"fWICEjiORN" 
 
Twice Born; 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 TWO LIVES 
 
 OF 
 
 HENRY O. WILLS, 
 
 EVANGELIST. 
 
 BEING A NARRATIVE OF MR. WILLS'S REMARKABLE EXPERI- 
 ENCES AS A WHARF-RAT, A SNEAK-THIEF, A CONVICT, 
 A SOEDIER, A BOUNTY-JUMPER, A FAKIR, A FIRE- 
 MAN, A WARD-HEEI<ER, AND A PIv'JG-UGI,Y. 
 ALSO, 
 
 A HISTORY OF HIS MOST WONDROUS CONVERSION TO GOD, 
 AND OF HIS FAMOUS ACHIEVEMENTS AS 
 AN EVANGEIvIST. 
 
 CINCINNATI : 
 printed for the author 
 At the Western Methodist Book Concern. 
 1890, 
 
Copyright by 
 HENRY O. WILLS, 
 1890. 
 
Dedication. 
 
 secor^ei. life 
 
 lea^^^iiEiQ facts £\i^g[ expepier\ces Yf\j 
 k-fe, to JiypEx Jiis 
 t\.0lry e^Hse. 
 
 HENRY O. WILLS. 
 
4 
 
 HENRY O. WII^IvS. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/twicebornortwoliOOwill 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Why have I written this book? 
 Because I want money. 
 For what purpose? 
 
 To make an effort, by the grace and under 
 the direction of God, at demonstrating the uses 
 to which He intended money should be applied. 
 
 What are those uses ? 
 
 As He has revealed them to me, any measures, 
 however crudely or with whatever elaborateness 
 they may be prosecuted, which have the salva- 
 tion of mankind and the glorification of His 
 holy kingdom, are proper uses to which to apply 
 money. 
 
 How do I hope to accomplish such ends 
 through the publication of this volume? 
 
 Because I have faith that the story it tells 
 will bring to others now in the clutches of the 
 devil, the new and beautiful life which, praise 
 God, has been bestowed on me. 
 
8 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Because I have faith in God's love of business. 
 He helps those who help themselves. 
 
 No man has a right to ask for or expect to get 
 something for nothing. 
 
 I want money to enable me to enlarge my 
 work and ability to do service, and I do n't want 
 to get that money in a way which would be un- 
 fair to God or man. Believing that this volume — 
 solely for the lessons it presents — is worth full 
 value of all that is asked for it, and confident that 
 through God — not through Wills, mind you — 
 it will prove of direct value to each reader, I 
 herewith submit it without further apology, so 
 far as myself and my venture are concerned. 
 
 In beginning this first book-making venture, 
 I want to place myself squarely with the reader % 
 by saying, that, while I am the author of the 
 work, I did not do the editing. That has been 
 done by a friend who, knowing both the old 
 Wills and the new Wills, was sufficiently inter- 
 ested in the latter to undertake the work of pre- 
 paring my manuscript for publication. " His 
 chief regret," as he said, "viewing the enter- 
 prise both from religious and business stand- 
 points, is that it was not practicable to present 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 the story in facsimiles of the original mann- 
 script." Therefore, in his behalf I desire to say 
 that but little else has been done by him than to 
 tie together in consecutive form, the material I 
 have furnished. That my manuscript showed 
 neither graceful diction or elegant chirography 
 is not strange, when it is considered that I am, 
 as everybody knows, not an educated man, as to 
 book-learning. The only book about which I 
 profess to have some knowledge is God's own 
 Book, and all, or nearly all, that I know of that, 
 has been revealed to me by His gracious good- 
 ness within the past seven years. 
 
 Thus much explanatory will set us right as 
 to the character of this volume ; and now, as you 
 are about to read of a man once a sinner, and 
 almost hopeless in his devotion to the devil, I 
 may be pardoned, I hope, for introducing copies 
 of a few of my most highly prized testimonials. 
 
 HENRY O. WIIvIvS. 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 FROM THE LATE GEORGE DUFFIELD, LL. D. 
 
 Br,ooMFiEi<D, N. J., June 12, 1888. 
 
 11. O. Wills : 
 
 Dear Sir, — I was glad to receive your paper 
 from Glenn's Falls, giving an account of your work 
 there. For a month past I have been unable to 
 write to any one, and only within two or three 
 daj^s have I gained a fighting chance for life. 
 
 It is a great pleasure to me to know that you 
 are still faithful in your labors for the salvation of 
 human souls. It is a grand work — the grandest in 
 which mortal men may be employed ; and so long 
 as you stick to your motto, " He died for me," I do 
 not doubt of your success. 
 
 This simple truth is mighty, through God, for the 
 pulling down of the strongholds of sin and Satan. 
 
 M}^ brother, Bethune, unites with me in thanks- 
 giving for what you have done and are still doing 
 for the cause of our Savior, the Redeemer of the 
 world. With love to you and Mrs. Wills, 
 
 Fraternally yours, George Duffield. 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 II 
 
 FROM A NEWSPAPER PROPRIETOR. 
 
 Detroit Evening Journai., June 6, 1890. 
 
 The work at the Casino Tabernacle began with 
 the efforts of Rev. H. O. Wills, which resulted in 
 the conversion of a large number of persons, and 
 the spiritual quickening of many more. The work 
 which Mr. Wills thus successfully began, has since 
 been maintained with satisfactory increase. 
 
 Mr. Wills is original in his methods, an evident 
 student of the Bible, and a graphic expounder of its 
 pages. Conversions seem invariably to follow his 
 work, and if the lyord honors his work, others 
 may well be slow to criticise. 
 
 W. H. Brkarlk 
 
 FROM THE GREAT MERCHANT. 
 
 Detroit, Mich., June 7, 1890. 
 
 I HAVE known H. O. Wills several years. He 
 is an earnest, honest Christian worker, not doing 
 things by halves, but openly advocating whatever 
 he believes. 
 
 I take great pleasure in saying these few words 
 in his favor. I believe he has done an immense 
 amount of good in Detroit and Michigan. 
 
 Yours truly, J. ly. Hudson. 
 
12 
 
 TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 FROM A NEWSPAPER EDITOR. 
 
 Detroit, June 6, 1890. 
 TAKK pleasure in bearing witness to the fact 
 
 that, 
 
 WhkrKAS, once H. O. Wills was a drunkard, a 
 brawler, a ward-heeler, a profane and vulgar bruiser, 
 he is now a conscientious, generous, intense, and 
 successful lover of his fellow-men. 
 
 He claims that religion has made this change. 
 I do not know the cause, but the result is apparent. 
 
 Mr. Wills has the confidence of the people of 
 Detroit — Christians and many worldings, too — and 
 he has never abused that confidence. He is a better 
 citizen than he was before the *' great change " came 
 over him; a better husband, a better father. 
 
 C. F. IvKIDY. 
 
 FROM A DETROIT BANKER. 
 
 Detroit, April 30, 1886. 
 
 H. O. W11.1.S : 
 
 Dbar Sir, — Continue in your good work, and I 
 pray that God may pour upon you his richest blessing. 
 " Commit thy way unto the Lord ; trust also in him, 
 and he shall bring it to pass." " Trust in the Lord 
 and do good ; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and 
 verily thou shalt be fed." Inclosed find ten dollars, 
 which please accept for yourself and your work in 
 this city. Yours truly, 
 
 T. S. Anderson. 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 13 
 
 FROM A DETROIT MANUFACTURER. 
 Dkar Brother Wii^IvS, — Inclosed check for fifty 
 dollars to help on your work. If you need more 
 let me know, only don't publish"^ me. Wishmg 
 you well, Yours sincerely, 
 
 . A. McViTTiE. 
 
 FROM A I.ANSING MANUFACTURER. 
 
 Lansing, Mich., Nov. 16, 1889. 
 
 H. O. W11.T.S : 
 
 Dear Sir, — Inclosed find check for ten dollars 
 for your personal use. I feel certain you are doing 
 good, and want to show my appreciation of the same. 
 Yours truly, A. O. Bement. 
 
 FROM A "FEW FRIENDS." 
 
 Detroit, Jan. 19, 1887. 
 
 Mrs. H. O. Wii,i.S : 
 
 Dear Madam, — A few of Mr. Wills's friends 
 have subscribed for a fund of $600. (Fifty dollars 
 per month for one year, to be paid you through the 
 State Savings Bank), for the support of yourself and 
 family while Mr. Wills devotes himself to his evan- 
 gelistic labors in Michigan. The first installment 
 of this fund ($50 for January) is now ready to be 
 paid you on application in person at the bank. 
 
 Respectfully, T. S. Anderson. 
 
 * The above note was written over a year before this 
 volume was published, and its present use is, by consent of 
 Mr. McVittie, especially given for this purpose. 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 The following testimonials, from tlie heads of 
 the criminal courts of the city of Detroit, show 
 the feeling in those courts : 
 
 POIvICE COURT OF THE CITY OF DETROIT. 
 
 Detroit, June lo, 1890. 
 I UNHESITATINGLY and gladly recommend H. O. 
 Wills and his work to all thinking people. A dis- 
 cussion of his methods is not necessary from one 
 who knows the results of that work as well as I do. 
 He is a man who has, to a sublime degree, the 'cour- 
 age of* his convictions, and w^ho, no matter what hia 
 early life has been, is, as I believe, a thoroughly 
 honest man at present. That he has done great 
 good is known to all the people of Michigan, and I 
 am certain that that same people; join wdth me in 
 wishing him a continuance of his valuable service. 
 Respectfully, Edmund Haug, 
 
 Police Justice. 
 
 RECORDER'S COURT OF THE CITY OF DETROIT. 
 
 Geo. S. Swift, \ T„^o-es L^^^^^' 
 
 F1TZWII.1.IAM H. Chambers, / ^ ' Clerk. 
 
 Detroit, June 9, 1890. 
 
 To whom it may co7icern : 
 
 I HAVE great pleasure in saying that I am ac- 
 quainted with H. O. Wills, evangehst, and I know 
 of the great and good work in which he has been 
 for a long time engaged. He has been most sue- 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 15 
 
 cessful, and has done a vast amount of good. He 
 is an affable and kind-hearted gentleman, but an 
 uncompromising enemy of sin and vice in every form. 
 He is a man of experience and a judge of human 
 nature. I respect and admire his heroism in attack- 
 ing vice in high as well as low places. I hope he 
 may be as successful in future as in the past. 
 
 I am, respectfully, F. H. Chambers. 
 
 FROM SHERIFF STEIvWAGBN. 
 
 Detroit, Nov. 20, 1886. 
 
 To whom it may concern : 
 
 This is to certify that H. O. Wills stands unsur- 
 passed, in my opinion, in prison work. He has 
 labored for the past two 3'^ears in the Wayne County 
 Jail with marked success, under my own observation. 
 
 I cheerfully testif}^ to his good work, and sin- 
 cerel}'- hope that every opportunity will be offered 
 him in his noble calling. 
 
 Geo. H. Stellwagen, 
 Sheriff of Wayne County, Michigan. 
 
 FROM U. S. MINISTER, THOS. W. PALMER. 
 
 Office of T. W. Palmer, Detroit, Dec. 23, 1889. 
 Rev, H. O. W11.1.S, 357 CHnton St, Detroit: 
 
 Dear Sir,— The Hon. T. W. Palmer, now at 
 Madrid as U. S. Minister to Spain, has cabled me 
 
i6 
 
 TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 to-night, directing me to bear to you his assurances 
 of esteem and friendship, and to say that he is with 
 you in spirit at this time of Christmas rejoicings, 
 if not in person. 
 
 He directs me to say further, that while wishing 
 you health and happiness, he has caused to be placed 
 to your credit in this office the sum of $25, which 
 amount I will be pleased to hand you at any time. 
 With kind regards, believe me. 
 
 Yours truly, Ford Starring, Agent. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 GOD moves in a mysterious way in calling 
 and selecting those who are to carry for- 
 ward the interests of his kingdom, which con- 
 templates the world's evangelization. 
 
 What Christian of the early Jerusalem society 
 could have had the remotest idea that Saul, the 
 cruel persecutor, would be called of God to be 
 the great apostle to the Gentiles ? What Chris- 
 tian Council of the sixteenth century would have 
 selected Luther, the poor boy, the miner's son, as 
 the most suitable man to inaugurate a new era? 
 
 Or, who among all the Christian people of Chi- 
 cago thought of looking to D. L. Moody as the 
 man who would awaken the Church of the nine- 
 teenth century, to see the vast possibilities in the 
 use of lay workers, to hasten the world's evan- 
 gelization ? 
 
