the moral life, which can be ruined and wrecked by excesses and by violation of the laws of God. Some men say that they haint got no soul. Dogs don't have souls. Sin wredks a man here and damns him here- after. Sin is transgression of the law. I arraign this great crowd before the bar of its own conscience. I do not have a man here before a judge and a jury. I dio not drag him before the criminal courts of this place, because few people go there except poor white folks and niggers. "The first statute law upon which I will try you for violation is that which says that 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord tihy 'God in vain/ etc. This is the most excuseless, unreasonable and guilty sin that a man can practice. I am talking to not less than 5,000 profane men. This is the plain truth I am going to tell you, and if you think that you can't stand the truth rubbed in thicker and faster than you ever had it rubbed in in your life, then you'd better get out of here. Don't you come here to me after I've said my say and talk to me about havin' hurt your feelings. What do I care about your feelings? Yiou get up and git out of here, Bud, if you thinlk you ain't goin' to like what I've got to say. "Everybody cusses here in this town otf yours. Old men and young men rip out their cuss words, and even the children on their way to and from school have their volleys of oaths. A -little boy six years old is sent down town by his mother to buy a spool of thread, and he gets the seed of foul language sown in his heart when AM) TH'UNMffiBOLTS. 97 he passes a gang of you black-mouthed rascals. You cussin' rascals listen to me a minute. There's money in breaking the commandment 'Thou shalt not steal/ but there ain't a cent in it for you when you cuss. Then why don't you break that commandment about your stealing? It's because you are scared of the judge and the jury. You'll get on tihe chaingang if you git to stealing but there ain't nothing against you when you cuss. If you break one of those commandments, there is no reason why you won't break them all. Pull the bridle off a cussin' man, and there's no tellin' where you'll find him by mornin'. When a man swears, there simply ain't no tellin' what he'll do. I say this, and 1 want every tihinOrin' cussin' man to carry it home with him. Any man who will break that command- ment is likely to break them all." "He's a ousser. Yes, sir; He'll cuss anybody or any- thing. He'll cuss everybody. He's the out-cussinest man you ever saw. No, he won't my friend. There are people right here in this town he won't cuss. If he does, he'll give some dentist a job that'll keep him at work on every tootih in his head, from the front clean on back to the last; one. What makes you cuss, a 713- how? Get up on your hind feet out there, Bud, and telll us why you cuss, you old cuss, you. If you warn to hear how it sounds to cuss, you go home and get your wife to do some of it for you. I used to know a fellow up the state who was a mighty cusser. Oh, he was one of the worst you ever saw. He was a cusser from Cusserville. He married a mighty nice sweet 98 LIGHTNING FLASHES. little woman, but that didn't stop his cussin. She begged and plead with him, but it didn't do any good. One day he came home and ho said: 'Wife is the damned dinner ready ?' And she said : 'I don't know, dear, I'll go and see.' When she came back and said, f No, the damned dinner ain't ready ; the damned cook is sick.' 'Oh, wife, wife, what in the world do you mean?' he asked her, and she told him tftiat she was going to try that means to stqp him from swearing. It did it, too. It was a bitter dose, but it cured him. You go home and get your wife to cuss for you. It would make a dog vomit to hear it, but it'll euro you. "Now don't you go away from here and say that I said the man who cusses will steal. I didn't say it. I said he wouldn't, but I told you why he wouldn't. He^s afraid of the judge and jury. Escape the sin of prdfanity. I would tihat every swearing man here to- night would lift up his voice 'and say that he has ut- tered his last oath. A profane man is fit only to be butted to death by a billy goat, and I wouldn't like to be the old' goat to have the dirty job. You'll see some dirty 'beast rip out a cuss word when a lady is standing near. Then he'll apologize to the lady. He ought never to have had the thing in him. Then it would never have como out. I'd as soon have a dead polecat in my belly, to jump out among ladies, as to have an oath in me that was forever popping out." "Now, I'm going to arraign you for your violation of the law that demands that you remember the Sab- bath day to keep it holy, I am talking to thousand? AND THUNDERBOLTS. 99 >f men who haven't kept the Sabbatjh since they were fifteen years old. Some of you say that you can't af- ford to keep the Sabbath in the good old way, because there is such 'a large foreign element in the country, and they do not like it. This is an American coun- try, and if any dirty, damnable foreigner doesn't like the way Americans keep a Sabbath, let the old devil go back where he came from. Some pot-bellied old Dutch- man will say: i I don't like dis 'Sabbat day vat ve find ofer in dis gontry,' and if you stick a knife into his old paunch you will see a keg of beer run out. This iSafbbath is as dear to the right sort of our Ameri- cans as is the honor of our wives and the peace of our homes. f< And there's a lot of you Americans here who are worse. You are so keen after the almighty dollar that you can't afford to stop one day in the week and ob- serve iSunday. You decent Americans give your hands to thousands idf l&w-afbiding 'Germans and Irishmen and welcome them, but we don't want any of these white-washed Dutchmen and galvanized Irishmen. Why don't you say, ' Amen?' turning to the preachers on the platform behind him, and the preachers promp- tly answered 'Amen.' There, now. You see these preachers have said f Amen.' If you don't like it, you can lick them. "I was in one town where the Lutheran minister came to me and said that he couldn't do anything with his people that a lot of his Germans kept their saloons open on Sundays. He told me that I couldn't say 100 LIGHTNING FLASHES anything to them because they would dynamite me, they would blow me up, they would kill me sure. I listened to the good old fellow, and then I turned loose on that crowd. In less than ten days, 113 of them went before the judge, plead guilty to keeping their places open on Sundays, paid their fines of $200 and signed a legal pledge not to do it again. Wihen I met the Lutheran preacher again he said: 'Veil, veil. You done it, and dey didn't do anything to you, did dey? J would tought dey done you up, but you done deni up, ain't it/ ">I am not fighting the foreigners. I am only fight- ing anything and everything in America that will pre- vent Americans from observing the Saihbatli. Why, they tell me they are running these vaudeville per- formances in Savannah on Sunday nights, is that so? turning to the preachers. He could bear no affirmative reply, though, so he didn't press that point. Any mayor and alderman, who would allow a town to be debauched with these vaudeville performances are not fit to run a dog kennel. They went to the mayor to see what he had to say about Sam Jones. What did he say? Why, something about suppressing Sam Jones if he tended to corrupt the morals of the town. Do you wan't a picture of the Mayor suppressing Sam Jones? Well, I'll show you one. Did you ever see a limited express train shooting along at full speed? Well, off in a field to one side is an old nigger lean- ing on a hoe, who concludes that he will suppress that train. The only evidence you can find afterwards that AND THUNDERBOLTS. 101 there has been any effort at suppression are a few pieces of hoe and nigger. You can sit down on somethin goin' a mile a minute, but you can't stay sot. "Any business that can't make a living for a man running it six days in the week ought to be drummed out of the place. I pray God the day may come when we will elect a Congress that will stop the wheels under every car on every railroad in the country and give you laboring men a seventh day of rest to honor and serve your God. The devil's got this country by the tail and is pulling it backwards to hell. About one hundred and twenty women and about thirty men make up the average Sunday morning congregation in Savannah. Where are the rest of you old roosters? Standing around on the streets or gathered somewhere else in your evil knots, spewing out your oaths and telling your smutty yarns. If I was a buzzard, sailing through the clear sky, and should get a glimpse of one of your nasty, stinking crowds do you know what I would do. Why, Fd turn up my nose, wheel albout and steer in the opposite direction and say 'um-um/ "If you've got a law in this town that you can't enforce, then you are on the verge of anarchy. If you've got a law you can, but don't enforce, then you've got communism started. Make me judge of this Su- perior 'Court of yours and I'll clean up your dirty places and laund'ry your clothes. But you'll have to bring 'em to me on some other wagon than that of a cer- tain official. And you want to git after this state of af- fairs. I tell you, when you git hold of a judge's tail 102 LMHT'NINiG FLASHES and give it a twist or two he'll go up the road a-hikin.' This court institution of yours is just like a grist mill on a creek. They just take so much toll and turn 'em loose. They just pull up these gamblers and run : em into the court house and milk 'em just Hike an old woman does a cow. And you know another thing — that the county gets the skimmed milk and said official gets the cream. "But there ain't no official goin' to be better than the people who elected him. He ain't no worse, either, than the people who elected him. The papers came out and said, the day after the last election, that there were thousands of dollars spent on it. And your 'back- boneless gang sits around and allows such a thing as that. 'Who believes that if Sam Adams were Mayor of Savannah he'd sit and grin, and grin, and grin? Did you ever see a little dog run out of a barn after he had been sucking eggs? The Mayor grins that way. iAnd the old aldermen. There are some good ones in that crowd, but they are in mighty bad com- pany. If I wanted to kill some of you aldermen, I wouldn't git a gun or a stick. I'd catch you on my thumb nail, like this, and come down on you. That's the way we used to kill 'em when I was a boy. "You men should stop this method of administering the affairs otf your city. You should hold a mass meet- ing in this talbernacle and get up resolutions, demand- ing the resignation of officials who have not done their duty and heen faithful to their oaths of office. If you back a little politician up against a stump and cut' his AND THUNDERBOLTS. 103 tail off and turn him loose in the woods in fly time hefll starve to death. You-ve got good citizens in this town, but they haven't got any backbone. Where the backbone ought to be, there isn't anything but a piece of string with two or three ribs knitted to it. If what I'm saying is true, you ought to reform the town. If if s false then you ought to kick me off this platform. It's easier, though, to reform the town. I've traveled a heap and I've preached in tough places, but never have I met the resistance that I have in Savannah. The devil has sure got a hold in Savannah. He's sick now, though, gone to bed with his troubles. You keep the Sabbath, you old billy goat you, and I mean no offense to the goat when I say it. ^And let me warn you against the sin of adultery. Women, wine and cards are the three great evils that are cutting the grit (from under this country." Mr. Jones told of a man who had found his sister in a house of ill repute and bad shot her dead. "In that very town," he said, "the night of the occurrence, he had told 10,000 people that the woman had as much right in the house as her brother." He paid his com- pliments to doctors, too, who give young men certain advice, referring to .them as "you little bullet-headed devils," and mying that, if they gave such advice to a man's daughters, they would find a blazing shot gun confronting them. '"Gambling; she's goin' red-hot in Savannah. Let those policy wheels alone, you nigger. You laboring men quit your gambling. You are fools to gamble, 104 LIGHTNING FLASHES anyway. You get your checks at the end of a montn of hard work, and when you stop 'by one of these pro- fessional gambling dens in 'Savannah and lose it all keeping your wives and children from having the food and clothes that it is your duty to give them. You ain't got as much sense as an old cow. They turn her out, and she eats grass all day. Then she comes up to be milked. You work hard all the month and get your money for it. Then you go up to the gambling hells to be milked. And you don't even get any grass, you old fool, you. "If I were a merchant or a business man in this city, I wouldn't employ a clerk who gambled. If you buck the tiger boy, and lose, you've got to get money from somewhere. I don't say that you'll steal; I say that you'll most do it. You men have got to look to the courts to stop this, and you have got to look to dif- ferent officials. This crowd won't do it, and you knew they wouldn't when you elected them. All they'll do is to try to stop Sam Jones' mouth. "You know they come to me sometimes and say: 'Look here; what do you say such things for? Ain't you afraid they'll kill you?' Kill me? What for? No, they wouldn't kill me. But what if they would ? Why, that would only be a shorter cut to heaven. But they ain't going to do it. If I should go up a back alley, some one of them might take a chance, but I ain't goin'. The Bible tells me not to throw temptation in your way. "I admire the manhood of the young man who ap- AM) THUNDERBOLTS. 