 I met a cultivated young Scotchman in Aus- 
 tria, some time ago, engaged in mission-work. 
 
 2 17 
 
i8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 He told me he had been awakened to give him- 
 self to such service by D. Iv. Moody, during his 
 work in Scotland. How strange that the unedu- 
 cated Chicago Moody should be sent to cultivated 
 Edinburgh, rich in Christian learning and great 
 teachers, to awaken her young men to give them- 
 selves to God's service ! How true the words 
 of Isaiah, " For my thoughts are not your 
 thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith 
 the Ivord!" No; this is not the human way. 
 Man could not work out results along this line ; 
 it is not natural ; it surpasses human thought; it 
 looks to be, it must be divine. 
 
 To take the most unfit person, naturally con- 
 sidered, and to work out through him the most 
 marv^elous results, is not human, but divine. 
 
 We have something of this in the case of the 
 subject of this volume. H. O. Wills was rescued 
 suddenly out of the very mire of a long life of 
 sin, having no fear of God before his eyes, and 
 transformed by the power of God, and chosen 
 as a messenger to do strange things and a great 
 work in the kingdom of God. 
 
 On Thursday night, late in October, 1883, I 
 was conducting the usual prayer-meeting service 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 19 
 
 ill the Jefferson Avenue Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, of Detroit. At the close of the meeting, 
 which had been unusually quiet, a large, rough- 
 looking man arose, and began to give his ex- 
 perience. I had never before seen the man or 
 heard his voice ; but as, in subdued tones and 
 with tears, he related the story of his strange 
 conversion a few nights before in his own bed- 
 room, his words thrilled me, and produced im- 
 pressions I can never forget, which led me to 
 say within myself: I do n't know this man, nor 
 his history, but he is a wonderfully transformed 
 being, and is surely called of God for some great 
 work." 
 
 He joined the Church, but could not be satis- 
 fied with the ordinary Christian life. He was 
 working for God anywhere and everywhere, in 
 season and out of season, but especially among 
 the rougher class among whom he had spent 
 his life. At last he gave up his profitable busi- 
 ness, and committed himself to God to do special 
 Christian work. When we had arranged to build 
 a new church, I saw him rally financial influence 
 to purchase this building, in which he had given 
 his first public experience, and having removed 
 
20 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 it several blocks, conducted therein a mission 
 for many months ; then he went forth into a 
 larger field. All this time he was being trained 
 of God by severe trials and discouragements, 
 often without money, seemingly without friends, 
 severely tempted, but through it all he grew in 
 grace, and more abundant in labors. 
 
 Friends have often come to me saying : "You 
 had better see Brother Wills ; he is having such 
 trial, and will surely give up." To all such I 
 have always replied : " No, he will come out of 
 his trial glorifying God." 
 
 Nearly seven years have now passed. No 
 m^an could be more changed than he, in the 
 time. That the hand of God has been in it all 
 is beyond question, and we look for continued, 
 wide-spread usefulness, and for the awakening 
 of multitudes of dead souls through his earnest 
 labors. Rkv. William Dawe. 
 
WICE BORN. 
 
 SKLK-WIIvIvKD IN UNTKANCY. 
 IvTHOUGH I have lived through a half cen- 
 
 ^ tury, and in spite of the fact that my life 
 has been, up to within seven years ago, a check- 
 ered one, the single beacon-light in that life, the 
 one unfailing token of my hopes and dreams, 
 has been my memory of my mother. Left a 
 widow when I was but six months old, and left 
 alone, too, in the large city of Troy, N. Y., with- 
 out money and with but few acquaintances, 
 to do as best she might in bringing up her 
 small family, she struggled against poverty most 
 bravely. Firm in her faith in God, she made 
 honest and continuous effort to teach me the 
 right way, but without success. She was patient, 
 forgiving, self-sacrificing, and most gentle with 
 me, trying to deal with me as only a mother 
 can, and while I occasionally brightened her 
 dreary, dark existence, it was only for a moment. 
 
21 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 SO to Speak. Well do I remember how she 
 taught me the pretty little petition, to the Giver 
 of all good; and many and many a time, since 
 then, both in prison and when free, has come to 
 me the words, " Now, I lay me down to sleep, 
 I pray the Lord my soul to keep." 
 
 The same prayer, taught generation after 
 generation, most potent in its simplicity, and 
 known to the universal army of children, has 
 been, beyond any question, of inestimable good to 
 the world ; but, as in my own case, it has been 
 too often learned as one of infancy's " stints," 
 to be chattered off parrot-like, so long as parental 
 authority demands it, to be finally abandoned 
 when that self-control, which comes with ad- 
 vanced youth, asserts itself. There is one char- 
 acteristic about the prayer which proves its 
 value ; I had almost said its immortality, — it is, 
 that no matter how vicious or how wicked a 
 man or woman may become, the text of that 
 prayer is never forgotten after it has been once 
 committed to memory. 
 
 Reader, do you remember it ? Does it ever 
 come to you, gray-headed though you may be ? 
 God grant that it does, and that ;t may again, 
 
H, O. WILLS. 
 
 23 
 
 and that through it, if you are not yet in the 
 light, or, if once a believer, you are faltering, you 
 may be brought to Christ! 
 
 While I was, as most young boys are, fond of 
 my mother, and while I used often to help her, 
 to the best of my ability, doing errands, helping 
 about the house, and the like, still I was way- 
 w^ard and unruly, and my chief protests were 
 against attending school and going to Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 I wish to say, right here, that the most fatal 
 mistake that can possibly be made by a boy or 
 girl is to neglect whatever school privileges may 
 be offered. Nine-tenths of the beginnings in 
 crime come because of the shiftless, aimless, 
 and degrading hours of idleness, brought about 
 through failure to go to school. 
 
 I was sent by my mother to the Rev. Dr. 
 Beaman's (Presbyterian) Sunday-school ; and 
 while I did go occasionally, and while once or 
 twice I was known to have my lesson, still I was 
 most irregular and unreliable, and more than 
 that, I could not arouse any interest in the school 
 and its teachings. Yet God is good as well as 
 mysterious, and I often find myself now wonder- 
 
24 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 ing whether it is not the few scattering seeds 
 sowed at that time, and in that school, and al- 
 most by accident, as it were, which, in full 
 bloom and firmly rooted in my heart, are now 
 giving their best blossoms and choicest fruit, in 
 my behalf. Who can say that the Wills who is 
 now writing this, is not like the prolific, full-ripe 
 wheat, that sprouted and grew luxuriantly after 
 having been hidden for ages in the long-forgot- 
 ten graves of the Egyptian mummies ? 
 
 Of course my present chief regret is that I 
 did not obey the pleadings of my mother and 
 the instructions of my teachers. Well, I moved 
 from bad to worse until, when eleven years of 
 age, my dear mother died, and I was left alone 
 to battle with life, and educated to that most 
 wicked pitch where I firmly believed that the 
 battle of life meant literally a cruel, unscrupu- 
 lous, and sanguinary struggle. Mother had said 
 to me, just before she died, Henry, what will 
 yow do when I die?" and while she begged of 
 me to place myself in the care of either my 
 uncle William or my uncle Jim (her brothers), 
 I felt guilty; that is to say, I know now that I felt 
 guilty. At the time, however, I felt angry and 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 25 
 
 wicked, and humored my false belief that my 
 uncles had no interest in me, and would do 
 nothing for me. Of course I promised my 
 mother that I would go to them, and after she 
 died, I did go to live with my uncle William. 
 He was a wholesale crockery merchant at No. 
 79 Pearl Street. While I know that I gave him 
 plenty of trouble by refusing to go to school, 
 and by various other acts of disobedience, and 
 while I am sure I was a disagreeable addition to 
 his family, as I had a quick, ungovernable 
 temper, and a natural tendency toward fighting, 
 still I fancy my evil qualities were not wholly 
 the cause of my troubles. For instance, I had 
 many rows through refusing to shine my cousin 
 John's shoes, and repeatedly I resented what I 
 called unwarranted overbearing, both on the 
 part of my uncle and his son. Finally, after I 
 had played " hookey " the larger part of an en- 
 tire term, the climax was brought about by my 
 uncle's asking me to bring home my school- 
 books, that he might see the progress I had 
 made. Like all sinners, I was a coward. I was 
 afraid to face my uncle's wrath, and so when I 
 left my uncle's house that morning ostensibly to 
 
 3 
 
26 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 go to school, I left for good. I left to continue 
 my already well-begun downward course. 
 
 Did I have any money ? Not a copper ; but 
 that fact did not alarm me. I had been on the 
 street too long not to have learned that I could 
 get money either in one way or another. What 
 did I do ? Anything that came my way. I car- 
 ried a route" for the Troy Daily Press ^ I ran 
 on errands, blackened shoes, and so on, when I 
 could n't get money in other ways. What other 
 ways? They were innumerable as to details of 
 operation, but they all came under the head of 
 stealing. I was in all kinds of deviltry. I rec- 
 ollect, one bright summer day, I asked a boy 
 named Albert Higgins, where a Mr. Andrews (who 
 was approaching us) lived. Now, we had just 
 stolen a box of liquid stove-blacking, and when 
 Albert pointed toward Mr. Andrews, I threw the 
 blacking all over the gentleman's suit of white 
 duck, and cut and run for it. I simply relate 
 this little incident to show how willful and ma- 
 licious we were in our deviltry. I worked for 
 a time in the molding-room of a stove-foundry, 
 and while there I used to shake out sand, and 
 cut it for John Morrissey, afterward a noted 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 29 
 
 pugilist, and still later noted as the proprietor 
 of the finest gambling-hell in Saratoga, while 
 he was at the same time a member of the 
 United States Congress. Then I used to run 
 with Old Ten " (a fire-engine company), and I 
 had the then great honor, to me a boy, of hold- 
 ing the butt " when the old Alhambra was 
 burned ; I took an active part in the great fight 
 between Six" and Ten," when Orr's paper- 
 factory on River Street was burned. Recollect 
 I was not yet ten years old, so far as age 
 counted, but in knowledge of the world in its 
 worst sense I was a man. As a boot-black 
 and newsboy, with my kit and papers, I worked 
 my passage on the boats to New York City, and 
 here I brought up at the Washington Market, 
 then the place of all places in the great Ameri- 
 can metroplis to go to school. To learn astron- 
 omy and mathematics ? Not much ! but the 
 veritable American university of learning as to 
 petty thieving and swindling operations. Here 
 I ran errands for the fishermen and oystermen, 
 not with a view to earning money honestly, but 
 as a cloak, from beneath which I might keep 
 watch all the time for an opportunity to do the 
 
30 TWICE BORN. 
 
 devil's work ; because I now claim it was the 
 devil in me that made me do those things. 
 
 O the schemes we had for dishonestly getting 
 money ! They are old games now ; but they were 
 new then, and seldom failed to work success- 
 fully. There was the stuffed pocket-book dodge, 
 where we would drop a pocket-book full of 
 counterfeit money behind a man, whose dress 
 and manners would tell us he was from the coun- 
 try. We would do it in such a way that he 
 would surely look around just as we would, pick- 
 ing it up again, pretend to have just found it. 
 Then, before his wondering eyes we would open 
 it, so that he could see the gold, the bills or the 
 drafts, all bogus. Then one of our gang would 
 come up from the opposite direction, just as 
 though he was a stranger to everybody, and ask 
 the countryman if he had not just lost his pocket- 
 book. By this time we would be across the 
 street examining the book, apparently with great 
 interest and greater secrecy. Our " pal " would 
 assure the countryman that he saw him drop 
 it, and offer to help him get it back again. Do n't 
 you see? the countryman has had a glimpse of 
 what he supposes is a big boodle of money, and 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 31 
 
 he thinks he has got a disinterested friend to 
 prove the property is his. The temptation is 
 too great, and about six times out of ten the 
 countryman would fall into the trap. Then he 
 and his new-found friend would come over to us, 
 claim the pocket-book and threaten arrest unless 
 we would give it back to the owner. Of course 
 we would be much frightened, and we would 
 kick a little. Then the man who found the 
 pocket-book would suggest a reward, and the 
 trick would generally end up in our getting 
 from fifty to sixty dollars reward for a book full 
 of worthless stuff, that had cost us a couple of 
 shillings. 
 