105 peared before the grand jury recently to give evidence against the gamblers. I don't care whether he went voluntarily or involuntarily. I don't know his name, but they tell me that he has given his notes that may take him from seven to fifteen years to take up. He will meet the obligations that he incurred in gambling in this way. And you'd better quit, all of you 'hoys, or they'll have your head in a crack. "There's no difference between the rich man specula- ting in his stocks in Wall Street and you black devil with your Tome seven.' Turn you both wrong side out and you'll look just alike. Earn your money, don't try to win it. I would rather my boy would plough hard all day long, stub his toes and come back with one dollar in his pocket than to have him gamhle and win $100,000 that would only damn and ruin him, while the dollar that he earned would have the eagle on it changed to a nightingale to sing him to sleep when his tired head sank upon the pillow for his night's repose. Don't gamble boy; earn your money. Don't try to wear fine clothes and keep up with the swell young bucks in town. You'll get in the penitentiary sure^ you little idiot, you. "T am a man who can talk to you about drinking, for I have been through the mill. A fellow has to drink here to be a real, typical Savannah gentleman. If you don't drink, you're lonesome. Goin' round here tellin' me you never could see any harm in a dram, you lying old rascal, you. Groin' round here tellin* me that if you let whiskey alone, it'll let you alone. Quit 106 UTCKHTNING MiASHEIS tellin' that you lyin' old scoundrel. A sober, upright citizen is walking along your streets, harming no one. Suddenly, a drunken man staggers out of a saloon. In the wantonness of drink, he draws his pistol and shoots the citizen dead. Did the citizen let whiskey alone? Yes. Did it let him alone? Did it let the broken- hearted wife and poor little children, who come run- ning at the news, alone? You can just as well turn a mad dog loose in the town and say that if you let him alone he'll let you alone. "You niggers, out there, you look at your horny hands. They got that way by labor. You go to your shanties and see what you've got there. Look at your miserable furniture: What's the matter? Why it's that drink. You spent your money there that you should be spending in getting you a decent house. You let that pot-bellied old Dutchman down on the corner alone. And you call yourself a Christian. You ain't a decent dog. "And you laboring men spend your money for whiskey, keeping some comfort away from your wives and families. Maybe you will say you are gentlemen. If }K)u are, then I'd rather be a hot-tailed, yaller dog. I believe that highway robber is a better citizen than the man who debauches his country by selling liquor. The rolbber will just take your money away from your boy once. The saloonkeepers will continue to take it away from him as long as he can earn it, and will then wreck and ruin his life and send his soul to perdition." The sermon was closed with a touching story of Mr. AND TEDUroEKBO'LTS. 107 Jones' own experience with strong drink. He said that the appetite, cultivated during the three years of his addiction to the habit, is still with him after thirty years of total abstinence, and that, sad thing for a minister of the gospel to say, he does not know that he will not yet fill a drunkard's grave. Never, he said, will he feel safe until the last kiss of his loved ones shall have been placed upon his lips. The preacher then invited all the men in the audi- ence, who cared to live better lives, to stand, and none could be seen from the platform who did not respond to the invitation. He then called upon all to come forward to shake hands with him and show that they wished to do better, even if the process would require until daylight. Great throngs went forward and shook hands with the preacher. 108 LIGHTNING FLASHES WARNED OF DEATH.— .REV. SAM JONES BIDS SAVANNAHIANS PREPARE FOR MISFOR- TUNE. TELLS O'F HIS EXPERIENCES. DEATHS HAVE ALWAYS FOLLOWED WHERE WARNING HAS NOT BEEN HEEDED. Says there will be deaths in Savannah between now and July 1, that will shock the community. — Stirs the congregation by telling that many were within the sound of his voice for whom the grave flowers now are growing. — Two hundred persons confess conversion. — Rev. G. R. 'Stuart gone to Tennessee. The Sam Jones' meeting last night, according to Mr. Jones, was not only the most successful that he has held in Savannah, hut one of the most successful that he has conducted in ten years. At the conclu- sion of a plain gospel sermon several hundred people gave the minister their hands and requested prayer, and later two hundred professed conversion and pledg- ed themselves to accept the teachings of the Bible and lead, hereafter, a changed and a 'Christian life. There was absolutely nothing in the sermon at which any one could take offense, nor was there any of the bitter invective and biting sarcasm that has been so fre- quently displayed as to have become, in the public mind, characteristic of Mr. Jones. Because there was AMD THUNDERBOLTS. 109 none of this some of the crowd that attended the serv- ice was disappointed, but nevertheless stayed through. Mr. Jones preached from the text, Proverbs, 29 :1, "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." It was a plain gospel sermon, rendered strong and effective from the unmistakable earnestness of the man and the grim and terrible words of the text exempli- fied in all of the stories of the personal experiences of the speaker. After repeating the text, 'Mr. Jones said, "The bare announcement of this text ought to be enough to bring you all to your feet with the question, 'Who is the author of those fearful words? 7 And when that question has been answered, that it is the great, eternal God whose sleepless eye has marked us from the cradle to the present hour, there ought to be a thousand men to ask to whom, then, is the awful warning addressed. These people can say, truthfully, ' Surely God means me.' "Then if this message is to you, brother, I beg you to heed and accept the warning that God has sent you. There has been more sudden deaths in the past twelve months than in any other twelve months of the world's history. 'Cyclones, tidal waves, and earth- quakes, shipwrecks, paralysis and heart failure have .swept men into the presence of God every day. "Scarcely is there a morning newspaper that does not contain accounts of from fifty to one hundred sud- den deaths. A few weeks ago one-third of the papula* 110 LIGHTNING FLASHES tion of an American city was swept into the presence of God between the setting of the sun and the rising thereof. How many people and things pass away; and yet not one jot or tittle of this sacred book is altered. "My purpose tonight is to recite some of the inci- dents along the pathway of my own ministry. I have preached to thousands and tens of thousands in that time who have since been swept into the presence of Almighty God. Sixteen years ago in Nashville was converted Capt. Ryman, whom I consider one of the greatest converts of the nineteenth century. A few days after I took dinner with him by invitation, and had as my fellow guests thirteen other gentlemen, many of the captains of my host's steamers, and one, the Mayor of Nashville. I occupied the place at the foot of the table, to one side of me being a captain, then the Mayor; on the other side being two captains. I had not been out of Nashville three months when one of the captains was found one morning dead. An- other three months passed and another of the captains fell to the floor of his boat and died within a few minutes. A few weeks later and the Mayor of the city was killed while on a hunting trip in Wisconsin, and about three months later another of the captains that had that day graced the table was found dead. Before I had been away from the city twelve months four strong stalwart men had been swept into the presence of God. ! "At a meeting that I held at High Bridge, Ky., one Sunday morning, as I preached, a young man that had AND THUNDERBOLTS. Ill been leaning against a post for a few minutes turned away with an oath and said, Tve got enough of that/ He walked a short distance away to a railroad station, attempted to grasp the ladder on the side of a freight train that was passing, was caught and thrown under the train, where he was crushed so that even his watch was flattened. Almost before I had closed the meet- ing that he had scorned, he was swept into the presence of God. "At a meeting that I held at Charlotte, after the call for penitents had been made, a young man got up and came two-thirds of the way to the altar, then turn- ed, whether shamed by some comrade's jibe, I know not, and went back and out of the church. The next morning he started on his usual run; he was a con- ductor, but had gone only about eight or ten miles when he was killed by another train. "*He that heing often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.' At Greenville, Miss., during a series of meetings, I sug- gested one day that the business men close their places the following morning, so that they and their clerks might come to the services. I was told later by a resi- dent minister that two men, saloonkeepers, not only refused to close up, but cursed me, and asked if 'Sam Jones thought they would close up to hear the vapor- ings of a blackguard like himself/ "I said I'm sorry, but you'll hear from it. I have known doors to be closed up by crepe. On the morn- ing that I left that town, early before anybody was 112 LIGHTNING FLAiSH'BS stirring, one of these men went to open his saloon, he got the door open, then fell dead in the doorway, where later, he was found by the policeman on the beat. Ten days later the other, after walking from his store to his house, fell dead between the gate and the door. " 'He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.' During my last meetings in Palestine, Tex., there was a man that scoffed at us and said that a visit from Sam Jones and George Stuart was worse than would be a visit of the pestilence. When I was holding the last service he fell dead. "Now hear me : I dare assert that between now and July 1 there will be deaths here that will startle the community. I never hold a series of meetings that these things do not happen. I preach to you as a warn- ing, for God has borne with some of the people of Sa- vannah as long as he can, and I tell you that there are many now within the reach of my voice for whom the flowers that will cover their coffins are blooming tonight. " 'He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.' Brother, friends, hear! These are God's words: were they human words, or even angel's words then might the scoffer laugh. At Columbus one morning a friend suggested that I preach to the policemen. The chief gathered them in the Recorder's €ourt room and I preached to them. I said, -you are a body of noble men, and I honor you, for you protect others, but yours is AND THUNBEflRBOLTS. 113 a dangerous calling. You ought not to drink or to swear, but be true to God and the right because you may be suddenly taken out of life and into the pres- ence of God. Before ten days had passed after that talk four of those men that had heard me were shot down by a mad man and his son. 0, it's an awful thing to die anyway or anywhere, but it's a tremend- ously awful thing to be swept suddenly into the pres- ence of God. "I know not how I shall die; it may be from heart failure, or beneath the crack of the assassin's pistol. I hope not, yet I deserve to die suddenly, because of the many times that I hardened my neck before I sur- rendered to God. "But if I had my choice of dying I should go home to my wife and children, after a hard-fought battle for God, and with them and a physician, and in that kindly circle of them that love me, sink slowly, grow- ing weaker day by day. As the end approached I would spend a day in counsel to my children, and then, the doctor gone because of no more use, the world fast receding, I would «bid my children good-bye, draw close my wife to tell her of my devotion and then kissing her and my children, go cheerfully to God. '■There are many here tonight, who say 'you can't frighten me into religion; you can't scare me into a better life.' To these, I say, if if s facts that you want, all you lack to be in the home of the damned tonight is for your heart to stop beating. If that is not enough •to frighten you, you are a braver man than I am or 114 LIGHTNING FLASHES than I will ever be. It is the part of common sense to listen to the voice that warns of danger. You sa} r 'I've heard these sermons before.' Well, hear me again, you'd better be warned. When the pent-up judgments of God are loosened and shall rush upon you you will then cry for sheltering rocks and moun- tains. Brother, hear this warning; it's sent of God to prepare you for your winding sheet and coffin. " 'All that a man hath will be given for his life.' ! dying and diseased men, hear me tonight; the day will come when all remedies will be in vain. My brother and my friends, some time this hour will come upon you with a flash and God will then tell you that you had a warning, but that you hardened your heart. If there was ever an hour when the preachers should be upon their knees; when every mother and every Chris tian person should be upon their knees, praying God to save this town, it's now. Who knows but that it will be you on your son that will be swept to God next? "I have been talking to thousands here tonight who have had warning enough to wake the dead, yet they are no closer to God. Can the thunder of Sinai be louder or God's voice be stronger. That you hear it and are yet unsaved is almost proof that you'll not be saved at all. You tell me that Savannah is wicked, that her customs and manners are different from other places, and all that, but what will that have to do with you if you die a miserable sinner and stand in the presence of God unprepared at last?" AND THUM)EiB:BOLTS. 115 After urging that drinking men, and swearing men, as well as Sabbath breakers,should heed the warning and repent, the evangelist told a grewsome story that had been told to him by a brother minister. There lived in a Tennessee town, he said, a working- man who was given to going on periodic sprees. While thus under the influence of liquor one night he fell as he tried to enter his room and bruised himself badly, but still retained strength enough to get into bed where, though sore from bruises, he slept. But it was a sleep that brought him no rest, for he dreamed that he had died and gone to hell, and that the devil met him and began to show him the place. He saw endless tables, he thought on which sat numberless human beings, with veiled heads. A't the command of the devil these veils were withdrawn and to his horror he saw that each of the lost souls emitted flames from eyes, nose and mouth. The heads were recovered, but at a second command the lost creatures uncovered their bodies from which, likewise, poured fourth the flames. Satan was aibout to install the dreamer into his place, but agreed to release him provided he would pledge his soul to be taken twelve months later. This the dreamer in his vision agreed to, and departed. The man, worried by his dreams, told the pastor from whom Mr. Jones had the story, and took the pledge, which he kept for about eleven months. Then, one day passing a saloon, he was enticed in and to take a drink with some of his former companions. The one drink 'led to others and yet others, until soon he was 116 LIGHTNING FLASHES on one of the old time sprees. One night he lay in bed dead and stiff just twelve months from the time that he had had the vision of hell. "Brother Stuart, will be back Thursday. When he comes back I want to be able to say we've had one thousand conversions. Brother, we must, by God's grace, start to save them by the thousands; God grant that Savannah be the place that shall start the move- ment, and that it go round the world." Mr. Jones asked those of his hearers that could honestly say "Brother Jones, I want to heed the warn ing; I want to live a changed life," to stay after the benediction had been made, and to come forward and occupy the seats in the center aisle which had been cleared for them. The invitation was accepted by so many that additional seats had to be provided to ac- commodate them, and again still others had to be se- cured until when the meeting was finally dismissed nearly all of the center aisle seats directly in front of the platform were filled with penitents, of whom about two hundred professed conversion. AND THUNDERBOLTS. 117 WOULDN'T BE AN ELK. OTHER INTERESTING INCIDENTS. "It has 'been reported, Mr. Jones" the evangelist who has been making things so warm in -Savannah was told, "that your attack upon the Elks is due to the fact that you once made application for admission into a lodge of the Elks and were blackballed. Is that so?" "That is a lie of the first magnitude. In the first place, I never made application for admission into the organization. I would never want to join such a gang as that. If it were a choice between membership in the Elks and the chaingang for my boy, I would say The chaingang. There's no chance of a man becoming a drunkard or learning to steal on the chaingang. "There would never have been any Elks had it not been for the fact that other old and reputable organiza- tions of a secret character would not admit saloon- keepers to membership. The saloonkeepers decided that they, too, wanted a secret order, and the Elks are tnER!BOLTS. 171 a tinkling cymbal. Better to speak five words with understanding that I may instruct others, than ten thousand words without judgment. 'Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth, but that which is good to the edification of faith that it may administer grace to thy hearers. Shun profane and vain babbling, for they grow much towards ungodliness. Such speech spreadeth like a canker, of whom are Hymeneus and Philetus. Indulge not in obscenity or foolish talking, nor scur- rility, which is to no purpose, but rather to giving thanks to the Almighty. 'Be not wise in your own conceits, whatever glory or applause such works might procure from men; they would be of no value, in the sight of God. If it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace with all men, giving no offense that the ministry may not be blamed. To preach the gospel, not to glory in your own achievements, for if any man thinks himself to be something wherein he is nothing he deceiveth himself. Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine; show thyself an example of good work in integrity and gravity. To live i9 Christ, and to die is gain. Let your exhortations be worthy of the gospel of Christ: whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things -are modest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are holy, whatsoever things are amiable, what- soever things are of good repute, if there be any virtue, 172 LIGiHTMNiG FLASHES if there be any praise of discipline, think on these things which yon have seen and heard from me — these do — and the God of peace will be with you. Let your speech be always in grace, seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer every man — give not heed to fables and endless genealogies which furnish questions rather than the edification of God which is in faith. Even so, the tongue is indeed a little member and boasteth great things, behold how small a fire kindleth a great wood; and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue no man can tame, a restless evil — full of deadly poison. By it we bless God and the father; and by it we curse men who made after the likeness of God — out of the same mouth proeeedeth blessing and cursing. These things ought not to be. The servant of the Lord must not wrangle, but be gentle towards all men; fit to teach, patient with modesty, admonishing those who resist the truth, if at any time God give them repentance to know the truth. Shun vulgar and profane allusions for they grow much towards impiety; abandon strife of words from which arise envies, contentions, blasphemies and suspicions — from which things, some going astray, are turned aside in vain talk. Now the end of the commandment is charity from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith. All things are clean to the clean, but to the defiled and the unbeliever nothing is clean, but both their mind and conscience are defiled. AND THUNDERBOLT'S. 173 If any man ministers, let it be as the power which. God administered, that in all things God may be honor- ed and his church respected, by dignified gestures by the utterance only of pure and holy words that offend no one, create neither levity nor laughter in a house sacred to God. Now, my beloved Samuel, by your repentance and unstinted work you are held blameless before God. (Continue to walk with Christ in the faith grounded, settled and immovable from the hope of the gospel which you have heard, which is preached in all the creation that is under heaven, and you, who were dead in your sins He hath quickened together with Him, forgiving you all offenses. I trust you will therefore forego the use of vain and 'foolish language in your preaching and return to the only true and holy me- thods of pressing conviction upon your hearers through the love of God and peace and good will to all men, so that your enemies may not repeat the saying of .Festus "much learing doth make thee mad" — rather say with me "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Salute Brother Stuart, who has aided you much in the Areo- pagus. Salute Brother Anthony, who hath clung to you like a brother. Salute Brothers Nisbet and Jor- dan, and the Milesian McCorkel, your helpers, who labor in the Lord. Salute the churches which are in their hands that they may become more profitable than hitherto. Grace be with you — amen ! Paul — commonly called PAUL PBY. 174 LIGHTNING FLASHES NOT A WORSHIP DISTURBER. A NEGRO BOY. The fact that a negro urchin carried an advertising transparency around the Jones Tabernacle in the parade ground did not constitute the disturbance of public worship. Recorder Myrick ruled in Police Court yes- terday morning. The hearing of the case was an in- teresting one. The sign "Get New Soles at " and "Home- made shoes at — ■ " was in the courtroom and Ben- jamin Jenkins, the youthful prisoner, admitted that he had been guilty of the oifense of walking around the tabernacle with the transparency on his shoulder. Three lighted candles on the inside made the words appear clear and bright and the boy was promptly placed under arrest by officer Jernigan. Patrolman Bostick has also been doing duty at trip tabernacle and both officers appeared against the di- minutive negro. Officer Jernigan announced that he had sent instructions to headquarters to place the man whose business was being advertised on the docket. For some inexplicable reason this was not done. This statement from the patrolman brought iSupt. Reilly to his feet. Up to that point he had been anxi- ously waiting to see what was going to happen. The superintendent stated that he had countermanded the order sent in by the patrolman. He did not wish to AND THUNDEEBOLTS. 175 have business men placed on the docket and taken into court unless there was some real cause for it. The superintendent said that he wanted to find out what was going to be done by the court with Jenkins before taking any further steps. Eecorder Myriok told the boy that he could go in the parade ground with his transparency, but not to get mixed up in the crowd at the tabernacle. The case of disturbing public worship was dismissed, and with his banner over his shoulder Jenkins left the court room and began his parade through the streets. The patrolmen who appeared against the boy and who have been on dutv at the tabernacle were not at J all pleased at the decision of Judge Myrick. They de- sired the conviction of the negro, and offered to have the ministers come forward and prosecute. The Ee- corder could not see it this way, and his decision stood. He did not appear to relish the actions of the officers. 176 LIGHTNING FLASHES SEA OF DARK FACES CONFRONTED REV. SAM JONES IN THE PARK TABERNACLE. "go, quit your meanness/' was the evangelist's message to the colored people of savannah. Five thousand negroes thronged and packed the tabernacle and crowds of people lined it on its three open sides. Evangelists Jones and Stuart both spoke. Another jibe at the expense of the police. They get nothing but negroes and poor whites. Policy playing and gambling generally vigorously condemned. A great throbbing, pulsating sea of negro faces, extending fro-m the rear of the building to the front and to both sides, fringed about with the faces of at least two or three thousand white people, made up the scene which was presented at the Park Tabernacle last night. It was an occasion that must be memorable to every one who witnessed it, such a one as comes rarely in any man's lifetime, and that having come and gone, leaves an impression that will not fade. "You are a religious people," said Rev. George Stuart, addressing the negroes, who made up the great- er portion of the audience, and in every dusky face, in every glistening eye, in every resonant tuneful voice, uplifted in some old negro melody of praise or devo- AND TBIMDERB0LTS. 177 iion, was the abounding verification of the truth of this statement. Applause, fervent "Aniens," the deep hum that everywhere expresses the approval of the negro multitude and its sanction of what appeals to it as the truth — these frequently interrupted the speakers. There must have been 5,000 negroes in the tabernacle. On the platform were both evangelists, the white ministers who have been their co-laborers in the evangelistic work they have been conducting in Sa- vannah, and a dozen or more colored preachers. These in addition to the regular white choir, the members of which filled their accustomed places. The services opened with some hymns by the choir and then the negro congregation took up and sang their songs of praise. They were not new-fangled hymns that came from the throats of these people, but the good, old-fashioned, camp-meeting songs, that an older generation grew to know and love. The volume of music swept up an through the air and rolled away, with a sweetness, a sympathy, a depth of conviction and religious enthusiasm that only a negro congrega- tion, singing such old-fashioned gospel melodies, could have produced or evinced. They sang, "That Good Old-time Religion," "When the Roll is Called I'll be There," and a number of responsive hymns, in which one led and the congregation, with swelling fervor, carried the refrain. Mr. Jones read a telegram from a woman, a mother, living in Temple, Tex., which asked the prayers of himself and the congregation for her son, who, the 178 LIGHTNING FLASHES message stated, was in the tabernacle. The man to whom this message refers, said Mr. Jones, "was glori- ously and happily converted three nights ago." Mr. Jones then announced that, in addition to the sermon he would himself deliver, Mr. Stuart would preach to the colored people. "If you will give him your attention," said the evangelist, "You will hear things that will be good for you and a better sermon than I can preach." Mr. 8tuart preached a strong sermon. With closest interest and attention the congregation followed him through his sermon, which was made up of good advice and good sense. This was followed by some singing and then Mr. Jones addressed the great audience. His text was the entire fifteenth Psalm, beginning: "Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?" These questions from the first verse of the Psalm, and the remaining four are made up of the answers to these questions. "A fair reading of the opening verse of the text," said Mr. Jones, "would be, 'Lord, who is fit to be in thy church, and who will ultimately get to heaven.' "'Who is fit to be in the church? You know when you say a man or a woman isn't fit to be in the church you mark that man or that woman as a pretty mean sort of character. She may be a pretty good dancer, or a fairly good liar, but she's not fit to be in the church; he may be a fair sort of drunkard and an ex- pert thief, but he won't suit for the church. Who is the man who is fit to be in the church? You or I AND THUM>EBB()LTS. 179 may have our opinions on the subject, and these opin- ions may be right or wrong. But God, though all men may be liars, speaks always and nothing but the truth. When the carpenter wanted to raise that pillar and see that it was upright, he used his spirit level to as- sure himself it was so; when the mason built yonder pile of brick, he employed a line and plummet to assure himself that his proportions were true. My friends, when you want to see if your life is such that you are fit for the church, apply to it this blessed spirit level of the Bible and measure it by the line and plummet of God's word. **And first of all the Book says the man who is fit to enter the church is f He that walketh uprightly/ God give us such a man ! One who does something for himself and something for his church, but not one who spends ten dollars on whiskey and tobacco for every ten cents he spends for church work. When a man walketh uprightly he can listen to the truth and have it do him good, but when his life and his heart are im- pure, he gets up out of his seat and walks away, curs- ing the man who has tried to do him good. It's true, it's not only true of coloTed folks, hut its true of white folks, I've run some of 'em off already." Mr. Jones discussed briefly other sections of the text, applying further the standard of fitness. "He that worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart." " f He backbiteth not with his tongue.' That's it. You know what the word backbite means. It means 180 LIGHTNING FLASHES to come up behind a man and get him when he's not looking. I want to say to you that you colored people have done yourselves more injury with your own ton- gues, than all the white people in the country, in every way they have employed. "I was born, bred and buttered among you colored people, and I know you. I know your instincts and your outstincts, and what I tell you is so. Keeping to the .subject of the injury that was done the colored people by their own reckless use of their tongues, Mr. Jones inveighed against the practice. He told the colored people they injured their neighbors, and their race, and their individual selves by bearing tales of each other to white people, destroying in this way one man's chance of a livelihood, and another's reputa- tion. They lessened their preachers' usefulness and destroyed the preachers' influence with their families by criticising them bitterly. " In whose eyes a vile person is condemned.' A man is known by the company he keeps and not the angels in heaven could keep such company as do some of you out there and not be defiled. You are running around in saloons and you are entering and spending your money in every low gambling den that lies between your house and the place where you work. You are throwing away your money and blasting your lives by playing policy. "Policy! You're not only a rascal, but you are a blank fool when you buy those tickets. How long are you going to let these dirty rascals rob you, you AND THUNDERBOLTS. 181 black devil, you. And some of you women are doing the same thing, spending the money that you make with your back bent over the washtub for six days in the week. You let 'em rob you from Christmas to Christmas. How long are going to let these low down scoundrels keep it up. "Policy! your grand jury has denounced it as the most complete system of robbery that ever cursed and disgraced this community. The police of this town never heard it was going on and they can't stop it; they can't stop anything and they can't catch any one for doing anything unless it's a poor white man, with- out money or friends, or some poor negro. "And you keep on playing policy and shooting craps. You bend over the ground and call out (imitating), 'Come seven, come eleven; I want to get the ole lady a new dress.' You'd better change it to ^Come seven, come eleven ; here comes a policeman and off I go to the chaingang.' "You know they'll get you. I wouldn't reflect on the police force of this town, and I say that you and the poor white men are about all they've got orders to arrest for gambling. Of course, they can't do any- thing without orders. Poor fool! Poor fool! When you get your money, buy something with it that will help your wife and family; go home and give it to them; try and lead a decent life and be a decent man. "Let me show you a picture. One of you men comes up from his home in the morning and stops in a saloon to get a drink. He tells the barkeeper he'll pay 182 LIGHTNING ITLAISiHES him "Saturday night. He comes back -again in the even- ing and gets another drink, and every morning and every evening he repeats the performance. That week it rains two days and he only has $2.80 as the result of his labor. "Saturday night he tries to get past the saloon with- out the proprietor seeing him, but he is seen and the barkeeper yells, 'Hi, Tom, come over here a minute.' 