 Another great racket" we had, was the sale 
 of snide " jewelry. At the market, when the 
 crowd was the biggest, one of us would approach 
 some benevolent, wealthy-looking lady, as though 
 trying to conceal something, and as though 
 afraid of detection. After attracting the lady's 
 attention, he would cautiously open one hand, 
 displaying therein what appeared to be^a fine 
 gold ring. (It was a heavy brass affair, thinly 
 plated with gold, and costing about a dollar a 
 dozen.) He would say, timidly : " Missus, do n't 
 
32 TWICE BORN. 
 
 you want to buy this ? I just found it out there 
 in the street." Ninety-nine times in a hundred 
 the bait would catch the fish. 
 
 Well, this sort of thing went on all summer, 
 and then came winter. Truly it is said that 
 one-half the world knows not how the other 
 half lives. It might be added that they do not 
 care. What do you think of a boy, just eleven 
 years old, sleeping out on the wharfs in the fall 
 of the year, with nothing under him but a barrel 
 of salt, and with a big, black, stiff tarpaulin or 
 a heavy sail-cloth over him ? Who-o-o ! It 
 makes me shiver even now to think of it. Why 
 in those days a good, big dry-goods box, with 
 straw or paper in it, was for us as good as a 
 room in the Astor House, — at that time the lead- 
 ing hotel in the city. Do you wonder that I 
 was a thief? That I stole everything I could 
 lay my hands on ? 
 
 Next, I got a job watching rats. What 's 
 that ? I '11 tell you. It was to watch the whole- 
 sale stalls in Washington Market, to prevent 
 the rats from eating the meat kept there. My 
 pay was a shilling a week for walking up and 
 down at night in front of the stalls. Armed 
 
H. O. WILLS. 33 
 
 with a stout club, I would walk from one stall 
 to another, rapping on the meat. 
 
 Say, you all know what rats are ; but if you 
 are ever in New York City, I advise you to take 
 a stroll, between twelve and one o'clock at night, 
 through Washington Market, or, in fact, any- 
 where in the vicinity of the river front. Rats ! 
 You would surely cry out " rats," for there you will 
 see myriads of the little beasts. No, you won't 
 see them by the dozens, for they scamper about 
 in troops of hundreds, and the noise made by a 
 gravel-slide over a tin roof is the nearest simile 
 I can give to the noise they make as they run 
 along. 
 
 While I knew that my shilling a week earned 
 as rat-watchman was as pure gold compared 
 to the devil's dollars I captured each week by 
 thieving, still I want to ask you, is it any won- 
 der that most of the scores of boys of my age 
 were, as I was, thieves and devil's aids ? They 
 could get work and wages. Yes, they could 
 patrol a great market all night, saving hundreds 
 of dollars worth of meat each night, for the 
 magnificent salary of one shilling a week ! 
 
 O God, why did I not know then that you 
 
34 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 loved me so ; that even then you were watching 
 over me? I thank you now, O Jesus, that I 
 know it, even at this late day! 
 
 I believe it would take more time and paper 
 than I could get hold of to tell you of all the 
 thieving scrapes and swindling operations I en- 
 gaged in, of how many times I got into the police 
 station and got out again. 
 
 O, I was so innocent-looking ! It seemed 
 to ever}'body that it must have been some- 
 body else who committed the crimes, or who 
 put me up to them. Even after I was in the 
 Tombs (city prison), waiting for trial, the com- 
 missioners who came in said, as they looked at 
 me, " This boy must not be kept here with the 
 regular criminals, for they will ruin him and 
 so they had me taken out and sent to the Home 
 of the Friendless." 
 
 If these men had known me, they would 
 have known that I could have taught the most 
 hardened criminal in the Tombs a good deal of 
 the science of thieving and lying. 
 
 Well, I staid in this good home just long 
 enough to get a good dinner, and then said 
 good-bye," and then vv^ent down to the market. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 35 
 
 There I looked around, and about the first thing 
 I saw on one of the stands was a fat pocket- 
 book. The devil said to me at once, "Get it," 
 which I did quickly. I then shot out of the 
 market, and made " a bee-line " for the Hudson 
 River Depot, and was soon on my way to Troy. 
 
 (O, how I wish I could give back to-day all 
 that I have stolen ! But I can 't. God says, " I^et 
 him who stole, steal no more ," and, God being 
 my helper, I will obey.) 
 
 I well remember how, while going to Troy, 
 I had a seat in the car with an old man, who, 
 in paying the conductor, pulled out a handful 
 of gold and silver, and some of it dropped on 
 the seat. You may rest assured that I did not 
 call his attention to the overflow, but considered 
 it my own, and took it. When I got back to 
 Troy I was awfully alone — no home to go to, and 
 no mother to greet me. She was gone, gone ! 
 O, mother, mother! God being my helper and 
 my Redeemer, I will come to you ; for I believe 
 you are with God. Well do I remember your last 
 words while living. They were words of prayer 
 to God for your wayward boy — the prayer end- 
 ing with the words, Jesus, come quickly." 
 
36 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 Let whoever reads this book remember that 
 wben your mother is gone, you have lost your 
 best and truest friend next to God. 
 
 I was by this time about twelve years old, 
 and the little money I had was soon gone ; but 
 I found a place as chore-boy in the Troy Museum 
 or Theater, which was in charge of Joe Howard ; 
 and O, if I had even heeded the good advice 
 which he and the tragedian, John R. Scott, gave 
 me, I might have been a better boy. During 
 this time, too, Charlotte Cushman, America's 
 greatest actress, and Kate Denin, another emi- 
 nent American actress, were good to me, and 
 gave me good advice. I used to carry little 
 Cordelia Howard from the Mansion House to 
 the theater. O, why did I not mind God, and 
 see that he had raised up for me true friends ? 
 
 The reason was, because the devil was my 
 master, and he was determined that I should 
 not see and know that these kind souls were 
 my friends. The devil was my master. I had 
 to obey him ; he lived in me ; he was stronger 
 than I, and made me do his will. 
 
 I had two cousins in Troy, both boys, and one 
 day as I was returning from an errand, bring- 
 
H O. WILLS. 
 
 39 
 
 ing some guns and pistols to be used on the 
 stage, I met these two boys. They said they 
 were running away from home, and it did not 
 take much urging on their part to get me to go 
 with them. They had money, and I had guns 
 and pistols ; so we started West on the Erie Canal, 
 and by the time we got to Lockport we had 
 neither money, guns, nor pistols. The boys left 
 me to take care of myself, and I went back to 
 Troy by working my passage as driver on the 
 tow-path. I walked. 
 
 I think I could preach a sermon to a lot of 
 canal-drivers — such a sermon as they would 
 listen to a good deal quicker than to a sermon 
 from Talmage or Spurgeon, because I could 
 speak to them in their own language: ^'And 
 they were amazed and marveled, saying one to 
 another, Behold, are not all these which speak 
 Galileans ? And how hear we every man in 
 our own tongue, wherein we were born?" (Acts 
 ii, 7, 8.) ■ ■ 
 
 This is the true way to preach the gospel ; then 
 every man can understand it ; we must prove that 
 we are not above them, but are one of them, — 
 "Behold, he eateth with publicans and sinners," 
 
40 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 Well, I got back to Troy, and in a few hours 
 I had a boarding-house where people are taught 
 to play checkers with their nose. I was tried 
 and convicted, because I could not come any 
 gush on the Troy officers. You see, they had 
 come to know me so well. I was sent to the 
 House of Refuge to stay until I was twenty-one 
 years old. I was in there but nine months, for 
 here fortune stood my friend again, and while 
 there the officers took to me, and gave me the 
 6oft job of hall-boy. 
 
 After I was in the House of Refuge nine 
 months, a farmer came along from New Jersey, 
 and I was bound out to him. He took me home 
 to his farm, which was a terribly stony one. I 
 did n't like to pick stone very well, so I said 
 good-bye " to the farmer, and was gone be- 
 fore he knew it. Run away? Of course I did. 
 That was about all I knew enough to do ; and, 
 like all tricky, dishonest people, I steered at once 
 for my old haunts and companions. 
 
 Well, back to Troy I went. I was now four- 
 teen years old. I go into all these little details 
 because I want to tell what a blessed Savior I 
 have found, and to do this I must tell how bad 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 41 
 
 I have been. Then one can see just what he 
 has saved me from. 
 
 Did I continue to steal? Yes, everything 
 I could lay my hands on. I thought that God 
 and all the world hated me ; so I said, " Tit 
 for tat." 
 
 Since I have started to serve my Savior, in 
 these late years, some have called me "Crazy 
 Wills, poor crazy Wills ;" but this is not true. I 
 was crazy when I got back to Troy, the time 
 spoken of above. 
 
 At this time I was so crazy that I thought 
 
 every store was mine, with all the goods. T 
 
 helped myself so much, and so often, that before 
 
 long I was again taken before the judges. They 
 
 declared me so crazy that I would have to be 
 
 locked up again; they gave me my choice of 
 
 asylums, either to go back to the refuge, or to 
 
 the State prison. If I went to the prison, it 
 
 meant two years' confinement ; so I chose the 
 
 crazy asylum. You see, I knew if I was taken 
 
 back to the refuge, after I had run away from 
 
 the stony farm in New Jersey, I would have to 
 
 stay until I was twenty-one years old, or be sent 
 
 to sea on a whaler, and I preferred to stay on land. 
 4 
 
42 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 When I reached the asylum, they put brace- 
 lets on my ankles, and tried to cure me of my 
 lunacy. 
 
 They put me at work in the iron-mines. I 
 sawed wood, and did other work, while they 
 dressed me in a beautiful suit of clothes, so that 
 if I should happen to stray away from the Home 
 I would not be lost. All the people about 
 would know by my clothes that I belonged to 
 the Home, and would kindly bring me back in 
 safety. 
 
 0 God ! This was the time I was truly 
 crazy, and I want the reader to judge whether 
 I was the craziest then or now. 
 
 Even here God helped me again ; for one of 
 the prison contractors took a fancy to me, and 
 was good to me, because I was only a boy, not six- 
 teen years old, and " smart," as they called it. 
 They put me in the machine-shop, placed me 
 under one of the best machinists in the world, 
 and told him to teach me all about an engine. 
 
 This machinist was John Phillips, who was 
 in for life for killing his wife. 
 
 1 served my " time " without punishment, and 
 was pronounced cured, and I thought I was cured. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 43 
 
 Do you ask how mucli I got when I came out ? 
 O, wonderful, wonderful ! I got six dollars, which 
 would feed me and take me back to Troy. 
 
 Do you think I was met on my return by any 
 good people, who rejoiced that I was cured ? O 
 no, not that ; but this : " This is Wills, the State- 
 prison bird;" and you may be sure that the 
 officers kept an eye on me and my movements. 
 Could I get work as an engineer ? No, no. No, 
 I had to go with that one shirt, which was on my 
 back, and one suit of clothes, take work as I 
 could find it on the docks, in the brickyards, and 
 elsewhere. At this time I was not very strong, 
 because my work in prison, while under the 
 machinist, was light and easy, and had given me 
 but little strength, while the work I was forced 
 to do now was too hard for me. I made a great 
 exertion, however, and did my best ; but I got 
 no encouragement, — I was a State-prison bird, 
 and that was all there was about it. 
 
 Accordingly I went crazy again, and said to 
 myself: ''Every man's hand is against me, then 
 let my hand be against every man." 
 
 Soon the law was hot on my trail again, and I 
 started West. I came to Michigan, first to 
 
44 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 Detroit, and stopped one night in 1858 ; then on 
 to Grass Lake, where I tried to learn to be a 
 farmer. I did not like to be so near to Jackson, 
 however, and so I came back to Detroit, where 
 I did not let anything grow on the palm of my 
 hands. I believe I could get away with "boodle " 
 as readily as any man in the State, at this time, 
 and yet I was only a boy. 
 
 I won't go through all the details at this day 
 which made it advisable for me to seek an east- 
 ern climate, but I did. Can any one tell us why 
 a thief can 't keep away from the place that has 
 " sent him up " so many times? 
 
 Well, again I was back in Troy, and I am 
 sure I was watched pretty close, but I did not 
 steal with a gang any more ; I went it alone. I 
 said to myself: If I get caught I will suffer 
 alone, and I will not have to ' divy up the swag ' 
 with any one. I will take all or none." 
 