'Yes, sir,' he calls back, f Ise jest comin' — the black rascal, when he's just going in the other direction." 'Mr. Jones continued the picture. The negro finds he owes the barkeeper $1.80, and that it has eaten up Hie greater part of his week's wages. He takes one drink to warm him up and another to keep that com- pany, and winds up by spending the small remaining balance. Then he goes home. He tells his wife he couldn't find his employer that day and hasn't collected his wages. He has forgotten the meat and flour for his table, and the shoes for his child. He swears at his wife when she reminds him the preacher is coming to dinner the next day and says, of the preacher, "Con- found him, I don' wan him erroun here any how." The only thing the man has to show for his wages is a bottle of whiskey. "If the devil don't get you in the end," said Mr. Jones, "it'll be because he don't want you. Some of you rascals will be down in the saloon tonight, telling the barkeeper what Sam Jones said." Mr. Jones turned himself loose on the propensity of the negro race to imitate the worse traits of the white AND THIUNIDBDEHBOLTS. 183 man and leave his best traits alone. "You don't need any dancing, gambling or whiskey drinking. A man can't drink whiskey and be a Christian, and don't you forget it. You stop it now. If your girl says she's going to dance anyhow, take her to a back room and pull out the trunk strap and you'll be able to make her dance right." "You like this sort of preaching ?" There was a loud yell of approval and assent. "Well, I don't care whether you like it or not. When I go out for hides they come." The next segment of his sermon, Mr. Jones address- ed to the negro preachers. 'Many a church, he said, had been ruined by the ministry of a man not fitted for the office he held. He said this, he said, without re- flecting or meaning any reflection upon any colored preacher in Savannah, but it was a truth they all would acknowledge. "When you see your preacher gallivanting around with the sisters, you go up to him and tell him he'd better quit. 'When he goes to church, let him go with his own wife, and if, said Mr. Jones, turning to the colored ministers, 'You ain't married, you stop preach- ing till you get a wife.' "A preacher ought to be a clean man from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot and if he ain't he'd better get out of the ministry. A colored preacher who'll drink whiskey ain't fit to hang on the back door of hell, and One who'll sell himself and his congrega- tion to any crowd of dirty politicians is worse than the whiskey-soaked preacher/' 184 LIOHTNINiG MjAjSHEIS The evangelist said that whiskey drinking is at the bottom of half the failures among colored people to pay their debts. Every dirty, lying nigger in this town who don't pay his debts has been drinking whiskey. There are places in this town, stores, where you won't go, because you know you owe money and have been owing it for weeks. And yet you go around and say, f A colored man ain't got no chance.' You lying ras cal, you. "I go more on character than I do on color. It's not a question of your hide, but one of character. That's what counts." To illustrate and prove this assertion, Mr. Jones told several stories of industrious colored men in various parts of the State and country, who by their own exertions had accumulated a com- petency, held their heads erect, walked uprightly and commanded, as they received, the respect of their white neighbors as well as the people of their own race. The evangelist turned loose on the frequenters of Lincoln Park on Sunday afternoons, who he said went out there to clance and drink whiskey. "You are let- ting the devil muster you into his chaingang and if you keep on the Lincoln Park gang will be turned into the chaingang as sure as I stand preaching here." 'Character is the thing that counts, the speaker re- iterated. "We can all live right, if we want to. I al- wa} r s feel particularly anxious to save from sin the negroes and the poor white folks. They have a pretty AND THUNDEEBOI/TS. 185 hard time of it in this life, arid if they are to have hell hereafter it's too bad, it's too bad." The sermon concluded, Mr. Jones asked those in the congregation who felt they were convicted of their sin and who would promise they would forsake their evil courses and lead better, cleaner and purer lives, to rise. Apparently the whole colored congregation arose in answer to this appeal. The evangelist then exhibited a bunch of blue rib- bons, which he invited the men of the congregation, who would promise to drink no more, until the end cf their days, to accept and wear. Hundreds of ne- gro men pressed to the platform to receive these little insignia from the hands of their own preachers. "You women," said Mr. Jones, "come up and get one of these ribbons for your husbands, and if he won't wear it, you tie the old devil up in a sheet and beat him half to death." The women came up and got the ribbons and bore them away. Rev. W. E. Beard, a negro missionary, announced at the meeting last night that he had volunteered for service in Africa and would soon take passage for that jand. Mr. Jones asked the white persons present to assist the missionary, and a handsome collection was taken up and handed over to him. 186 LTGiHTNING FLASHES AMUSING THINGS OF SAM JONES. SALOON MEN LOSE. Many amusing things were heard in the crowd of white and colored people that surrounded the taber- nacle during the Jones colored meeting last night. One old negro, slouchy and unkempt with the grime of the day's work still upon him, and in him a dram from the cup that inebriates, had been unable to get a seat with- in the tabernacle, so steadied and supported himself against the railing around it, and kept the audience in reach of his voice highly amused by his comments on the utterances of the evangelist. Eev. Mr. Jones had just said that the colored preacher that "gallivanted around with the 'sisters^ had better be fired," or words to that effect, when the old man burst out with "da't my text, too, sure." The last word with such emphasis as to leave the impression that he knew by personal experience, and felt deeply, the force of the speaker's remark. Then looking again toward the platform he caught sight of a colored minister smil- ing. This seemed to irritate him and he broke out with "Huh ! Dere's a nigger on de stand now what ain't got no wife and wa't right's he got to laugh." To this question he evidently failed to evolve a sat- isfactory answer, for he fell to listening again with the greatest attention until another sally from the preacher seemed to hit home and strike him as a little AMD THUNDBEBO'LTS. 187 too personal even though true, for he pulled himself together and shuffled toward the outskirts of the crowd muttering with another preparatory grunt, fC Bat man say he's done been born and bred wid niggers, and he's sure must a bin." 'Mr. Jones may know it — he may not, but his pres- ence in Savannah has had a dampening effect on the retail liquor traffic, so the dealers say. Assume that there are an average of 8,000 at the tabernacle nightly, and grant further that 5,000 of this number would, if free these warm evenings, take an average of two glasses of beer each. Saloon men say they get eighty glasses of beer from each quarter barrel, which is a minimum estimate, because of frequent calls for "ponies," and also the adoption of such methods in drawing as will make the "boobies" come and thereby lessen the ac- tual quantity. But granting there are only eighty glasses to the quarter, this will make 10,000 uncon- sumed by the absence of 5,000 persons. This would give 125 quarter 'barrels unconsumed, which at the regular price of $2 each, will make the loss by twenty- one days' preaching $5,250. Add to this the price of mixed concoctions, and a remarkable estimate of the cost of Mr. Jones' visit to the saloon men would prob- ably he between $5,000 to $7,000. Talking on this subject the other day, a brewery man incidentally remarked while discussing trade, that things were quiet just now in the beer market. "Do you attribute this to the presence of Sam Jones'?" 188 LIGHTNING FLASHES "I think Jones' work is having much to do with it," he replied. To some people Mr. Jones' declaration that no gen- tleman would enter a saloon was shocking. One man took especial exception to this utterance, and said he thought it time the evangelist was being called down. "So do I," chimed in a listener. "Look at old Mr. , and honored citizen, and -Capt. , and Maj. ; yes, and Col. are there to be no exceptions to that sweeping denunciation?" "Jim, you call Jones down in a newspaper card," proposed the first. "No, sir, I can't afford to squeal, you call him down" replied the second man. After a heated controversy as to the respective "cal- ling down" merits of each the disputants decided to let the evangelist stay on the perch so far as they were concerned. In an effort to offset Jones' argument the other day "a grumbler" called attention to a report that following the evangelist's visit to Waycross one person was seen to hie himself out under the suburban pines, produce a flask and take a nip. How this could hap- pen in a community which had been supposedly edu- cated against the use of liquor was something the grumb- ler couldn't understand. He maintained that after Mr. Jones leaves Savannah a few scattering toddies will be taken. "Therefore, since Jones don't stop drinking by those who hear and those who don't hear him, he's not the man for the place." AND THUNDERBOLTS. 189 But, according to what Mr. Jones told a Savannah man on an Atlanta sleeper several days ago, he does not expect his preaching to accomplish absolute ab- stinence among all classes. "I fear that Savannah may in some respects be like a white pig," jovially remarked the evangelist. "You may apply brushes and rub until he is spotless. And as .soon as you turn the pig loose he'll head for the first mud hole and wallow. Going to be mighty hard to keep Savannah from wallowin' after I leave, I'm afraid." 190 LIGHTNING FLASHES SAIM JONES IN JAIL. PRISONERS LISTENED TO THE ElVlANGiELIST IN THE PRISON CORRIDOR. JUDGE WEFT WITH FELONS. "manhood" the subject of the evangelist's talk. (Murderer, bigamist, robber, forger, vagrant, and drunkard alike penitent. (Strong words cause har- dened men and women to break down. Negro wo- man fainted under the strain while sheriff was with her discharge papers. Murderers clung to evange- list and were led to their cells weeping bitterly. Child burglar gave way for the first time in his criminal experience and grasped the minister's hand. Murderer, forger, bigamist and burglar, petty thief and highwayman, drunkard and tramp, men, women and children, together with the judge who has sentenced many of them or before whom they will appear, broke down under the words of Rev. Sam P. Jones in Cha- tham county jail yesterday morning and wept. The scene was an affecting one and hardened criminals went down before the word of the evangelist. Women of the street who have reached the depths of wantonness shed tears of repentance and the hearts of those steeped in debauchery were touched by the words of the magnetic power. Men who had faced Judge Falligant and received long sentences with stoic AM) THUMDEElBOiLTS. 191 composure; at least one who had heard the death sen- tence pronounced, and who now rests within the sha- dows of the fatal cell, bowed their heads and with tears streaming down their cheeks asked God's mercy -for their sins. It was a touching scene. As the unfortunates went forward and asked the evangelist to pray for them the eyes of Judge Robert Falligant of the Superior Court became moist. He has performed many hard duties, has sentenced men to meet their 'Maker, and has condemned men to lives of servitude in accordance with the law. These painful duties have caused his tender heart to ache more than once, but the words of the minister and the action of the prisoners caused him to break down completely. Mr. Jones spoke on "Manhood," and it was a char- acteristic talk. He had no sympathy to offer those in confinement. If they had not been guilty of wrong- doing they would not be in prison, he said. It is never too late to reform, however, and the evangelist endeavored by plain talk to show the unfortunates the error of their ways. He wanted them to ask for God's mercy and make up their minds to lead a better life after their prison life has ended. To those who must give their lives, for having taken that which God alone can give, he advised repentance. They should prepare to meet their Maker. AN" INCIDENT. Sheriff Horrigan of the City Court went to the jail shortly after the service began for the purpose of hav- ing a negro woman discharged. She was held on a 192 LIGHTNING FLASHES bail of trover case, and was an attentive member of the party of ninety-three prisoners who were taking in the words of Mr. Jones. There were other officers and officials with the prisoners on the second floor of the big building and Sheriff Horrigan decided to wait until after the service before presenting the discharge for the woman. ;She is Mary Randolph. The minister made a deep impression on the woman, and although she was not in custody because of any criminal charge, she gave way under the strain and fainted. Two fellow prisoners prevented her from falling to the stone floor, and she was removed to a cell on the above floor. Sheriff Horrigan saw the wo- man fall and when he learned that it was Randolph he presented the paper for her release. When the wo- man opened her eyes and was told that she was at liberty she fell on her knees and raised her voice to praise 'God. The incident caused but a brief interrup- tion in the service and but few knew what had hap- pened. John L. Stothard, a red-haired, freckled-faced boy, not yet in his teens, for the first time in his criminal experience, wept. The boy is held on a charge of burg- larizing a Broughton street saloon and getting intoxi- cated on the stolen whiskey. He frankly admits his guilt and until yesterday never displayed any desire to repent. The boy has been in the hands of the police on several occasions, and has never shown any disposi- tion to mend his ways. Voluntarily he approached Mr. Jones and promised to lead a new life, and his face AND THUNDERBOLTS. 