 At this time I did not drink ; but with an old 
 companion one night, I got drunk, and we made 
 Rome howl until the peelers " got us, and we 
 got sixty days in the Albany penitentiary. Of 
 all the prisons I ever saw, this "takes the cake." 
 Whoop ! but it beats all I ever heard of. O, 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 45 
 
 what a table ! My, my ! Rice and cock-roaches, 
 and all such dainties. Enough, enough ! Two 
 months later I got my liberty. Now, what is 
 liberty ? I will define true liberty, but not what 
 I called liberty in the days I write about. 
 
 Here is the definition of true liberty : "If 
 the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall 
 be free indeed." (John viii, 36.) This is liberty, 
 indeed ; bless God for his Son Jesus Christ, who 
 can give us such liberty ! 
 
 Well, once out in the world again, the " fly 
 cops " watched me, and I watched them, week 
 after week and month after month. They would 
 say: "What are you doing now. Wills?" 
 
 "Haven't you heard of the fortune that was 
 left me?" said I, and they would answer : " No, 
 who left it to you?" I would guy them with, 
 "I will tell you in my will," or some such stuff, 
 and they would pass on to keep up watch for 
 me to "go wrong." 
 
 Let me say right here, that it does not take 
 a smart man to steal, but it takes a smart man 
 to hide. This explains why so many men are in 
 prison to-day. The greatest trick for the thief 
 to learn in order to keep clear of the prison, is 
 
46 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 to learn to control himself, so that he never 
 gets the big-head, and, imagining that he is very 
 smart, try to run on year after year stealing and 
 being crooked, without getting the "peelers" 
 onto him. 
 
 This is the fatal mistake I made. I got so 
 crazy at this time, that I forgot my cunning. 
 One day, in passing a place, the devil said to 
 me : " This place and all in it is yours, and you 
 must move it to-night, or the creditors will take 
 it." So, that night, instead of taking a man, as 
 a friend, to help me, I took the best friend on 
 earth to help move or take stock, a friend I could 
 trust — an iron bar, called a "jimmy." Not 
 having the key, I opened the place with the 
 jimmy, and moved a good share of the stock 
 that night, thinking all the time, as I worked: 
 "What are the police doing? What will the 
 peelers say?" 
 
 The devil, who hates everything that is made 
 in God's image, told me how to take the goods ; 
 but he did not tell me how to hide, and in a few 
 days the asylum officers came, and said : " Wills, 
 we want you to come and be examined, to see 
 if we can let you run at large any more." 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 47 
 
 I said to them that I was all right ; but I had 
 to go with them, because they were the strong- 
 est. When we arrived at the Ferry Street board- 
 ing-house, and the examination began, they told 
 me that they had proof that I had forgot myself 
 again, and had been helping myself to other 
 people's property. 
 
 I laughed at them, and said: " How can you 
 think me so foolish ? Do n't you see that I do n't 
 kick, bite, or rave as I used to when I was crazy ; 
 I talk just as sensibly as you do. 
 
 " That makes no difference, Wills," they an- 
 swered ; you forgot one important point this 
 time." 
 
 "What do you mean?" said I, and then they 
 told me I forgot to hide goods this time, and that I 
 had the big-head ; that by patience and a good deal 
 of watching, they had got me " dead to rights." 
 And so they had ; they had got the swag," and 
 I was in for it again. In this operation I had 
 taken all the risk, and kept all the boodle ; there 
 was no one to turn State's evidence. I was 
 caught, after all, in the long run, and must suffer. 
 
 What to do I did not know. If I stood trial 
 and was found guilty, I would get the extreme 
 
48 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 penalty of the law, because the same judge was 
 on the bench that sent me up before. His name 
 was Judge Hogeboom, and he was noted as being 
 bad on old offenders. At this juncture I sent for 
 my cousin and the prosecuting attorney, and 
 asked them : " What w^as the best that could be 
 done if I pleaded guilty ?" They said they would 
 see the judge and let me know. So they talked 
 it over, and said they would give me three and a 
 half years in the penitentiary. (The full penalty 
 was seven years, and by pleading guilty I could 
 save half.) I knew it was " all up " with me, 
 and said to them : " Drive along, and be quick 
 about it." 
 
 I put on lots of bravado ; but down in my heart 
 I was sick, because I had to go back to " school,'^ 
 as I did to the asylum. O that I had known 
 something about Jesus at that time, or that I had 
 been taught that Jesus loved me ! It seemed to 
 me that everybody hated me, and I thought that 
 Jesus must hate me, because I was so bad. Well, 
 they put the bracelets on my legs again, and on 
 two other thieves at the same time. 
 
 We often hear and read of the " great honor 
 there is among thieves," and I wish to correct 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 49 
 
 that impression. Wills, who writes these words, 
 knows what he is talking about, because he has 
 been with them. Wills says there is no honor 
 among thieves. How can there be honor among 
 devils? Devils hate each other. The devil is 
 the evil one who makes thieves, and he must 
 make beings like himself — beings who must hate 
 each other. I^et one devil have a chance to get 
 out of prison by giving the other devils away, and 
 he will do it quick enough, unless they be first 
 cousins. 
 
 Well, I was sent to the mines, and if I had 
 known anything about God's Word at that time, 
 I would have seen the truth in the words: Be 
 not deceived ; God is not mocked : whatsoever 
 a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Gal. 
 vi, 7-) 
 
 O, it was an awfully long harvest which I had ! 
 How I suffered no one can tell ! I often said in 
 my cell, "What will it come to?" But I knew 
 the ropes, and I soon had one of my old places 
 back as engineer. You see, I knew that engineers 
 were scarce in the prison. I got along all right 
 until I tried to go out, without first getting a 
 letter of recommendation from the prison ofiScials. 
 5 
 
50 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 For this breach of discipline, the officers pro-- 
 nounced me crazy, and gave me " a watch and 
 chain " to wear. The watch weighed fifty pounds, 
 and instead of fastening the chain to my vest, 
 they fastened it to my leg. 
 
 They also gave me a neck-tie, but I did n't likei 
 it, for it was made of iron instead of silk ; and it was 
 fastened with a padlock, so that I could not take 
 it offi After a while I was put back in the mines ; 
 but not for long, for soon they needed an engineer 
 in the nail rolling-mill, and I was sent there. 
 
 O, my God, as I write this to-night, I thank 
 thee for what thou hast done for me ! " O Lord of 
 hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee 
 
 I had been in the rolling-mill but a short time, 
 when a few of us formed a plan to escape. The 
 job was "put up'' by a man named Burke, and 
 another man named Lewell. 
 
 Lewell was to hit the keeper, whose name 
 was Wright, just before we were changed for the 
 other gang, who came on to take our place (as 
 we worked half the night and half the day) ; but 
 before it came off. Burke was pardoned out, and 
 I was changed to the lower rolling-mill, on ac- 
 count of the engineer at that mill being taken 
 
4 
 
 PRISON CURIOS. 
 No. I. The warden's cane, " loaded " at the lower end. 
 No. 2. Iron collar and head-braces, with padlock. 
 No. 3. Half-pint cup, holding daily water allowance. 
 No. 4. Skull-cracker, Two lead knobs connected by 
 handle made of spiral steel wire. 
 No. 5. Ball and chain. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 53 
 
 sick. When the night arrived, that we were to 
 try to go out, I could n't be there, because of 
 the change, and I was locked up in my cell, 
 when Lewell hit the keeper, as agreed upon. 
 Instead of knocking him senseless, as planned, 
 he knocked him dead, dead ! 
 
 O God ! O Lord ! how can I thank thee to- 
 day for delivering me from being present at that 
 horrible death? 
 
 Yes, the men got out and over the wall, but 
 it was not long before the great prison-bell be- 
 gan to ring harshly and loud, and soon " tramp, 
 tramp," then the great cannon boomed out. 
 
 It was the rule of the prison (which was in 
 the midst of the great forests of Northeastern 
 New York State), that if a convict escaped, the 
 cannon should be discharged three times. When 
 it began to fire this night, I said, O, why am 
 I locked up here ? Why did I have such hard 
 luck ? Why was I sent down to the other 
 mill?" But, O God! I little knew what had 
 happened. 
 
 Boom, boom, boom !" rang out the gun, 
 and peal after peal, until one would think all 
 the prisoners had escaped. 
 
54 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 At last it stopped, and all was silent until 
 morning. Then, O, what a story ran through the 
 prison ! All the men in the upper rolling-mill 
 were gone, and Wright, the keeper, was dead. 
 
 No work to-day. Every man locked up, and 
 the whole village was off in the woods. The 
 prison was in the midst of a dense woods, six- 
 teen miles from Plattsburg, on Lake Cham- 
 plain. The woods were alive with French char- 
 coal-burners, for we used charcoal in making 
 the iron ; and there were hundreds of these char- 
 coal-burners in the woods. When these men 
 heard the gun fired three times, they knew it 
 meant that a prisoner had escaped, and they 
 knew that whoever caught him would get fifty 
 dollars' reward. So the charcoal-burners left 
 their work, armed themselves with all kinds of 
 weapons, — pitchforks, scythes, guns, and clubs. 
 It seemed to them a better job than burning 
 charcoal, for they had to burn so much of the 
 stuff to get fifty dollars. 
 
 The men were soon caught and back in prison 
 again. I say right here, it is almost impos- 
 sible to escape from Clinton Prison, even if they 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 55 
 
 should let you out, unless you liave lielp on the 
 outside, — some one to furnish you clothes. 
 
 The men were now locked up in their cells 
 until court convened in Plattsburg; and then 
 they were tried and convicted, some for murder, 
 and some for manslaughter. 
 
 Lewell, Hall, and Brady were sentenced to be 
 hung, and the others got oflf with a short im- 
 prisonment, because they knew nothing about 
 the plan, and only went out with the others. 
 
 Readers, do you think I could be too zealous 
 in the cause which God has called me to labor 
 in? Could I love too much the Being who 
 saved me from having any direct hand in killing 
 Wright — the Being who has saved me from 
 the tyranny of the devil ? Unless I do all I am 
 able to do to show the criminal, the thief, and 
 the drunkard that Christ is the true friend of 
 all, I would absolutely be a coward, and morally 
 an imbecile. 
 
 Well, Ivcwell, Hall, and Brady had their 
 death-sentence commuted by Governor Hoffman 
 to imprisonment for life ; and, since I have had 
 my liberty, I^ewell, the man who struck and 
 
56 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 killed Wright lias died. Hall is still in prison, 
 and Brady (whose story appears elsewhere in 
 this book) is at liberty. 
 
 I won't tell the reader of each one of my prison 
 days, each one of the days I spent in hell ; for 
 every day was a hell upon earth. One of the 
 punishments in the prison was the shower-bath ; 
 not such a shower-bath as the reader would like, 
 for they shower you with water until you are 
 within an inch of being drowned, and a doctor 
 stands by to see that you are not punished to 
 death. After this they buck you for an hour or 
 two. O dear ! how can a man endure to write 
 about it, let alone going through it ! 
 
 " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the un- 
 righteous man his thoughts, and let him return 
 unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon 
 him, to our God for he will abundantly pardon. 
 (Isaiah Iv, 7.) 
 
 Time passed, and again I was set at liberty, 
 with the same magnificent sum of seven dollars 
 as before, to help me on in the world. Again 
 I had no friend, no mother to say to me : " Come, 
 boy, let us see what can be done to start you 
 right." Although I was a man in experience, 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 57 
 
 T was only a boy yet in years. Of course I went 
 back to Troy. This was in '62, and as I went 
 along I saw soldiers, soldiers, nothing but sol- 
 diers. Finding no money growing on the bushes, 
 my seven dollars was soon gone ; and, with my 
 money all gone, and seeing so many patriots 
 going to fight for their country, I thought I had 
 best go along and fight with them. I always 
 liked to fight, and there are but few men from 
 Troy that do n't. 
 
 I believe that Troy has turned out more 
 fighting men, thieves, and harlots than any city 
 of its size in the world. 
 
 I doffed my citizen's clothes, and soon was a 
 soldier. That is, I thought I was a soldier. 
 Since I have been, however, in the service of my 
 Lord, I have found out that it did not make a 
 soldier of a man just because he had his name 
 on the books, had his uniform on, and was fitted 
 out with accouterments. O no, that do n't make 
 the soldier. 
 
 We had to drill and march, march and drill, 
 work, and polish, and keep clean. To become 
 good soldiers we had to do all these things. 
 
 To become a good soldier, you should study the 
 
58 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 tactics, so that, if the commanding general made 
 you a corporal, you could drill a squad. A good 
 soldier is always ready, because he knows the 
 enemy is on the move; and unless he is watch- 
 ful, the enemy will outflank him. The good 
 soldier of Jesus Christ is always ready, and when 
 called on he won't weaken when he ought to 
 be strong. 
 
 How would it look for one of the soldiers in 
 our army, when called to go on picket-duty, to 
 take an umbrella to prevent getting wet ? How 
 would it do to let all the soldiers in an army 
 act as hospital stewards ? In the Christian army 
 there are a good many Christian soldiers who 
 seem to want to be hospital stewards, and I am 
 sorry to say it. I will say to such soldiers, keep 
 your guns bright and clean, inside as well as 
 outside ; see that your saber is sharp and always 
 ready for battle, for we never know when the 
 bugle will sound, " Fall in, fall in ; the enemy is 
 upon us !" Remember that the Christian's enemy 
 is very cunning ; he does not use shot, shell, 
 and sword-thrust as much as he used to do; he 
 has found something which he thinks is better ; 
 he uses chloroform. It has put most of the 
 
//. O. WILLS. 
 
 59 
 
 Christian army to sleep, and lets tlie devil and 
 his army ride on to victory. 
 
 O wake up, wake up, soldiers of the cross ; 
 the battle will not be long ! 
 
 But I must come back to our soldiers. We 
 were soon on our way to the front, and brought 
 up at Martinsburg, and here commenced the real 
 soldiers' life. 
 
 It seemed so strange to me, I had to obey a 
 little fellow I could almost eat, when he said: 
 Fall in, fall in for squad-drill ;" and I had to 
 run and step just when this little fellow told me. 
 I thought to myself: ''Is this what is called 
 soldiering ?" I said to some of them : ''I thought 
 we came here to fight somebody?" and was 
 told I would get enough fighting before I got 
 through. Well, we drilled, drilled, and drilled, 
 and dug, scraped, shoveled, and threw up breast- 
 works and rifle-pits. 
 
 Some may ask : What did you do all this 
 work for ? All this drilling, marching, running, 
 and digging, do n't whip any body ? What 's 
 the use any way?" I answer, and say it was 
 right ; it taught the soldier how to do those things 
 which he would have to do if he was a soldier. 
 
6o 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 The Christian soldier who enlists to fight the 
 devil must be on hand at drills, must help throw 
 up breast-works, dig rifle-pits, and it won't do 
 for him to say: "O, I have no time for prayer- 
 meeting, or class-meeting, or to visit among my 
 neighbors ; I have no time for these things, for 
 I am a hospital steward." This won't do. God 
 help and save the good soldiers who enlist to 
 fight the devil, and strengthen all the hospital 
 stewards ! 
 
 We soon got marching orders to go to that 
 Gibraltar^ Harper's Ferry," which could have 
 been held against all comers, only for General 
 Miles's weak, false, and almost timid judgment. 
 
 We marched with song and laughter for a 
 while, and it was very nice ; but a gun, knap- 
 sack, haversack, five days' rations, a canteen, 
 and sixty rounds of amunition, with a hot sun, 
 a hot day, and roads full of dust, soon put a stop 
 to all singing and laughter. 
 
 It is nice to be a soldier. When you start from 
 home people give you flowers and cheers and loud 
 hurrahs; but in this march we saw something of 
 the soldier's life as it is — men throwing them- 
 selves down tired out, and the sides of the road 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 6l 
 
 littered with guns and knapsacks. O, the sun! 
 We would not walk in the sun and carry all the 
 load. " Why do n't the captain wait until night, 
 and let us walk in the cool of the night?" we 
 asked each other. We enlisted to fight, and not 
 to die in this way," we murmured ; and, " If you 
 stay right in this road here about ten hours, you will 
 have all the fight you want," some one shouted. 
 I was not used to walking and carrying such a 
 load, so when we had gone along forty or fifty 
 miles, I met one of the natives, and asked him 
 how far it was to Harper's Ferry. He said : It 
 is a right smart distance, I reckon — more than 
 two looks and a shout ;" so I concluded if it was 
 as far away as that, I would go the rest of the 
 way flying light." Then I threw all I carried 
 into the ditch by the roadside. Some of the 
 boys asked me what I would do when we got 
 to Harper's Ferry, and I said : " We are going to 
 war to fight, and when the fight comes on, some 
 one will want to go to the hospital, and I will 
 borrow his gun ; then when we have licked the 
 enemy I will help myself to what I want. If 
 we get licked, I have nothing to lose." 
 
 Well, we were drawn up in line of battle two 
 
6^ 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 or three times, but there was no enemy to fight 
 after all. 
 
 *'0 dear!" said I, ^' this is the sickest fight- 
 ing I ever got into. Why do n't they stop and 
 throw mud at us or something like that. I am 
 sick of this kind of fighting." 
 
 I knew but little about what a soldier was, 
 and what he had to go through, but I realized 
 everything when we got to Harper's Ferry, and 
 staid there until Stonewall Jackson had us sur- 
 rounded. We were taken prisoners — some thirty 
 thousand were paroled, and were sent on to 
 Chicago to Camp Douglass. 
 
 And here, let me say, I saw so much work- 
 ing for money and self, and so little of patriot- 
 ism, that I came to the conclusion that when the 
 regiment went back, I would not go with it. I 
 said to myself: ''They do not care down South 
 where they shoot or who they hit, and I do not 
 feel anxious to die for my country, a country 
 which had been so good to me as to lock me up 
 the best part of my life." It seemed to me that 
 I did not owe my life to my country ; so when 
 we began to get ready to go back (after we were 
 exchanged), I stayed at Chicago. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 63 
 
 And now let me speak of one who, through 
 God, has been my Savior. That one is my noble 
 and loved wife, whom I first met in Chicago, 
 while our regiment was at Camp Douglas. 
 
 I asked her to marry me almost as soon as I 
 made her acquaintance, and I got the consent 
 of her mother and brothers. Her father was a 
 very hard drinking man, and her home was not 
 a happy one on his account ; but he is dead, and 
 we will let him rest. We were married, and 
 lived together pleasantly for some time. I went to 
 work, for I now had some one to take care of. I 
 said to myself : " They do n't know me here, and 
 I will live an honest life and do right." So I 
 worked in a cracker-bakery, making hard-tack 
 for the soldiers, and I said : " We can 't all go 
 to war ; some of us must stay behind and make 
 things for the boys to eat." I worked, making 
 hard-tack some time ; then I went firing on 
 the railroad, then in the round-house, then down 
 to the freight-depot. 
 
 One day a man came to the depot and asked 
 if my name was Wills. (I had not changed 
 my name, and I now believe it was either my 
 wife's father, or one of her sisters that notified 
 
64 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 the authorities.) I confessed that Wills was my 
 name, and the man told me that the provost- 
 marshal, on the other side of the river, wanted 
 to see me. Never showing any fear, I put on 
 my coat and started with him, asking him what 
 was wanted. The man, whom 1 knew to be a 
 detective, said he did not know, and we walked 
 on. The officer was not careful, or he would 
 have put the bracelets on me at first. However, 
 we crossed the bridge together, and just as we 
 reached the corner of Lake and Water Streets, I 
 saw a woman coming toward us. I told the officer 
 that I knew that young lady, and wished to speak 
 to her a minute. I stopped her, and got her be- 
 tween myself and him ; then I threw her against 
 him, and took down Water Street ; but there were 
 too many on the street, and he soon had me again. 
 Then he did what he ought to have done in the 
 first place; he put the ^'darbies" on me, and I 
 was soon in Camp Douglas again. After a few 
 days we were sent to Cincinnati, where Joe Hooker 
 commanded, and were put in the military prison, 
 where I remained until they found what regiment 
 I belonged to, when they made up a train-load 
 and sent us on to the front. My regiment was 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 67 
 
 at Gettysburg. All went well until we got to 
 Harrisburg. Here I made up my mind that I 
 had got about as near to the front as I wanted 
 to be ; so, after it was dark, I changed from one 
 track to another, and instead of going on to 
 Gettysburg, I was taken to New York, and so 
 on up the river to Troy. 
 
 I did not put up at the Troy House, or call 
 on those in authority, but went to see my cousin, 
 where I staid over night. In the morning I started 
 West, got as far as Buffalo, and stopped to see 
 how they run things there. 
 
 They were making it so nice for the boys there, 
 I thought I would like some of it myself; so I took 
 a man's place in the ranks, whose business was 
 so pressing at home that he could not leave ; 
 besides, he had a bone in his leg, which made it 
 difficult for him to walk. This man agreed to 
 pay me a certain sum if I would go and be a 
 patriot for him ; so I took the name of John Far- 
 rell, and once more moved on towards the front 
 to whip the ''Johnnies." 
 
 We were sent first, however, to Camp Elmira, 
 where we staid about a month, and had a good 
 time, but were soon ordered to the front ; arrived 
 
68 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 in New York City, took a transport vessel for 
 Alexandria. O, the first night out was a won- 
 derful night ! The boat was loaded with bounty- 
 jumpers ; a good many were farmers and country 
 people, besides a lot who had not been in this 
 country long, and did not know how we did 
 things here. Well, I was with two more who 
 were like myself, and I promise you we did not 
 sleep much that night ! What a sight there was 
 in the morning ! Men that went to sleep with 
 from five hundred to one thousand dollars in their 
 pockets, awoke in the morning with the same 
 pockets empty, while we had suddenly become 
 rich. I do n't take any pride in writing these 
 things now ; but how can I tell what a Savior 
 has done for me, unless I tell all the horrible 
 things which he has made me hate, and which 
 he has saved me from? ''I will praise thee, O 
 Lord, my God with all my heart : and I will 
 glorify thy name for evermore." (Psa. Ixxxvi, 12.) 
 
 We arrived in due time at the front, where 
 my two pals and myself staid about two months, 
 when we concluded to take a journey home with- 
 out waiting for advices from Washington. So 
 we just dropped out of the line, and let the army 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 69 
 
 go on. We went back to Baltimore, and so on 
 to New York again. I stopped in the city 
 briefly to get rested, and then started on West. 
 My wife had brothers in Cleveland, so I bought 
 a ticket for that city. Just as we got to Elmira 
 the car-door opened, and who should walk in 
 but my captain. It did not take me long to 
 get out of that car and say good-bye to the train. 
 
 I thought I would let him go on, and not try 
 to stop him, while I remained behind to bring 
 on the baggage. 
 
 At last I arrived at Cleveland, and went to 
 inquire about my wife. I learned that she had 
 heard that I was dead, and had gone on to 
 Troy. Soon I had the wires at work, and in a 
 few days we were brought together again. 
 
 God bless my dear wife, and he has wonder- 
 fully blessed her, both in health and home, and 
 in every way ! 
 
 Well, I once more tried to be honest, and 
 earn an honest living, and did after a fashion. For 
 about eighteen months I worked at almost every- 
 thing, braking on the railroad, firing and run- 
 ning an engine, etc. ; but I remembered how I 
 used to have such big money, and it seemed to 
 
70 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 me that every body was having all they wanted, 
 while every thing was very high. My wife was 
 not well, and I wanted more money than I 
 earned, so I threw up my job, went into the 
 bounty-broker's business, taking chances in the 
 drafts, and once more I had . lots of boodle, and 
 nothing to do but spend it. 
 
 I joined the fire department as minute 
 man," and was connected with it some three 
 or four years, and was presented by the boys 
 with a silver cup, the tragedian, the late John 
 McCullough, making the presentation speech on 
 the stage of the Cleveland Theater, John Bllsler 
 and Clara Morris being on the stage also. I 
 made lots of money, and spent it as fast as I 
 made it, until the war was over. 
 
 I have forgotten to speak of one incident, 
 but will do it now. In one of the drafts I was 
 the lucky one, and was drafted. The boys thought 
 they had the laugh on me, for at this time sub- 
 stitutes were worth one thousand five hundred 
 to two thousand dollars. Now is the time, 
 Wills," said the boys, when a bank account 
 would be a good thing;" for before this I used 
 to tell the boys that as long as I could talk and 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 73 
 
 walk, I did not want any bank account, because 
 as long as I had brass in my face, silver in my 
 tongue, and a dollar in my pocket, I could start 
 and go around the world with the dollar, and 
 have hundreds of dollars when I should reach 
 the end of my journey. 
 
 The boys thought for sure that I was in a fix ; 
 but I knew a trick that none of them were up 
 to, and have never told any one about it until now. 
 