193 told plainly that his young, but sinful, heart had been really touched. Walking on his stumps and with but one hand to hold out, John Moody,, the notorious negro bootblack, pro- fessed repentance. Liquor is responsible for his pres- ence in the jail, and with a look of sincerity he prom- ised his God to stop the debauching habit. There are several men confined in the jail on charges of murder. Two of these, one white and the other black, clung to the hand of the evangelist and with broken voices, and tear-strained faces pleadingly up- turned, begged that they be prayed for. E. M. McClelland is the white man. He is charged with murder in Coffee County and is held for the au- thorities there. He had to be led away and went into his cell singing the praises. The prisoner has not yet been tried. Henry Brooks, the convicted slayer of Patrolman Harry B. Fender, was the penitent negro*. He was the first prisoner to give way to his feelings, and after the benediction had been pronounced he was still sob- bing piteously. Towards the close of the service the negro became weak and was forced to sit on the floor. T. H. Waterman, an elderly white man, attracted the attention of Mr. Jones. This prisoner had an- nounced his reformation before the visit of the minis- ter. Waterman is serving a six months' sentence for forgery committed while he was under the influence of strong drink. He has already promised the Chris' 194 LIGHTNING FLASHES tian woman who visits the unfortunates that he will never drink another drop of liquor. Thus it was that one by one the prisoners went 'for- ward and gave their hands. Goldie Snow, the drink- ing Gypsy fortune teller, men, women and hoys, who have been confirmed thieves, all professed to have seen their sinful ways, and asked for the pra}^ers of the good. The service began with a prayer by Mr. Jones and singing. The solo "Mother's Wayward Boy," sung by Mr. Tillman, brought the first tears to the eyes of the prisoners. The East Indian butler, convicted last week of robbing his employer, was visibly affected. His thoughts reverted to his childhood days on his native heath, and the words of the singer seemingly made a deep impression on the mind of the young foreigner. "The fact that you are here in this place is convin- cing evidence that you're a rascal. If you were not you wouldn't be here," said Mr. Jones, in talking to the prisoners. "It's as broad a truth that greater rascals in Savannah ain't here; they ain't been here, and they ain't a coming here. Shrewdness, favoritism, genius and good luck is got a heap to do with it. I have preached to criminals all over the country, and I ain't a-going to tell you nothing but facts. You can't say Sam Jones came here to give you sympathy, 'cause I didn't. I never saw a man in the penitentiary in my life that was guilty. Every one of you fellows is innocent as an angel. You never took a drink. You never stole. You never murdered. All of you here are innocent, and the guilty are all on the outside. AND THUNDERBOLTS. 195 "You kin play your innocent to the judge and jury, but listen; don't you play no innocent around God. He knows you, and if you think you can fool him, you can't. If you are going to die, don't you play no in- nocent, because if you do you'll be in hell in a minute after. Tain't where are you, but what are you and why are you. I'm in jail as much as any fellow here. It's character that counts, though. I kin just walk up to that jailer and say lemme out and he'll open wide the door for me. You'll go up and say, 'Please, Mr. Jailer, let me out/ and he will tell you to get back to your cell, you old rascal you. That's character. The fact that the jail is holding you is pretty good evidence that you are rascals. "I've been here in Savannah for two weeks, and I ain't in jail yet. There is a whole lot of fellers that wants to see me here, and would like to see me here powerful bad, but that's like the convention of rats in the barn. They met and decided all cats must hare bells around them. A committee was appointed, but when the first old Tom eat was reached all of that committee of rats that was left was a little hair and blood. There ain't a committee in town that can lick Sam Jones or keep his mouth shut. If they tried it they would be worse than that rat committee that went up to old Thomas 'Cat. There wouldn't be any blood and hair left. "You fellows are right where you belong. If you ain't got no better sense than to drink liquor you should be kept here where you can't get it. You're all sobe»-, 196 LIGHTNING FLASHES ain't you? (One of the negro men stated that he nevei drank). That's worse then. Yon sober rascals ain't got no excuse at all. I'm a-giving you plain talk like I give them sinners down at the tabernacle.' "Mr. Jones described a grand, noble royal man made after God's own image and said that such a man is greater by far than a king. He told several stories to show what praying would do for a, sinner who really had determined to reform. He spoke of a nobler, high- er, better, sweeter and greater life, and compared the work of God and the work,of the devil. "You say, 'Brother Jones, you don't know what temp- tation is.' Who knows any better than me. Ain't I been there. It's easy enough to quit. It's staying quit. That's the rub. Ain't you quit now 'cause you can't git it. You tell me you can't quit, you lying rascal. Just quit. That's the way to do it. No, you'll say I'll take one more drink and then tell it good-bye. You're a fool, you are. There ain't no way to taper off. I used to taper off from a drunk, but it was to- wards the big end. If I run with the gang you run. with I would be here in six weeks. You's been to Lincoln Park and then you come here. You go there on Sunday and then you go to jail. It's the devil's park, the dirty old hog wallow. "Here last Sunday morning a man was killed and another one was killed again this morning. The devil is sure to get you. He don't boss the church. He just gits churchmen to do it for him. The vestrymen hand around the hat in the morning and hand around beer AMD THOTDEBBIOTjT'S. 197 at the Yacht Club in the afternoon. He works for the devil all the week and then goes to church to work for God on Sunday morning. Some of you think you can't be a man in 'Savannah unless you cuss and drink whiskey and play cards. He ain't a man; he's a dog." Mr. W. I. O'Brien talked to the prisoners for five minutes, during which he gave some good advice. He spoke of his own sins and said that he would not care to recall them, even to other sinners. With God's help he will never again go from the straight path of right- eousness. He advised his listeners to make up their minds to be better men and women. 198 LIGHTNING FLASHES SAM JONES TO MEN. PREACHED TO 5,000 AND MORE AT PARK TABERNACLE. ADVICE TO THE MAYOR. HE COULD NOT BE SUPPRESSED EOR SPEAKING THE TRUTH. The evangelist takes another fall out of his crit- ics. Said "The dirty gang that rules Savannah will have to hit the grit." Boss Tweed's downfall used to point this moral and adorn this tale. Says he has told the truth and will neither apologize, amend or explain. Is irrepressible and absolutely un suppressive. The thunder and lightning of the heavens, instead of the peaceful tolling of the church bells summoned the men of Savannah to the Park Tabernacle last night to hear Rev. Sam Jones talk to them, and of them. In the contrast between the artillery of the skies and the sweet notes of the bells was a simile of the difference between the address the evangelist delivered and the outpourings from the ordinary pulpit. The tabernacle was filled and crowded, and many stood at the open sides and listened to the preaching, but the threatening aspect of the weather, just before the hour for the services, had acted as a deterrent and kept many away. The audience, nevertheless, must have included 5,000 people, made up of men from even 7 class and every AND THUNDERBOLTS. 199 station and every walk of life in Savannah. The con- gregation, so far as the interior of the tabernacle was concerned, was all of men. Neither on the platform nor among the benches was there a single woman. Mr. Jones had a good deal to say of Mayor Myers, of the effort made to suppress his meetings on the ground that he was guilty of using profane and ob- scene language, of "the dirty crowd that runs things in Savannah/' of his own position in the matter, and of his own intentions. It was a good warm sermon, all the way through. The services began in characteristic fashion. Eev. W. A. Nisbet president of the Ministerial Association, first addressed the audience. Mr. Nisbet said that it had been expected when Mr. Jones and Mr. Stuart first came to Savannah that the meetings would close last night, but that the evangelists had been induced to continue their stay for at least a few days longer. "I want all of you who desire Mr. Jones to stay, who feel that good has already been accomplished through his ministry in Savannah, and who believe that more good will be accomplished by his staying with us, just as far into this week as he can, to rise." Practically the entire congregation of 5,000 people arose to their feet in response to this appeal. Mr. Nisbet followed this with an appeal for a liberal collection. What he had to say was amplified by Eev. Bascom Anthony, who explained again the uses to which the collections were applied. They were pri- marily applied, he said, to the payment of expenses, the 200 LIGHTNING FLASHES Ministerial Association being at an expense of about $100 a day to carry on the meetings. It costs about $60 a day for the rental of the tabernacle. A share of the collections to go to Mr. Jones and Mr. Stuart, and Mr. Anthony announced that to meet all expenses the collections "hardly do the job." Mr. Jones announced that there would be no morn- ing sendee to-day or tomorrow, but that the usual after- noon and night services would be held. For later than tomorrow night he made no announcement, though the Ministerial Association hopes to keep him here a longer time. "It is the occasion of profound gratification to me," he continued, "to see with what unity you have wel- comed and asked my co-worker and myself to continue our stay in Savannah. To see you rise, with such kind- ly good will, at the invitation of Mr. Nisbet, made upon me a profound impression. My only mission on earth is to do what good I can." Thus far calmly and earnestly. Then, with a sar- castic smile, the speaker added: "I'm glad that while one of your executives is seeking legal advice as to whether I can be suppressed or not, you are saying, with entire unanimity, f iGo ahead, Sam! Sic 'em, Sic 'em' " There was a great outburst of applause. "I want the universe to understand that I am irrepressible and absolutely unsuppre&sible." "Why, if the Mayor wanted legal advice on this sub- ject, why didn't he come to me ? I'm a lawyer, and I eat at the next table to him every time I take a meal. I AND THUNDERBOLTS. 201 would have told him that everything I have said bss been within the bounds of law, and that I was only trimming tails, ears and horns. I would have told him that I never step outside the bounds of any law, human or divine. I can do all I want to do and say all I want to say within the limits of both. "I have said nothing but God Almighty's truth. Nothing but the truth, and I would walk down to a butcher shop in the morning and let myself be ground into sausage meat as fine as they make it, before I would apologize for, mend or explain a word I have said. "The truth hurts and that crowd can't do anything but wiggle. They can wiggle, though, and that's the reason I hold 'em up — just to see 'em wiggle. And then they go around here talking about my hurting their feelings and my abusing them. Hurting them, actually! 'Why it's like the story of the man that wanted to put something on the skunk to make him stink. Why that animal carries about with him the out- stinkenest stink that ever stunk. "I have compared some men to some animals, but I never think on this account of apologizing to the men. If I happen to see the animal about I -tell him, thou&Ti, that I only used him to point an argument and that I meant no disrespect to him. "You needen't say you've got to sit quiet under what I say just because I'm a preacher. I'm only a preacher when I'm on the platform, anyhow, and when I step down I'm just plain Sam Jones. No man shall 202 LIGHTNING PLASHES say I ever hid behind my ministerial robes. I don't wear 'em, nohow. I wear just the same sort of coat that yon do. I never dressed like a preacher in my life and I never talked like one. "And I want to say to you that everywhere I go I'm just as decent a preacher as the nature of the case will permit. If I talked to a congregation of angels, I would speak to them without a particle of slang or an error of grammar or rhetoric. But I talk to men in their own language, without the profanity and the vulgarity that they effect. I talk to you in the lan- guage of the counting room, the store, and the machine shop. Why, you know I do. I want you to understand what I say. Just imagine my preaching a decent ser- mon to the gang I've got here tonight. "But I'm after souls tonight; not hides. It don't pay much to skin you rascals anyhow; the hide don't pay for the skinning." All this was merely preliminary. The sermon proper was preached from Philippians, 3 :10 and 11. "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrec- tion and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death : If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead." Mr. Jones began with an impassioned eulogy upon Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul, who he said was the greatest man that ever lived. He combined in him- self and in his life and character the three essential elements of greatness, a big head and a big brain, a big heart and the accomplishment of something in this life. AND THUNDERBOLTS. 203 "The three great questions of the century that are being asked hy men on every hand; and in every land, are these: 'Who is 'Christ? What is Christ? Where is Christ V The honor of Christ and the salvation of your soul depend upon how you ask and how you answer these questions. "Many times the message of (rod has come to the world. Man has not been left an orphan by fate, nor has his destiny been made dependent upon the whim to time and chance. The questions he had announced in the beginning were those the world was asking itself to-day, and the more science flashed its light over the nations, the more culture and education broadened and expanded, the more eagerly and anxiously does the world look up to the skies and ask these questions again." He said that it was not so important that a man should know the deeds or the words of Christ, as that he should come to comprehend his thoughts. Onlv by a study, of the thoughts of the Saviour can man come to the best and truest and tenderest comprehension of his character. Man must be made to think, and he must be made to think on a high plane. "The greatest preacher of to-day is not the one who attracts the largest congregation or induces the great- est number of men to forsake evil and love the good. The greatest preacher of the time is he who gets men to thinking on the highest plane. As a man thinks, so he will do, and the thoughts of to-day are the acts of tomorrow." 204 LIGHTNING FLASHES From Tolstoi's "Census of Moscow/' Mr. Jones drew an illustration of the fact that a man's deeds can not be better than his thoughts. The great Russian phil- osopher, following the census takers around the streets of Moscow, had taken a moral census of the city as the work proceeded. He selected some individuals whom he attempted to benefit and reform. A boy, whom he picked up from the slums, from a life of squalor and vice and wretchedness, took to his own palace, clothed and fed and started on the way to school, disappeared a few days later. Tostoi found him in Zoological gardens, arrayed in gaudy calico rags and leading an elephant around for a penny a day. "He thought that was the best thing on earth and as long as he thought so, there wasn't much hope of making a decent boy. God Almighty can never do any- thing with yon, bud, as long as your thoughts are as low as this. "Take that man over there. He's a vestryman in the Episcopal Church or may be a steward in the Me- thodist Church — I don't know which. On Sunday mornings he passes the plate in church and on Sunday afternoons goes out to the Yacht Club and passes his glass for beer. As long as he thinks it's all right to do this, as long as he believes he can desecrate the holy Sabbath in this way and still be a good man and a good Christian, he can't be raised much above the butter milk trough, where hogs drink. "You think the way to be a gentleman is to come to Savannah and join one of these hog-wallows of city AND THUNDERBOLTS. 205 clubs. You think it's all right to leave your home, your pure, sweet mother and sisters, and sink your manhood in licentiousness and debauchery. Why, as long as you think it neither Clod, angels nor man can lift you an inch. "You've got a hard head, too, and when I'm preaching to your kind I pound your noggin's. Why, if some of you hardheaded rascals would wander around this park tomorrow and come across a half dozen billy goats and get in a buttin' match with 'em, you'd have those goats goin' around to the drug store and buying an- tikamia to make their heads stop aching. "You colored men over there. You think it's all right for you to get drunk six nights in the week, just so you go to church and shout on Sunday. I'll tell you, your .religion's all heart. You better get some head in it or get some religious sense in your head. Maybe you haven't got room for it, but if you haven't, you'd better dig a hole in your skull and pull out some of that nonsense and put in a little sense and a little truth. "What does Christ say of himself in answer to our first question? He says, 'I am the way.' Brethren, I want to tell you that Christ is the only way. "A railway locomotive on the track is a thing of power, beauty and speed. But did you ever see one off the track? It's the most helpless thing on earth — it looks like a giant lying in the ditch. "My friends, you want to get on the track. You can't move along in the dirt road of drunkenness, of 206 LIGHTNING FLASHES debauchery, of profanity, of infidelity. You must get on the track. I am the way/ says the Lord, and the hope of the world is in Him. "'What says he to our second question? I am the truth, and the truth shall make you free/ Nothing can stand against the truth, nothing prevail against it, nothing overthrow it. The man who speaks and lives the truth is the freesi man on earth. "I am as free as the air. When I came to Savannah I said I was going to stay as long as I pleased and leave when I pleased, and bless your heart, that's just what I'm going to do. I'm free. And just as I'm free to come when I please, and stay as long as 1 please, and go when I please, I'm free to say what I please. I tell the truth. I couldn't tell a lie without being silenced and driven out of Savannah. You little fellows can lie and nobody objects, but I can't. "Nobody has said I've lied. I've talked a little about some of this precious gang in Savannah; now you notice their interviews in the papers. They object to what I say, but none of them say it's not so. "They get mad a little and hop about because I hap- pened to say that no gentleman would go in a barroom. AVhy I had a fellow jump up and holler, because I made that statement in one of my sermons, and ask m* what I meant, and I told him I meant just what I said and that I'd prove it. I'd prove it by him. I asked him. if a lady would go in a barroom and he said, no. And then I asked him if a gentleman could go where a lady couldn't and he hit the bench like a whipped dog. "Oh, I grant you that the Savannah gentleman, so- AND THUNDERBOLTS. 207 called, can go in barrooms, but I'm talking about sho- nuff gentlemen/' There was a great shout of applause at this sally and as it subsided Mr. Jones queried 1 : "I wonder if that lame duck from Thunderbolt is here tonight?" "The other day your grand jury took a shot at a city official, and he turned around and said the fore- man of the grand jury was another. It seems the best thing a Savannah officeholder can do when he's at- tacked — to turn and say the man who criticised him has done the same thing. But they don't call me an- other. Things are going wrong in this town and the people who are running 'em know it and you know I'm shooting in the hole that they are in. They're coming out, too. "The truth will make you free. When you are wrap- ped in the miantle of truth there is no lion that can destroy you, no fire that can consume you, no moun- tain so high or pit so deep that it can impede your onward course. "Take this dirty gang that's running Savannah. They talk about suppressing me, but, Lord bless youl soul, I'll be eating strawberry shortcake and pie when they are eating sawdust. They are going to hit the grit. They are bound to do it. Look at Boss Tweed — he was a bigger man than any of that gang and he's hit the grit. Not only was he sent to jail and from jail to the penitentiary, but he's burning in hell to- night." Mr. Jones had high praise for Rev. Bascom Anthony, Rev. W. A. Nisbet, and others of the Savannah minis- 208 LIGHTNING FLASHES ters. "You think I'm trying to poke fun at Bascom and guy him when I talk to him on this platform. I'm not. I tell you, brethren, and I mean what I say, that pale-faced cracker from Georgia is the gamest preacher that ever walked the streets of iSavannah. You people know he's true grit and stands up for the rights." The remainder of the sermon was in answer to the third question: "What is Christ?" The answer was, "I am the resurrection and the life." This portion of the discourse abounded in stirring and sweeping nights of description. It told of the soul's craving for immortality, and expressed the speaker's conviction that in this craving was an argument, adequate and con- vincing, for the immortality of the soul. It dealt with the resurrection of the body, and there were other allusions to mother and father and friends to illustrate the comfort and the peace that flow from a firm conviction in the truth of this doctrine. A moving description of a race between two railway trains was taken as the basis of an impassioned descrip- tion of the race between the several sects and creeds of Christianity to save the souls of men. 'The sermon had an effect almost unprecedented in kind and quite unprecedented in degree since Mr. Jones has been conducting these services in Savannah. Hundreds of men came to the platform to grasp his hand and promise to lead better and cleaner and purer lives ; some of them leaned their heads against the plat- form and wept bitter tears of repentance. They went away, however, with a smile and hope and triumph upon their lips. AND THUNDERBOLTS. 209 WON 1,000 '-CONVERTS. THAT IS THE ESTI- MATE BY REV. SAM JONES. TALK WITH THE EVANGELIST. HE DISCOURSES ON SAVAN- NAH. OFFICIALS AND REMEDIES. All tests that could be supplied show that meet- ings in Savannah have been successful. 5,000 peo- ple, Mr. Jones says, have shaken his hand at the meetings. Savannah loses when compared fur moral cleanliness with Atlanta. Is ready to return for a campaign. Mayor's answer to the grand jury like calling a man another. Rev. Sam Jones talked interestingly to the Morn- ing News of Savannah, the success of his meetings here, abuses that exist in the administration of the af- fairs of the body politic, of one or two of the officials, and of the financial side of his engagement to preach to the people of (Savannah. As to the success of the meetings and whether he thought the results have been of a nature to repay him and Mr. Stuart for their la- bors, Mr. Jones said: "There are three tests of success of such meetings. One is the awakening of the churches, another is the arousing of the public conscience, and the third is the number of souls saved and the people who are con- verted. The meetings, with all three tests applied, have 210 LIGHTNING FLASHES shown success. The influence of the meetings has grown and broadened, and people who first hardened their neck, have come to the services and profited. The 'Scribes and the Pharisees have been touched, and £0 have those of the Sanhedrin who have occupied the highest places in the churches. Men in the Cotton Exchange have been impressed, and there was where the greatest opposition to the services was manifested. "One example of the good that has been accomplished by the services was shown last night, when there was less beer and whiskey sold in Savannah than there had been on any Saturday night in twenty years. When such concrete instances are offered, there can be no doubt of the good that is resulting. "0(f course, it can not be told with certainty, but I estimate that there have been 1,000 converts to Chris- tianity made through the agency of the meetings, while some 5,000 have come forward to the platform, in the tabernacle, to shake my hand. Not only people of Savannah, but drummers stopping over in the city have been saved. "Savannah has been one of the most corrupt places in the country. Its record of saloons and crimes and wickedness has placed it in the same class with New Orleans and San Francisco. When a man trots out Savannah as an example of a law-abiding city he had better get on a train and travel. "I would as soon expect to find a pineapple growing in Alaska as to find a gambling hell in Atlanta that, to the knowledge of the authorities, like these in Sa- AND THUNDERBOLTS. 211 vannah, was running for the rain of all who frequented it. This game of policy would no more be tolerated there than would a case of smallpox parading the streets. A certain official of Savannah would no more do his bus- iness in Atlanta, with Judge Candler on the bench, than a chaingang nigger could preside as toastmaeter at a swell club dinner in Savannah. Atlanta has had the best judges in the country and all this suppression of gambling is in the hands of the judges of the Superior Court. Whenever a circuit court is converted into a cowpen and the solicitor general becomes the dairy- man, the whole thing becomes a farce. Candler don't let them milk the cattle. His is not a dairy; it's a butcher pen. He puts dressed beef on the market. "There was a great preacher spoiled and no greater lawyer made when Judge Falligant, in his younger days, turned away from the pulpit, for which he was trained, to the bar. His motherly heart would have been a mighty force for a preacher, but it is too tender and sympathetic for a judge. If a certain Savannah official would turn his dairy into a butcher pen, he, of course, would get less cream, but the public would get more beef." It has been common talk among some that Mr. Jones would not make good his threat to return to Savannah and take a hand in the next municipal campaign. (When asked about this he said: "I would not be here in the interest of politics, but my stand would be for the puri- fication of the body politic, by the election of clean, unpurchasable officials. I should take my text from the 212 LIGHTNING- FLASHES Bible, and it would be: 'When the wicked rule, the people mourn/ The man who has a hearing and who has something to say is the most potent factor you can employ. It's better than money, because the right message turned loose in the conscience of men will put them where you can't bite them. If you would put h eart and hope into the good people, they would win the fight." Mr. Jones was asked about the financial side of his preaching in Savannah. He said that he had not seen one nickel of the money that had been collected at the meetings. There has been absolutely no understand- ing, he said, as to what he and Mr. Stuart should re- ceive for their services. "If there were anything of any interest in this matter of money we get," said Mr. Jones, "you may rest assured that I would tell it. I never keep back anything. No, not one nickel have I seen. I said the very first day that I addressed an au- dience in Savannah that I was here to give them gos- pel and straight preaching and that, if they wanted it that way, they could have it without it costing them one cent. Whether they pay us or whether they don't pay us, it's all the same. The preachers are looking out for the money that is taken in. Neither myself nor Mr. 'Stuart has had a thing to do with it. I have had nothing to say to any of them about money." There has been considerable speculation as to the amounts that are taken in at the services when the ushers pass among the congregation with their baskets. Many have contended that the collections would not AND THOTDEBBOLTS. 213 fall short of an average of $200 a day. With deduction made for the very slight daily expenses of the conduct of the tabernacle, there would be a very neat sum for each of the evangelists if such were the case. Mr. Jones having said that he knew nothing about it, the representative of the Morning News asked Eev. W. A. Nisbet, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church and president of the Ministerial Association. "I don't not know just how much has been taken in daily by the ushers," said Mr. Nisbet, ''but the aver- age would certainly not be as much as $100. Indeed 1 do not think it would be more than $50. The amount for any day has seldom run beyond $50. The expenses of the tabernacle would probably be $3 or $4 a day. After the deduction of the expenses, the balance will be turned over to Mr. Jones and Mr. Stuart when the time for their departure arrives." 214 LIGHTNING FLASHES SAM JONES' APOLOGY. WILL DO THE RIGHT THING IF OFFIOALS W'ILL REFORM. MUST ENFORCE THE LAWS. TACKLED WICKEDNESS IN PRIVATE LIFE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS. 'County and city officials his victims. Ex- pressed hie opinion of high "sassiety," dancing and card playing. Receipts of saloons compared with cost of churches, schools, hospitals and charities. Gambling and corruption of the ballot must be stopped. To an audience quite as large as any that has greet- ed him since he has been in Savannah, Rev. Sam Jones preached one of his most characteristic sermons last night — characteristic in diction, thought, the subjects discussed, plain speaking, bitter invective and cutting sarcasm; but, withal a sermon filled with good advice, and if sharp, necessarily so from the very nature of the things discussed — a heroic remedy for evils that needed such a measure. The evangelist prefaced his sermon by announcing that Rev. G. R. Stuart had left the city, being called home by an affliction in his family. We part with him with sadness and regret," he said, "But will all continue to do business at the old stand." He then announced that a meeting would be held this afternoon, AND THUNDERBOLTS. 