 I knew that the law of the land was that no 
 felon would be taken in the army ; so I laid the 
 facts of my case before the provost-marshal, 
 gave him the proofs that I had served ,two terms 
 in State prison, and got my discharge. This 
 made me more popular than ever, for they 
 thought that I stood in " with the provost, and 
 I got more work to do than the others, and made 
 it pay first rate. 
 
 After the war was over, I worked for a whole- 
 sale grocery and cheese-house, selling to the 
 city trade. I was still in the fire department. 
 After about three years the firm took in a new 
 partner who had been a whisky-distiller,, and I 
 now had to sell whisky in addition to the other 
 goods. 
 
74 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 And here is where the devil got in his work. 
 He got hold of me again through the whisky. 
 I worked for these men about two years ; then 
 the devil put it in my heart to run away with 
 all the money I could lay hands on. As I was 
 salesman and collector, I had the handling of all 
 the money from the city trade. I had used my 
 collections, and knew I could not pay it back ; 
 so I sold my home, collected all that was stand- 
 ing out, and left my wife and went back to 
 Troy — to the very place that was the most hate- 
 ful to me. I had to go to this hateful place, be- 
 cause Satan had got me again through the 
 whisky. 
 
 O, no one but Satan could have made me do 
 these things which I tell of! After I had been 
 in Troy about three weeks, I had dropped al- 
 most all the money I had. Then I sent to my 
 wife's brother to send on my wife, and not let 
 the police get on " to it. But the police were 
 not asleep ; they w^ere watching for just such a 
 move, and when my wife left, a letter followed 
 her. When she stopped in Troy, the letter also 
 stopped. 
 
 I took my wife to my cousin's, who was a 
 
H, O. WILLS. 
 
 75 
 
 detective, and while I was at supper with my 
 sisters and my aunt, my cousin called me out 
 and asked me what I had been doing in Cleve- 
 land. I said I had done nothing. He then 
 showed me a hand-bill offering a reward for me ; 
 and I had to spend the night and two days in 
 jail, when the officers came on and took me back 
 to Cleveland. 
 
 It will do no one any good to tell how I got 
 out of this scrape. Suffice it to say, that I had 
 one member of the firm on the hip, as we call 
 it, and I told him if he prosecuted I would 
 squeal on him; and so, after a time, I was let 
 out on bail, myself being the bail. 
 
 I worked it smart again, and got into the 
 fire department, and made lots of money out of 
 it ; but I won't tell how I made it, because it will 
 do no good, and it might lead others to do the 
 same. I lived off from it a whole summer, and 
 it took lots of money to keep me ; but they 
 tumbled to " it at last, and I was "done up" 
 in the department. They could do nothing to 
 me, however, in the line of punishment, 
 
 I now went to the oil-region to take charge 
 of oil-wells, which I did for two weeks ; then I 
 
76 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 turned speculator myself. And money! O 
 my, cords of it ! Wonderful ! Talk about Cali- 
 fornia, it was nothing to Oil City and that region 
 in '65 and '67. Money, barrels full of it; and I 
 knew how to get it, but not how to keep it. I 
 lived like a prince, and we made things fly. 
 
 Would to God I had that money now to put 
 in my Master's cause ! But it is gone, and all 
 other things we then had are gone away from 
 us. For God says: "If we come unto him, he 
 will put away our sins as far as the east is from 
 the west." (Psa. ciii.) 
 
 Next I took up one of my old trades, one I have 
 not yet mentioned. It was faking, or street ped- 
 dling; and I was called one of the best, because, 
 they said, my tongue was hung in the middle, and 
 I never got tired of talking, drinking, or fight- 
 ing. I went from city to city, and finally brought 
 up at Cincinnati. I was selling a can-opener — 
 the first in the market, and they sold as fast as I 
 could make change. I sold out of an open car- 
 riage, the harness on the horses being covered 
 over with tin cans, all cut up with the knife I 
 was selling. This exhibition attracted great 
 attention. 
 
H. a WILLS. 
 
 79 
 
 About now, however, the devil told me I 
 must do something, so as to get into another 
 scrape. It was election time, and I thought it 
 would be smart for me to swear in my vote, and 
 help the Democratic party win. 
 
 The devil thought so too, and as we both agreed, 
 I did it, and got the ^'collar" for it; had to lie 
 in jail about a month before I was tried, and 
 then I got another month without a fine. 
 
 Here, let me say, I learned something of the 
 frisky little bed-bug. I used to watch them and 
 see how they worked. They are about as smart 
 and scheming as the smartest saloon-keeper on 
 earth.. If they failed to do a thing the first 
 time, they tried it again and again, until they 
 made it out. It put me in mind of a story my 
 mother used to tell me, when I was a little boy, 
 about a good king somewhere, who had to hide 
 in a cave or something, because his people were 
 so wicked and wanted to kill him. Now, this 
 good king had tried lots of ways to make his 
 people do right, but always made a failure; and 
 here he was in the cave, almost ready to die, 
 because he was discouraged. After a while he 
 saw a spider try to swing himself ofiT from the 
 
8o 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 wall to another wall; but he failed to reach it. 
 He crawled back and tried again ; failed again. 
 He did this a good many times, and after a 
 while he got there. Then my mother told me 
 how the king said to himself that he would n't 
 give it up till he had tried as many times as the 
 spider did; so he went out of the cave, and 
 finally gained the victory. 
 
 Now, the spider is smart; so is the saloon- 
 keeper; he generally gets there. What he 
 do n't know about getting a poor man's money 
 and blood is not worth knowing. I would not 
 trust him any sooner than I would a bed-bug. 
 They are both after blood. 
 
 After I had served my time and got out, I 
 left the city for good. They could not appre- 
 ciate my patriotism in offering myself up on the 
 altar of my country. It does not do to appre- 
 ciate these things after the election is over, and 
 you have been caught. Of course it is all right, 
 if they do n't catch you at it; but if they do catch 
 you, it is a crime which everybody must sit 
 down on. 
 
 Then I went back to Cleveland, but thought 
 I would try Chicago, and see if I could not 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 8l 
 
 make a fortune there. I have said before that 
 almost anybody can steal, but it takes a smart 
 man to hide; and I say further, any man 
 that has brains, if he sets out to do it, can make 
 money, but it takes a man with more brains to 
 keep it after he has it. 
 
 Well, I went to Chicago with the can-opener, 
 and I made money, as I did in the oil regions, 
 and spent it in about the same way as I did 
 there. I believe if I had been like some men I 
 could have been a millioniare to-day ; but, sup- 
 pose I had become one, the question is, Would I 
 , know Jesus as I do now know him? 
 
 I worked Chicago until it seemed to me that 
 every man, woman, and child in the city had a 
 can-opener, so I had to find something new. 
 This I did, and in handling the new article, I 
 found that Barnum was right when he said ^' that 
 the American people were the easiest people on 
 earth to be humbugged*" I have proved the truth 
 of these words of Barnum in a great many ways. 
 I have sold perfume made of paraffine and oil of 
 wintergreen or bergamot, and done up in tin- 
 foil, which sold for twenty-five cents a package, 
 and only cost five mills; that is, sold for two 
 
82 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 hundred and fifty mills an article which cost five 
 mills. I sold a non-explosive coal-oil powder, 
 made of colored salt, for twenty-five cents a box. 
 It cost me three mills. I sold the California 
 diamond polish, said to have been made in San 
 Francisco, and good for all things, but in reality 
 made of Akron water-lime. This polish sold for 
 three dollars per dozen, and it could be bought 
 for a dollar and a half per barrel. One of the 
 best sellers I had in Chicago, after the can- 
 opener, was a fan. Only think of men buying 
 fans in the dead of winter ; but they did, and 
 they bought of me. I had almost the first that 
 were made. They were called the Magic Fan 
 (they are very common now). It pulled open 
 from a tube-shaped handle with a cord and tas- 
 sel; and pulling on the other end would close it 
 again. It would have surprised even Barnum if 
 he could have seen how I sold those fans that 
 winter. 
 
 Now, friends, I was working all this time ; still 
 I was ''crooked," and would steal when the op- 
 portunity offered itself; but I was very, very 
 watchful and careful, for I did not want to do 
 any more time, and I never have. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 83 
 
 People often wonder how tlie crooks know 
 wKere a man carries his money, and how thieves 
 can get into their houses and know where the 
 valuables are kept. Now, suppose you are trav- 
 eling on the cars, or you are waiting in the depot. 
 The " mob," as it is called, is made up of three 
 or five persons, who travel together. One of 
 these is called the *'wire," and it is his business 
 to "go through " you, and get your money. It is 
 done in this way: The ''mob" comes into the 
 car or depot, and cries: "Look out for pick- 
 pockets!" Any man having money on his per- 
 son, and not up to the trick, will, on hearing the 
 alarm, put his hand at once over the pocket that 
 holds the cash. Doing this, till that good-look- 
 ing gentleman, the "wire," who has an eye like a 
 hawk, sees just where to put his hand and get what 
 he wants. Then the "mob," or one member of 
 it, cries out for passengers to take the next car for 
 such and such a place, or "change cars," "all 
 aboard," or something of the kind, and when the 
 people make a rush to get in the right car, the gang 
 will crowd about the door and push, while the 
 nice man just behind you, or the one coming 
 in while you are trying to get out, has taken 
 
84 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 your money. Suppose you have your hands in 
 your pockets, with your pocket-book in your 
 hands; all the thieves have to do is to push 
 each other and rush you about; then one of 
 them will hit you on the top of the head and 
 drive your hat down over your eyes. Out come 
 your hands to lift your hat so you can see. Your 
 pocket is unguarded, and — biff 1 — your money is 
 gone, and the crowd also. 
 
 So beware of the cr}', ^'Pickpockets!" either 
 in the car or depot. Keep your hands still ! 
 Do n't tell them where you keep your money. 
 To do this will sometimes require an effort, be- 
 cause most men, knowing where their money is, 
 find that their heart is there also. ^'For where 
 your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'' 
 (Luke xii, 34.) 
 
 I have seen a man who was smart — at least he 
 thought he was — and after a "mob" had 
 "worked" a depot, and eight or ten people had 
 lost their wealth, he was saying, "What fools 
 the traveling public are!" and all such talk. 
 W"hen the conductor came along for tickets, this 
 man would put his hand in his pocket to get 
 the book that held his ticket, only to jump to 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 85 
 
 his feet and shout: ''I have been robbed!'' 
 Probably the very man he had been giving the 
 talk to about his smartness had gone through 
 him while he was telling it, to pass the pocket- 
 book to his pal in the next seat behind him, 
 and he to another, and so on, until one of them 
 would go with it into the water-closet, where he 
 would skin it. That is, he would take the 
 money out, and drop the book on the track. 
 
 In this way thieves do their work, and it is 
 but one of a hundred equally dishonorable 
 schemes. 
 
 I begaft by this time to get tired of Chicago; 
 and, as I had found another great fake or hum- 
 bug with which to gull the people, I started to- 
 wards Cleveland. In that city lived one whom 
 I had promised to cherish and protect, which 
 promise I had failed to keep — my wife. I had 
 been away from her a couple of years, and she 
 had, through her brothers, made application for 
 a divorce, and had disposed of her furniture, but 
 had not yet got the pay for it. So, when I got 
 to Cleveland, and we had talked things over, 
 she, with all the love in her heart of a true wife, 
 wanted me to go away from Cleveland with her 
 
86 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 to some place where we were not known, so that 
 we could start on a new life. 
 
 The new thing which I was now selling was 
 a " Fountain Pen." The composition was called 
 "oroid gold," and it was a wonderful thing to 
 sell. I told my wife I would take a trip down 
 through the oil regions with it, and when I came 
 back we would move away from Cleveland and 
 begin a new life. I wanted to do what was 
 right, but did not know how to begin. In my heart 
 I believed in God and in Christ, because my 
 mother had taught me when a little boy. There 
 is something most wonderful about how a wicked 
 man will think of the good and true things 
 which a Christian mother taught him when he 
 was a little bit of a kid; but they will do it 
 every time. Since I have been in the service 
 of our blessed Redeemer I have seen so many 
 instances which prove this to be true, that I 
 know for sure that the teachings of a good 
 mother can never be wiped out. 
 
 Well, I went down through the oil regions, 
 but the times were changed ; it was not like the 
 old times, when everybody's pocket was full of 
 money; but I had a sight after all, for I had a 
 
H, O. WILLS. 
 