215 beginning at 4 o'clock, he said. "I'm going to start preaching at 4 :30, and I'll be through at 5 :15 whether you are here or not. And there will be preaching at night. This announcement will be sufficient for the present, because I don't know just how many more services there will be. We're going to have a regular old-fashioned protracted meeting, and will continue to protract it until we are compelled to draw the line. When that will be I'll announce later on." "I want to say to you people of Savannah," the evan- gelist went on, "that you have grown on me and I like you; there are some of you don't like me, of course, and I don't blame you, I don't. But I want to say right here that if any official of this town will meet me face to face and say, 'Sam Jones, I've waked up, and so help me God I will enforce the laws com- mitted to my care and I will do right in future,' we'll get thick, and if I've called him an animal I'll say he ain't that animal. "Listen to me! whatever I've said here has been my honest convictions and I'll stand by 'em. And hear me again — I want all to do well who will, but the gang that won't do right I want to bankrupt so they can't do business in this town, and I'll do it with the same spirit that moves me when I kneel down to pray for a man. "Ain't it right," he demanded, turning to the preach, ers on the platform. "Yes," came the answer, and then, turning to the audience, Mr. Jones remarked humorously, "And even Bascom assented to it." 216 LIGHTNING FLASHES "Now, if you'll give me your prayers — you didri i pray enough last night nor the night before — wel! get on. And let's pray God that the shot that will fly thick and fast tonight, will hit those that ought to be hit." The evangelist then announced as his text Gal. 7:8, beginning, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." "There are three absolute impossibilities in this life," Mr. Jones said. "There may be a thousand others, too, but there are at least three that we know about. One is for a man continuously and successfully to practice fraud on himself. We ought to be so glad that God will not let us lie down and sleep ourselves to hell. In the life of every man God at some time breaks the si- lence of eternity and talks to that man. Man may listen if he please to the opinions of his friends, or the fawning of his flatterers, but to every man there comes a time when he's got to listen to God. "The second impossibility is that of practicing fraud against your neighbor without being found out. If you are good your neighbors know it; if you are bad they know it. If I wanted to find out about a fellow, I'd go to his next-door neighbor. Some of you fellows out there, he said, pointing out into the sea of faces, and chuckling, if you knew some of the things that have been told Sam Jones 'bout you, you'd pick up yourselves and leave. "Have you noticed how quiet the aldermen have been ? Why, the other day, I'm told, a fellow went up to AND THUNDERBOLTS. 217 an alderman and said, c How de do, alderman/ when he was broken off with, 'Sir, I'm not an alderman ; the;*e is not an alderman in town.' "Have you noticed little Billie hasn't opened his month. Only one fellow has opened his mouth, and he grins better than he talks. "Listen to me: The searchlight of truth is turned on each one of you; you are fooling nobody." Then turning to the ministers, he continued, "And every- body knows about the preachers, too; every fellow knows what preachers have got sand in their gizzard, and every fellow knows the preacher that hasn't got sand, and they know how to estimate him. And you deacons, stewards and church officials 1 — you needn't think it isn't known if you don't live right; you prac- tice fraud on no one; you can't do it; they know you. "If there's anything that I tip my hat to it is lo a man whose life is like an open book with every page as clean as the heart o>f God." Referring to the fact that some of his utterances might displease Mr. Jones said, "Any man in this town can write anything he pleases about Sam Jones just so he'll put his name to it, that's all I want," and then, ominously, "I'm in the show business." Then getting back to his subject of the futility of trying to hide one's life, he said, "Be sure your sins will find you out." You old vestryman that ain't living right — you're the laughing stock of the town; and you little preacher that goes to dances and wine suppers — 218 LIGHTNING FLASHES you devil's little billie goat, you; they're laughing at you. "Listen again: It is absolutely impossible to prac- tice fraud on God Almighty. He knows you from crown to heel. Listen to me — everything is open and naked to him, and what's more, he goes behind the act and sees the motive that prompted it. "So you see you can't practice fraud on yourself, on your neighbor, nor on your God. This is truism recog- nized by the whole world; and another that is recog- nized by Jew, Christian, infidel and atheist is that whatsoever you sow that also shall you reap. We know it is true of the physical world about us. I sow wheat and I reap wheat; I sow peas and I reap peas. So you see, like produces like — and, listen to me — another fact is that it multiplies to the harvest. One grain of the oat will grow 8,200 grains; 8,200 grains will make fifty bushels, and that sowed again a like proportion, and so on, and on, until from the one grain the world might be buried forty feet deep in oats. "In the 'Garden of Eden Adam sowed the one little sin, so has it multiplied that to-day it fills the world. Like begets like, and that which ye sow that also shall ye reap. "Sow whiskey and you reap drunkards. Do you know that in Savannah there are 250 licensed dens of iniquity where liquor is sold, and to these must be added the clubs and the drug stores where it is sold. And do you know that the average sales a day are $20 — a low estimate for they can't live on less; and they AND TKUNDBKBOLTS. 219 sell it to the poor drunkard, and the wrecked young man, and the big cusses, too, those that drink it. "Mr. Jones then gave the following comparative figures which he said had been furnished him by a county official who is in a position to know the facts: One year's receipt by 250 saloons, averaging $20 a day $1,825,000 Cost of all the churches in Savannah 600,000 Cost of all schools in Savannah 264,000 All charitable institutions 100,000 All city and county public buildings 250,000 Total $1,214,000 < "These figures show/' said Mr. Jones, "that putting all your public buildings, churches and charitable in- stitutions in the scale of cost against it, you yet pay in twelve months more for whiskey than you have paid for the building of the institutions, your whiskey bill being the larger by $611,000 Or again: The cost of all your county schools and churches is $ 40,000 Of the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences. 150,000 Bethesada Orphan Home . 60,000 Hospitals 100,000 Total $350,000 "The cost of these buildings and institutions added 220 LIGHTNING CLASHES to those of the city still falls short by $261,000 of reaching in value the cost of the liquor bill. "Think of it! In twelve months you pay enough for whiskey to replace every church, school, charitable organization, and public building in the city and count}', and still have enough to run the public schools for three solid years. fput up with your old whiskey-soaked carcass every day. You old buzzards, you. It's the men I'm talking to, not you sister, don't get my meta- phors mixed. "Some folks are whispering it round, f I think Sam Jones does good to the lower classes, but I don't want my children to hear him.' But! where's they bin? If I haven't been as decent as the nature of the case would admit, I ain't no horse doctor at all. Wherever I've been, it wasn't the pure sweet mother or the conscient- ious wife that kicked at my style. In every city that I have been in I have preached to the noblest women and the best people. Those who have been opposed to me have been the gamblers, the debauchees, the drunk- ards, and others of that elk. "©a scorn," said the speaker, turning with a quizzical smile to Kev. Bascom Anthony, "don't you think my AND THUNDERBOLTS. 225 style is as nice as it could be and reach, the case ? Now be honest." Mr. Anthony's reply was drowned in the roar of laughter that followed the sally, but it must have been satisfactory to the evangelist. Cards was the next ,subject discussed. "Sow cands and reap gamblers," the evangelist said. "Listen to me ! Ninetynfive per cent of gamblers are most elegant gen- tlemen and grew up in the so-called Christian homes. The mother that will play cards before her children has done a deed that she can't recall/' It was at this part of the meeting that Mr. Jones appeared to be first struck with the idea of a woman's meeting for he announced, after the premonitory, "Lis- ten to me !" that tomorrow he would hold a meeting for women, and that it would be a regular old hen party. "You are going to be astonished," he remarked to the audience. "You thought that darky crowd a big one, but wait till you see this meeting. 'There'll be a bigger crowd and if 11 include all classes. There will be the lady with her silk and diamonds, and even old grandma with her chin and her nose meeting. Dont forget Wednesday at 4 o'clock I'm going to entertain the sis- terin. Some will come with all their children, and some, the Sassiety. Some folks will come with none at all or just two, that's the limit — you understand." Then Mr. Jones got back to card-playing and drink- ing. "God pity the man or woman," he said, "who can't run a home without wine and cards. I know this isn't popular talk in Savannah and that I'm just cut- ting the grit from under the most 'principalest' people 226 LIGHTNING FLASHES in town. Some of them though, will say 'What do I care what tihe blackguard says. He doesn't affect me. I'm a whale, and if there's anything bigger, I'm that.' "Let me tell you : you can say what you please, but the square dance leads to the round dance and the round dance to the hoochee-coochee. If I had to fur- nish children for the ballroom I'd furnish boys. A boy may fall a thousand times, but if a woman falls once, she's lost, you'd hetter look out. "And sister the way you fix up for the ballroom with your modern decollete is an outrage to modesty and de- cency. "Why if I cut off my coat and vest and other clothes right here," said Mr. Jones, drawing a line across his breast, "and went clown the street with my shoulders hare I'd be arrested by the police. I might say it's the modern decollete, but he'd say 'that don't matter, you're a man and have no right to wear it.' I'm thank- ful there's some protection for a man. "You ain't blushing, are you brethren?" the evange- list asked as he turned to the ministers. There was no audible answer from them and the question was not asked the congregation as the fact that many were blushing was too palpable to need any inquiry to develop it. Mr. Jones again referring to his own experience, said that when he was young he too had frolicked, danced and had a big time, but when he decided to get mar- ried he told all of the ballroom girls good bye, went away off to Kentucky and married a prayer-meeting AND THUNDERBOLTS. 227 girl, "and, he continued." I wouldn't give her for all your ballroom girls. 'Continuing the same subject he said that round danc- ing was northing in the /world but hugging set to music, and that no decent girl would think of sitting in the parlor and .allowing a young man to get the grip on her that he used in the round dance. Then the evangelist made another interruption in the line of thought to say: "Some of you fellows said Sam Jones won't talk in Savannah like he talked in Way cross. Lord, you don't know this mule; there ain't no telling when he'll kick or bite, or with what end he'll kick or bite." "You (people saw the hooehee-cooehee dance and then try to make out Sam Jones ain't decent. Why, I'm simply a kodak; I show you a picture, don't blame the kodak if the scene is dirty. If God Almighty had in- tended women to go naked on the shoulders 'he'd have covered them with hair or feathers." After some further remarks on the same subject the evangelist referred to the visible results in other towns of some of his evangelis'tic work, and said that he thanked God that though he had led many young men away from the church in his youth he had by his la- bors managed to bring them all back to the fold. Ha made, as he had promised he would, the congregation endorse his remarks, and then he asked those that would try to lead a better life to come forward and give him their hand. Hundred's went forward and took the pledge. 228 LIGHTNING FLASHES r n THE DEVIL'S IN IT. SAM JONES POINTS OUT THE EVIL OF DANCING. HAS FUN WITH THE MINISTERS. TOLD THE WOMEN THEY ARE BETTER THAN THE MEN. "The reason of it 'because they're asleep before the men commence their deviltry." Called the theaters dirty and told why he condemned the hoochee coochee. Good advice about paying debts. "The man that buys goods and doesn't pay for them a thief." Wives often to blame for husband being in debt. Jones story of his own experience. Eev. ;Sam Jones turned loose another warm talk at the tabernacle yesterday afternoon, though it was not so cutting as that of the night before. It was more hu- morous, too, rendered so by the many asides to the ministers, who were called on frequently, either indivi- dually or collectively, to answer questions or to indorse utterances. In his preliminary remarks, Eev. Mr. Jones an- nounced that this afternoon he will talk to wives, •mothers and daughters. "The men need gospel/' he said, "and the women, too. I shall talk very plain, but no plainer than you need, and there'll be no gen- tlemen present — though the pastors will be here." This sally w T as greeted with a ripple of laughter from the audience. AND THUNDERBOLTS. 229 Mr. Jones founded hie sermon on Phil. 4:8, "Final- ly, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatso- ever things are pure, whatsoever ijhings are lovely, whatw soever things are of good report ; if there he 'any virtue, and if there he any .praise, think on these things. "Now, St. Paul gives us here Christianity in the concrete; he tells us what it is; it is to do whatsoever things are true, and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report. He tells us to think on these things. Now, if you recognize the fact that there is purity tae opposed to impurity; that, there is honesty as opposed to dishonesty; that there is such a thing ae right opposed to wrong; think about them. "And I want to say there is no drunkard but rec- ognized there is such a thing as a sober life and wants his wife and his children to lead it; there's no thief that .dosen't know there's such a thing as honesty, and is anxious that others should deal honestly by him; and there's no liar that doesn't know that there is the truth, and is not anxious for everybody to use it in their dealings with him. So you see that right and wrong are as contradictory as black is to white, as day is- to nijght. Now Paul tells us what to think about. The man is never higher than his thoughts .so Pm going 'to ask you what is thought? It is the result of an impression made through one of the five senses. I'm not talking about intuitional tihoughts. Now as this is so a fellow ought to be careful about what he sees and what he hears. That is one reason that I don't want 230 LIGHTNING ULAISHES my children to go to the dirty theaters and it is why I rebuked you last night for the hoochee-cooehee dance. And thait's the harm in diancing. The devil's in it 1 tell you. You know that no boy would walk across the street to dance with another boy, nor would a girl go across the street to dance with another girl. I tell you the devil's in it. "Now listen ! you'd better be careful of what you see and hear, and touch, for they (put you to thinking. The purest life is that you don't see, and that is why wo- men are better than men; they don't see s*> mucK They're all in bed and asleep before the men start their devilment. Why, that fat sister there is asleep and snoring." 'Mr. Jones swept his arm toward the audience, as though pointing out the "fat sister," and everybody in the immediate neighborhood began to size up the plump ladies to discover the snorer. "Now, that you know What thought is," continued Mr. Jones, "I'll tell you what an idea is. It's a de- veloped thought, or as the school boy once said, 'It's the thought thunk out.' "Wesley is believed to have preached all over Sa- vannah. Since I've been in this town almost every block and square that I've come to somebody hae point- ed out as the place where Wesley preached. And the people di'dn^t like h^m either. How an had to do devil- merit the sooner he got at it the better. If he moist drink, or play cards, or dance, he'-d better do it and get through with it, and then be a respectable member of the chuiteh, for he can^ be a respectable 'member of the church and do these things. He can in Sa- vannah, I know, but I mean generally." The remainder of the sermon consisted principally of appeals to men to 'forsake the ba^d and live for 'God and the right. "How many of you will take a -stand for yourself? How many of you will say, "I choose to be a 'Christian?" In response to this invitation a great numiber came up to the platform, grasped the evangelist's hand and promised to lead 'better lives. A pathetic incident of the after service was Mr. Jones 7 reference to little Walter Tuilis, a 12-year-old lad who ba>d heen converted last week at one of the services, had intended to unite himself* with the church on Sunday, but had been too ill to do so, and had dieVl on "Monday. iFis funeral had taken place but a few hours before the meeting. 244 LIGHTNING FLASHES •TONES TO THE WOMEN". FIVE THOUSAND HBAKD HIM AND INDORSED WHAT HE SAID. THE TABERNACLE THRONGED WITH AN AUDIENCE REP- RESENTING EVERY PHASE OF LIFE. All classes of society represented in the great gathering and the women not only listened patient- ly, but lent .their endorsement to what was said. Society roundly scored. Card playing, drinking and dancing all condemned. A woman's influence the theme of the evangelist's story. She leads in good and evil. Eev. Sam Jones preached to an audience of between four and five thousand women at the Park Tabernacle yesterday afternoon. They represented every grade of Savannah society, and though those usually referred to as the middle and upper middle classes were there in larger numbers, perhaps, than any other, there was not a social grade that lacked its delegates. Whatever the motive that brought them there, curi- osity or the desire to be amused or something better than either, there they were, and for more than an hour they listened with breathless attention and absorbed interest to the words of the evangelist. More than that ; when he had brought his sermon to a close, they arose to their feet, in response to his invitation, indorsed AIND TBOUNDEEBOiLTS. 2Vo what he had said, accepted it as applicable to condi- tions in Savannah life and society and took it home to themselves, agreeing they would do what in them lay to make of themselves better mothers, 'better wives, better daughters and better sisters. It was a hen party, sure enough. The only men in the audience were the pastors of the city churdhes who have assisted in the evangelical services and a pair of newspaper reporters. When it oame time to take up a collection there were no ushers present to perform this duty and the preachers and the reporters circulated among the women and passed the plates for donations. It is safe to say it was an unaccustomed and unusual role for them all — more unusual for the reporters, pos- sibly than for the preachers. Mr. Jones began his talk by congratulating him- self on his audience, on the interest in the meetings it betokened and the good to result from the meetings that it promised. "Since I have been in Savannah,'' he said, "I have seen the consciences of hundreds of indifferent, thoughtless, careless church members awak- ened and hundreds of sinners repent their misdeeds and resolve in the future to give themselves and their energies to God and the right. "There have been held already two services specially for men, in which what I had to say was addressed principally and primarily to tlhe fathers, husbands and sons of the city. This is the first and only service specially for women and wihat I'm going to say this afternoon is to the mothers, wives, sisters and claugh- 246 LIGHTNING PLASHES ters of Savannah. This is a marvelous audience. The influence it might exert is immeasurable; and influ- ences that might change the whole future 'history of Savannah. If you will all resolve to lead in the fu- ture a Christian life the history of Savannah will be changed marvelously for the better. "I'm not going to take any special text this after- noon, butt try to speak to you on the line suggested by three of tfhe sweetest words in the language, words, too, that are always associated together in our minds. They are *M other, Home and Heaven.' "Three words associated always in our minds. The best thing on this earth is a* good mother, and what is home without a mother, and how miay we ever find 'the way to heaven, without the consecrated hand of a good mother to lead us? "Tne homes of our country are almost absolutely in the hands of the mothers of our country. It has often been said 'that 'the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world,' and it is so. The influence of the mother gives dharaeter to the son and the daughter. The mother of Nero was a cruel and bloodthirsty woman, and her son was the most cruel man and the hloodthirstiest that ever disgraced the earth. The mother of Lord Byron was a proud and intellectual woman; and she gave the world a son who was the proudest intellectual prodigal it has known. The mother of John Wesley was a saintly and godly woman, and she blessed the world with two sons, whose lifework changed its religious history. Dwight L. AND THUNDERBOLTS. 247 "Moody's mother was a plain, matter-of-fact, pains- taking woman, and her son was the most potent reli- gions influence of the last century. "So it is. You may searclh 'the pages of history and delve as deep into the forgotten past as you can reach, and you will find the same story repeated. Whoever else can afford to he flippant and foolish and Christ- less, there isn*fc -a mother on earth who can afford to pay the price. "I've said before, and I repeat it here, that woman heads the race heavenward and hellward. God pity the man who is 'better than his wife. If ^there is one person more than another who ought to fight the devil Hhree hundred, and sixty-five days in the year, it is a mother, for the devil is after husband, and son, and daughter. The mother is the pattern and the example, the one perfect woman on earth to the children of the home. No matter what your life may be, sister, no maltter whether it be harmful or hel,pful, you are to your daughter the grandest woman on earth. "You ought 'to set your children a good example, sister. The truth is we have ceased to control our children and just now we are trying to draw the line where our children shall stop bossing us. There never was a time when we needed more the goed, old-fashion- ed mammies and pappies; we've got nothing now but mamas and papas and the whole gang of you are not worth a rustti. "Some of you say you work too hard to look after your children; got too much to do. With some of you 248 LIGHTNING FLAiSHES there's too much society, your club dulties take up too much of your time, and you turn your children over to the nurse and jump in your carriage and ri'de down town to the club, with a poodle dog sitting in your lap. I donU know how in the name of God some men put up with the things they've married. It's bad enouglh and hard enough to bear indifference and heart- lessness, but when a woman starts to 'club' a man to deafth, it must be awful. "Whenever a woman gets society in her head and the idea that clubs and parties and entertainments are all that life is made for, she has destroyed her power for good. Somebody on 'the platform has told me that some of your leading society women are out here to-day, and I'm glad of it. It's the first time I've got a chance at you gals, and if what I say don't do you good, it'll be because you (haven't got sense enough to understand it. You sit up there and say, 111 tell my husband, and he'll come out here and lick you. No, he won't, sis. He'll say he is glad I licked you The two pillars that uphold a woman's character are purity and modesty. Knock down either of them and she's gone. When the devil once gets his foot on a woman's breast there is no dhance for her again. And I want to tell you the modest woman buttons her collar around her throat every time. God save me from the modern society woman that buttons hers around her waist. ''Talk about woman blushing at what Sam Jones AND THUNDERBOLT'S. 249 has said at these meetings. Well, Fve stood up here before you every night and I haven't seen any of them blush. I don't believe it and I've been looking right at you all the time. I can tell a woman's blushing if I'm looking at her, can't I ? He ! "And if I'd seen one of them blushing at what I said I would have rebuked. Law bless you, sis, this ain't the place to blush. This ain't even the place to turn up your nose and you know if a woman don't like what's goin on that's the first thing sfoe'll do. She'll kick up her nose. "B.apidly the preacher sketched some of the evils he had attacked during his stay in Savannah, stressing gambling hell's and 'drinking." "There are gambling hells on every side of you; tfhere are 250 saloons in Savannah, where is being poured out. every day and every night stuff that is floating your boy to hell. Why don't you blush and turn up your nose at these? "This ain't the place for it. Not here, where for two weeks we have fulminated against and 'denounced everything that ever ruined a boy or wrecked a home. "The beer-swigging women are afraid to come here • — afraid they will hear something that will overturn their conceit or shatter their vanity. But you good old mothers, you godly, Christian, praying women, have come here an'd sat here every day and every night, and some of you have come early and gone to roost before sundown. "Somebody asked me once what I had to do with society, wfhy I was always talking against society's 250 LIGHTNING FLASHES doing and society people. I told them that once when I came back from a long and hard trip and asked my wife what was the greatest trouble she had to bear; she had told me it was having to refuse our children permission to do those things that were permitted by the parents of their young friends, and that sometimes they felt hurt at her and felt she was not treating them kindly, when she wou'ld not permit them to 'do things regarded as harmless by those they knew. "That's what I've got against society. You society women, so called, have been in the way of every good mother in Georgia, and I'm going to lambaste you every chance I get. "You women who will send } r our 'daughters to the corner grogshop to buy a bucket of beer for your din- ner! Sister, you ougfht to have been dead and in hell before a daughter was born at your house. Drink! Drink ! The rich drink champagne and the poor 'drink beer, 'and you niggers/ said the evangelist, turning to the colored portion of his feminine audience, 'drink anything you can get.' "Oh, you needn't to get mad at me. It's not the first time you've been mad, and you don't worry me a bit. If your husband would tell the truth, he'd say 'Law me, Jones, that's just a train a passing. She does tlhat half the time.' '"Modesty. Teach your girl to be modest in her dress. I'll .tell you that since the girls in the towns have 'begun to cut off their dresses at the top for the ballroom and at the bottom for the bicycle, I'm getting uneasy about them. I am." AND THUNDERBOLTS. 251 There was a story to illustrate the craving of the average man and woman, who accumulate money, to enter society and the ruin and disgrace that sometimes follow. It had the ring of trutih and sincerity and it was skillfully told, and the mingling of tragedy and pathos, and human sin and human weakness, caused many a, handkerchief to creep stealthily to many an eye in every part of the tabernacle. "You women sit out there and say, T never could see any harm in dancing, or card playing or drinking a glass of wine.' You fool, you. Look around over your town and see the lost and ruined women, who are a blight on womanhood; look at the gambling hells that are enticing men and boys to their doom; look at iftie hundreds of saloons, which are floating your husbands and your sons to ruin. Ain't you got no sense, sister? "Sit back there and simper and say: I never could see any harm in dancing in my life. 'Sifter, if you're honest, you're weakminded. You ought to get your noggin examined. I never could see the harm in a glass of wine or beer. 'Sister, you are a good old thing, but you're foolish. You can't see anything.' "Ood pity the wife who's lost her grip on her hus- band. God pity the mother who *has a boy who'll get drunk or a girl she can't trust. "You never will know what your girl is worth until she stands on the floor to get married. Then she thinks she's going to get value received and you can kinder figure out what she's worth by what she gets. I know 252 LIGHTNING FLASHES there must be many a woman who has repented of her bargain. Haven't some of you wished a thou- sand times you had lived and die'd an old maid? T mean some of you. You know who I mean, don't you? "I don't believe in divorces, but I can understand how some of you would 'be anxious to get rid of your husbands. Men couldn'*- do the thousands of mean things they -do every year in this country if it wasn't so. I am sorry for a woman who has married a pusil- lanimous rascal, and lots of you have done it. "And God pity the man who has married a fussing wife. I can understand how the poor fellow could sing, with overpowering conviction, the old song that begins: *I would not live always.' There was a fer- vent 'Amen' from a seat near the platform, where sat Kev. J. A. Smith, and Mr. Jones looking over and spotting the author of the response, said: 'Brother Smith says 'Amen.' Everybody laughed. "What a great force a woman is? Your daughter can be a load on you that will bear you to earth, or she can be a pair of wings, that will lift you towards the gates of heaven. It does look as if some children jump out of their cradles and start straight on the road to hell, but most of them get their first training in their homes. God pity the mother wftio thinks she can not run her home without a pack of cards. "Woman, how great is the power that is yours? If you will you can unlock a door that will lead to peace and hope and purity and happiness, and if you will Am> THUNDERBOLTS. 253 you can unlock a dungeon of despair, where yon and your family will dwell in everlasting penitence and everlasting regret. "I fig-hit the things I think are injurious to tihe home and to the home influence. I 'fight the ballrooms, be- cause dancing is based on the contact of the sexes and nothing with such a foundation can teach the higher and sweeter and purer sentiments of the