 87 
 
 good selling thing, and didn't let grass grow 
 under my feet. There were twelve pens in a 
 box, with a pen-holder, and the outfit sold for 
 fifty cents, at a cost of but six cents. There was 
 hardly a business man who would not take it in 
 his hand and give it a trial ; and if he did that, 
 I knew I was sure of his fifty cents, because it 
 worked as smoothly as a gold pen, and would 
 write four pages of note-paper with one penful 
 of ink. 
 
 If I had known how to keep money, it would 
 have beem a Bonanza to me; but, after all, I was 
 doing better, because I really wanted to have a 
 home with my wife again. My wife and I both 
 loved children, but had none of our own. I 
 believe that God saw that we loved children, for 
 he induced us to adopt four, two of whom have 
 died ; but we have two left, who now belong to 
 the Lord. 
 
 I had good luck, and was soon back in Cleve- 
 land. We recovered our furniture, and I made 
 arrangements to go to Detroit and see what kind 
 of a place it was. If it suited me, we decided 
 I was to rent a house, and send for my wife. I 
 came on, and looked the city over, and said, I 
 
88 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 will drop anchor right here. I rented a house 
 on Beacon Street, our furniture came on, I got 
 ready for my wife and a home again, and we 
 were soon in good shape, and very happy. I 
 had a snap on the town as street fakir, because 
 no one could get on to the place where I got 
 my pens; and, besides, I sold so many that the 
 dealers in Philadelphia would not let any one else 
 handle them where I intended to stop. I used 
 to work a couple of hours a day, and make three 
 or four dollars, and then lie around. One of the 
 first men I got acquainted with in Detroit was 
 Kd. Sweeney, now an ex-alderman. Well, lo- 
 cating at Detroit in the winter, I worked the 
 town pretty well, also Windsor and Chatham. 
 Finding a good field in Canada, I sold out in De- 
 troit, and, with my wife, started for a trip through 
 the Dominion. I worked London and Toronto, 
 and left my wife in London, while I run up the 
 line to Goderich, working all the towns, mak- 
 ing money, and having a good time in gen- 
 eral. My wife joined me, and we went on to 
 Sarnia, working the towns, and enjoying our- 
 selves w^ell. Leaving my wife there, I worked 
 out on the difierent branches of the road, and 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 89 
 
 over to Port Huron. From this point, my wife 
 and I went to Milwaukee, and I left my wife in 
 that city while I worked the State of Wisconsin. 
 In the fall we came back to Detroit. Leaving 
 my wife in Detroit, I took a trip back to Wis- 
 consin; worked on up to St. Paul, and then 
 down the river; and, with what I made and beat 
 others out of, I came home in the spring pretty 
 well fixed. 
 
 We now bought furniture and went to house- 
 keeping again ; for I had decided to stay perma- 
 nently in Detroit, and not rove about any more. 
 I said to myself: "The first thing you know, 
 Wills, you will get careless, as in your younger 
 days, and think you know it all, and then you '11 
 have to do time again; then what will your 
 wife do?" Said I: This won't do; it must 
 stop." 
 
 At this time my wife was not in good health, 
 and I loved her, because she was so good and 
 true, and stood by me in all my waywardness. 
 She was a woman who would have died for me ; 
 and may God ever bless her! 
 
 So I said to her: I am going to try and get 
 
 work, and live square, and be a man." I began 
 8 
 
90 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 on Woodward Avenue, and visited every store, 
 looking for a job as salesman ; then I took Jef- 
 ferson Avenue, and went in every wholesale 
 notion-house on the street, to always get "No" 
 for an answer. I do n't wonder that all the an- 
 swers were no at that time; for, two years after 
 this, when I had secured a place, my employer, 
 W. H. Shaw, said to me one day: "Wills, do 
 you know what I took you for that day you ap- 
 plied to me for a job?" I said I did not, and he 
 continued : "I took you for a pickpocket or a 
 burglar, for you had that look." He had "sized 
 me up " pretty well, and no mistake. 
 
 I must tell how I finally came to get into his 
 employment. His place was at No. 162 Jeffer- 
 son Avenue. I went in and asked of the head 
 clerk if they wanted a salesman. He said. No. 
 By this time I was about discouraged ; but he 
 began to talk, and asked me where I was born, 
 and when I told him Troy, he seemed another 
 kind of man altogether. After talking, we found 
 that we were old playmates, and had lived 
 on the same street when boys. Well, he asked 
 me if I had any letters, and I told him I had a 
 hat full of them. I guess if Mr. Shaw had read 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 91 
 
 one of them, he would not have felt like trust- 
 ing much of his wealth with me. 
 
 This man's name was James Deering, and he 
 proved to be a friend at the right time. May- 
 God bless him ! He told me to come in the next 
 morning, and I was on hand. Deering told me 
 Mr. Shaw was in the office ; and I went back 
 there, and took off my hat, which was a thing 
 I hardly ever did to anybody. I asked him if 
 he wanted a salesman. O, how he did look me 
 over ! I looked more like a cow-boy than a 
 competent salesman; but Deering had put in 
 some fine work in the way of talking, which had 
 fixed things. Mr. Shaw asked me if I had ever 
 sold notions, and I told him I had not, but that 
 the thing had not yet been made by the hands 
 of man or woman which I could not sell, and 
 that he would find it out if he would only try 
 me. Just at this point in the game, Deering 
 came in and put in a word about how he ought 
 to have some one to sell goods in the city, as it 
 was a good trade and cash ; no four months' 
 business about it, like the country trade, but 
 clean cash, and could be worked up big. 
 
 Mr. Shaw did not ask to see my hatful of 
 
92 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 recommendations. If lie had, I do n't believe 
 I would be writing about these things now. 
 He did ask, however, if I could give security foi 
 the samples. I had thirteen dollars, which was 
 the bulk of my wealth ; so I told him how I was 
 fixed, and how I had a sick wife. He told me 
 to come in the next morning ; so I went home. 
 I do n't know what Deering told him, but when 
 I went in next morning, Mr. Shaw made up a lot 
 of samples, and told me how to work. I was 
 to have twelve cents commission on every dollar. 
 The first day out I made four dollars. I had to 
 sell and then deliver the goods, and collect the 
 money. I worked in this way and did well, some- 
 times making as high as twelve dollars a day, and 
 Shaw was not long ignorant of how I did things. 
 
 One day he called me up-stairs and said he 
 wanted to talk with me. Now, I was some- 
 thing on a talk myself, so I said, All right," 
 and we went up. He asked me how I would 
 like to work by the year, he to furnish me a 
 horse and buggy. I finally agreed to work for 
 eight hundred dollars a year, and from that time 
 I worked for him until he failed in business. 
 He was one of the best, most generous, and 
 
H. O, WILLS. 
 
 93 
 
 kind-hearted men I ever knew, and could I 
 have helped him, I would have done it, because 
 he was a true friend to me. I pray God to 
 bless him and his forever. 
 
 The goods which I handled for Shaw were 
 sold in grocery-stores, and almost every grocery 
 I went in had a bar-attachment. After the first 
 year I began to drink and mix in ward politics. 
 Now, every body knows that beer, whisky, and 
 ward politics mixed and stirred up together, and 
 taken in big doses day after day, is the very 
 best prescription the devil has for his patients. 
 Satan justf dotes on that prescription ; it is his 
 big card, his leader," and he knows how to 
 play it for all it is worth. Do n't let us ever 
 forget that. The more I took of this prescrip- 
 tion, the more I did n't get any better. I soon 
 got to be the old original Wills, of Troy, of 
 Cleveland, and Chicago. I was always in a fight, 
 if I could get in, and I got my share of slugging. 
 
 I had a large city trade and a large acquaint- 
 ance. I spent money as I always did. I had a bad 
 deal one day. I was driving down the Gratiot 
 road, and a German ran into my buggy and 
 bent the axle. I jumped out to stop him, and 
 
94 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 taking hold of his horse, I held him, and 
 would n't let him go until he told his name. 
 This he would not do, and just then a gang of 
 his countrymen, who were digging a cellar, 
 gathered around us, and began the fun by yell- 
 ing out, "Kill him, kill him! Take the horse 
 away !" and they crowded around me till it 
 looked as though there was going to be trouble. 
 I was alone ; but I was bound to keep the horse 
 until I knew who was to pay the damages, and 
 they were determined to either get the horse or 
 kill me. I made up my mind if I was to be 
 killed that I would not go on the journey alone ; 
 so I pulled out my knife and opened the blade 
 with my teeth, and told the leader: "All I ask 
 is the name of the man who owns this horse, 
 and I am going to know before I let go. If you 
 and your friends want to kill me, I won't charge 
 you a cent ; so just drive your crowd along 
 as fast as you can." They did not move, but a 
 man who was in front of me came up and 
 said : " Wills, let the horse go, and I will tell 
 you his name and where he lives." Accordingly 
 I let go and started for my buggy. Then the 
 crowd surrounded me. I saw I was in for 
 
H. a WILLS. 
 
 95 
 
 it ; so I pulled out the knife again. One man 
 tried to be my friend by throwing his arms 
 around me, while the whole gang rushed on me 
 with paving-stones and clubs. Then I went to 
 work myself, and made a slash at the leader, 
 Fashnute, to cut his throat. I missed it, and 
 the knife only cut his arm. He struck at me 
 again with a club while the others were at me. 
 I made another slash at him, intending to cut off 
 his head, but missed and the knife went in the 
 top of his shoulder, and came out at his wrist, 
 making a'^cut the whole length of his arm. Then 
 they scattered like sheep. I can see it all now — 
 how God kept me and preserved my life. 
 
 I was arrested, tried, and found guilty of 
 simple assault, and it was lucky that the charge 
 was no greater, or I would have gone over the 
 road, for every man in the gang swore falsely. 
 I was fined twenty-five dollars for a thing for 
 which I was not to blame. 
 
 Right here was where Mr. Shaw stepped in 
 and stood by me ; and I believe to-day as I write, 
 that it is through him and his influence that I 
 was saved. His kindness helped to keep me 
 sober about six months. 
 
96 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 But how could I, without the grace of Al- 
 mighty God to help me, keep from drinking 
 when every place where I sold goods had liquors 
 to sell ? I wanted to be a good man, in my heart I 
 wanted to do right and be at home with my family, 
 but the devil was in me. Sometimes he would let 
 me alone for a season, and I would get along fine ; 
 then he would seem to drive me further and 
 further away from what was right. After work- 
 ing for Mr. Shaw for about four years, he failed, 
 and was bought out by Jacob Brown, for whom 
 I worked about four years. Mr. Brown was an- 
 other man who was like a father to me. 
 
 I was pretty straight for a couple of years ; 
 but in the end I was about as bad a man as 
 there was on earth. When I was in liquor I do 
 believe I was even meaner that the devil himself. 
 Joe Berger (now a captain of the Detroit police) 
 used to say,Wills wasthe meanest and most tantal- 
 izing devil at the election-polls that the devil had 
 in his whole army. Many a time I have felt that I 
 would love to club Joe to death ; I was just aching 
 all over to do it ; but when I kept sober and was 
 straight I had no such feelings. So it was not 
 Wills after all^ but the devil which was in Wills. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 97 
 
 My employer would tell me : Wills, do n't 
 drink any for three or six months, and I will 
 give you one hundred dollars." I would start 
 in on it in good faith, and in a week or two 
 something would turn up to make me mad, and 
 off the track I would go again. Then, when I 
 would send word down to the store that I was sick, 
 they knew just as well as I did that I had been 
 drinking, got into a fight, and was either cut all 
 up, or my head was pounded all out of shape. 
 
 Well, this good man stood it a long time, but 
 finally s^id, "I can't and I won't stand it any 
 longer," and he let me go. Then I swore I 
 would never drink again, and I did keep sober 
 for a time. 
 
 I did not stay idle long, for I had a big city 
 trade; and, though I drank and was mean at 
 times, I was pretty well liked. You see, I spent 
 money and worked hard for my friends at elec- 
 tion times, and I held my trade against all 
 comers for fourteen years. A good many dif- 
 ferent men tried to run me out, but it was no 
 use ; they could n't do it. 
 
 When I kept sober I always had a good 
 
 home and well furnished, and took good care 
 9 
 
98 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 of my wife and children. They had the best in 
 the market ; for I was always a good liver my- 
 self, and thought more of my stomach than I 
 did of a bank account. A few weeks after my 
 discharge by Brown, I was employed by S. Simon 
 & Co. May God ever bless Mr. Simon and Ike 
 Mendelssohn, his present partner! How hard 
 they tried to make a man out of a mean devil ! 
 What patience they had! When I think of 
 what those two men bore from me, it makes me 
 wonder. A stranger would have thought, had 
 he seen me at times, that I owned the store, the 
 way I went on. These gentlemen are He- 
 brews, and they were the straightest men I ever 
 knew. I pride myself on knowing something 
 of human nature, and, as such a judge of men, 
 pronounce these men t7^ue blue. 
 
 If I should write all summer I could not tell 
 all they did for me. They were as good to me 
 as they ever could be to one of their own family. 
 I was with them five years. 
 
 I forgot to tell of an incident which hap- 
 pened to me just before I went through Canada, 
 and as it will illustrate the kind of people I 
 sometimes met with, I will tell it here. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 99 
 
 I was canvassing along on Jefferson Avenne, 
 and went into the Linn Brothers' store to show the 
 gentlemen what I had. I asked one to try my 
 pen, telling him it would write four pages of 
 note-paper with one penful of ink. He asked 
 me if 1 had time to wait until he wrote four 
 pages, and I said I had, taking off my hat and 
 sitting down. The gentleman began to write 
 and ask questions. Where did I live? Where 
 was I born ? How many cities had I lived in ? 
 How long had I been selling pens ? Was I mar- 
 ried ? Did I have children ? I suppose he 
 wanted to see if he could tire me out ; but I 
 did not tire, for I knew I had my man. I knew 
 I was making money while I sat there. At 
 last he said: I guess it will do all you say 
 it will, and I will take a box ; how much will 
 it be?" 
 
 " Fifty cents," said I ; and I shoved him a 
 box, with twelve pens and a holder. 
 
 "All right ; I will take it," he said. Just as 
 I was going out, he called : " Hold on ; I be- 
 lieve my book-keeper would like a box," and 
 he took it. Then he continued : " Now I 
 have taken a good deal of your time, and 
 
lOO 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 have the pens, and you have the money; now, 
 really, how much do the pens cost you a 
 box?" 
 
 I told him six cents, and he responded: 
 Humph! no wonder you can spare lots of time 
 for a person to write four pages ; no wonder. 
 Humph ! six cents ! No wonder you have 
 time." 
 
 " Dear sir, do n't go mad," I said. " Here is 
 your money back if you want it; and the pens, 
 too, if you want them." I was not such a guy 
 as to lay the money down for him, you 
 may bet. 
 
 " No, sir ; no, sir. Good morning, good morn- 
 ing," and he showed me out of the office. 
 
 Now, this is only one example of what I 
 have seen and of the men I have met. There 
 was lots of fun in the business. Some would say : 
 Git ; or we '11 throw you out !" (and I would 
 think, What will I be doing all the time ?) Others 
 would say " yes " at once to get rid of me ; 
 others would chat sociably and not buy; and yet 
 others would be gruff enough to sour milk, and 
 yet buy my goods. But to come back to the 
 time I was employed by Simon & Co. T had some 
 
H. O. WILLS, 
 
 lOI 
 
 WONDERFUI. ESCAPES FROM DEATH. 
 
 O, how good is God, that he has spared my 
 life ! I hope and pray to be able to prove to 
 these good men, and all that know me, that our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the lowly Nazarene, is the true 
 Messiah. I hope to prove this by the life I live 
 through him, for without him I can do nothing. 
 
 To show how God spared my life on one oc- 
 casion, I will relate an incident. While I was 
 with Simon & Co. I was out one Friday after- 
 noon. This day always being the longest day 
 I worked, I had finished my sales and was on 
 my way home, when I stopped at a place on the 
 Gratiot road to get a glass of beer. While 
 standing at the bar drinking, with no thought of 
 a fight at all, a clothing merchant, of whom I 
 had bought the coat I had on, came up, and, be- 
 ing drunk, asked me how much I had paid him 
 for the coat I had on my back. I told him I 
 had paid him about one-half more than it was 
 worth. The words were hardly out of my 
 mouth, when a man who was in a gang of five 
 drinking at a table behind me, stepped up and 
 said I was a liar, and had not paid that much." 
 Before these words were cold, I crammed them 
 
I02 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 down his throat, and then the whole gang pitched 
 into me. I soon had the saloon empty ; and, 
 thinking it w^as all over, I was drinking wnth 
 the proprietor, when a man came in and told 
 me that the men were still outside and were 
 going to kill me ; but that if I would go out 
 the back way he w^ould bring my horse around 
 to me on the other street. I asked him if he 
 ever knew me to sneak out the back way, and 
 said: ''No, sir! no, sir! I shall go out where 
 I came in — at the front door ; and if they kill 
 me, you can bet there will be more than one 
 funeral. So I went out and started for my rig 
 that stood in front. These men had been at 
 work repairing the water-works, and had lots 
 of picks and tools outside. So, as I started for 
 my rig, the man w^hom I had first hit came to- 
 wards me with a stone-hammer, but I caught 
 him before he struck me ; held him with one 
 hand, while I punished him with the other. 
 While I w^as at w^ork, another man struck me 
 on the head w^ith a monkey-wrench, and another 
 man struck me from behind with a pick-handle, 
 splitting the back of my head, and knocking 
 me senseless for the instant. As I fell on my 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 knees, the man I was fighting with, having a 
 chance to use his stone-hammer, hit me in' the 
 front of my head, and this last blow brought 
 me to life, as it were. Then I jumped to my 
 feet as though nothing was the matter with 
 me, and soon had the gang in flight. 
 
 To-day, as I think of it, it seems to me that 
 God was watching over me ; for one man seem- 
 ingly killed me with a pick-handle, and the 
 other man brought me to life with a stone- 
 hammer, w^hicli made a hole big enough to lay 
 your finders in. I had the sorest head I ever 
 had in my life, and I have had some bad ones 
 during that time. I got an awful talking to by 
 my employers and by my poor, dear wife. It is a 
 wonder that she is alive to-day. I now went 
 from bad to worse, until Mr. Simon, like Mr. 
 Brown, told me that if I did not stop drinking 
 and fighting and getting into trouble every day, 
 I would have to quit. After this, I tried to hold 
 up a little, but it was no use; I soon got into 
 one of the worst scrapes I ever had. It hap- 
 pened in the same place where the last thing 
 happened, only it was now kept by the notori- 
 ous Tom Keenan. 
 
I04 TWICE BORN. 
 
 I called in, as I did before, to get a drink, 
 and as before, it was on Friday, and Keenan's 
 wife was 'tending bar, and there were three 
 men in the place. One of these men was quar- 
 reling with her about some pool money, which 
 she claimed he owed her, and this man called 
 her bad names. I asked him how he dared call 
 a woman names such as that, and he gave 
 some answer back, at which I slugged him in 
 the jaw just once ; but he showed no fight nor 
 the others who were with him. 
 
 I believe if I had known him I would not 
 have been so quick ; but whenever I saw a 
 woman insulted by a man, I never stopped to 
 get an introduction before hitting that man. 
 
 Well, I thought no more of it. The men 
 went into the back room, where the man whom 
 I had hit was washing himself. 
 
 Tom Keenan had now come in, and I stood 
 with one hand on his shoulder and the other 
 on the counter, talking to him, when two of 
 the men run out of the door as though they 
 had been shot. Soon an officer, who was in cit- 
 izen's clothes, came in, and asked me what was 
 the matter. He had seen my horse and rig out- 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 J 07 
 
 side, and, seeing the two men run out, he said to 
 himself: "Here is trouble." I told him that 
 there was nothing the matter, only a fellow had 
 insulted Keenan's wife, and I had hit him in the 
 jaw — that was all. While we were talking, the 
 man whom I had hit came in a side door, just 
 behind me, with a big hunting-knife, and, be- 
 fore I knew it, drove it into my side twice. 
 Detective Tuttle was the officer ; he gave the 
 man a trip, and had a handcuff on one wrist 
 before he knew he was an officer. Then he be- 
 gan to kick ; but Keenan put his knee on his 
 neck, and the man put up his other hand, and 
 was fast. 
 
 This was the closest call I ever had, and foi 
 three or four days all was dark ; but God in his 
 mercy watched over me, and I got well. 
 
 Some time later I found out that the man I 
 had hit, and who knifed me, was a brother-in- 
 law to Ed. Gillman, and that his name was 
 Charles Moore. He was then about as bad as 
 they make them. The police wanted him out 
 of the way and advised me to push him through ; 
 but Ed. Gillman was my true and good friend, 
 and had been for a long time. Well, he, with 
 
TWICE BORN. 
 
 others, came and talked it over with me. They 
 pictured to me how, if I pushed the matter, 
 Moore would get from ten to fifteen years, and 
 how his old mother loved him, and how his wife 
 was Ed.'s sister. They offered to pay for my 
 time and my doctor's bill while I was laid 
 up, and so I " let up " on him. I told Gillman 
 that which I had never told any one in the West ; 
 I told him all about my past life, how I had 
 done time," and all about it, and told Ed. that 
 if it was necessary at the trial, he could bring 
 up my record, and thus help to get Moore clear. 
 
 However, it was not necessary to do this 
 after all; for Hon. Wm. C. Maybury, Moore's 
 lawyer, got him off with a fine of one hundred 
 dollars, and I was not given away. 
 
 God knows how I would like to win Gillman 
 and some others like him over to His cause. I 
 do pray that I may live so close to Jesus, and 
 follow him so truly and honestly, that these men 
 will finally believe in him. I want to hear Gill- 
 man and that class of men say : Show me thy 
 ways, O Lord, teach me thy paths !" " Lead 
 me in thy truth and teach me, for thou art the 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 109 
 
 God of my salvation ; on thee do I wait all the 
 day." (Psa. xxv, 4, 5.) 
 
 Look at the case of Ben. Hogan. By the 
 grace of Almighty God he no longer does evil, 
 but is the servant of the Most High God, and 
 is trying to do good with all his might. 
 
 After I got well, I did a little better for a 
 while ; but it did not last, and I went from worse 
 to worse, until Mr. Simon, my good friend, could 
 stand it no longer ; and while I was in Cleveland 
 on a visit, he discharged me, and sent postal- 
 cards to all i^y customers that I was no longer in 
 his employ. Accordingly, when I got home, I 
 found myself out in the cold. 
 
 Mr. Simon and his partner are both good and 
 true friends to me now, and I have asked them 
 since I have been converted, whether had they 
 known that I had been a professional burglar 
 and general thief all my life, the)^ would have 
 trusted me with their money as they did. 
 
 They said they would not have trusted me had 
 they known this, but that now they would trust 
 me with any amount. So we see what the blood 
 of Jesus Christ is able to do when it can change 
 
IIO 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 such a miserable man as I was, so that even those 
 men who do not believe in his name would trust a 
 man who was a confessed thief from childhood. 
 What a power there is in Christ ! Surely, " it is 
 the power of God unto salvation to every one 
 that believeth." (Rom. i, i6.) 
 
 After my discharge I thought I was " done 
 up," as I had been in Cleveland ; but I began to 
 look around, and people knew that I could make 
 money for them if I would attend to business and 
 stop drinking. 
 
 I got Messrs. Jacobson, Hertzog & Co. to give 
 me a trial. They were another lot of honest 
 men, square all through, and real good friends 
 to me. Mr. Simon was angry with me because 
 I had acted so badly, and he tried to persuade 
 them not to employ me, because he knew 
 I would take my trade to any store where I 
 worked, the same as I had brought it to him from 
 Mr. Brown's store ; but I promised the firm I never 
 would drink again if they would give me a trial. 
 They concluded to try me, and I went to work 
 for them. I was all right and kept my word 
 about a month, when I was drinking just as bad 
 as ever. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 O, how Mr. Hertzog pleaded with me to do 
 right ! May God bless him and all that belongs 
 to him for the good advice which he gave me ! 
 What chances I have had to be somebody, and 
 what friends I have had to help me ! It seemed to 
 me that this man could do more with me than 
 any man I ever worked for; for after he had 
 talked to me, I always held up for a while, but 
 the devil would get me again. I now come to 
 
 THE GREAT TURNING POINT 
 
 of my life.-* As I have said before, I was always 
 at the caucuses and conventions, and to-day, as 
 I sit and write this account, I believe the mean- 
 est of all devils, and worse than all thieves on 
 earth, is the low ward politician," He will 
 steal the votes and stuff the ballot-box, and an 
 honest man has no more chance in a caucus 
 than the devil has of getting to heaven. 
 
 One of the greatest things I have to regret, 
 among so many hundreds which I do regret, is 
 that I was a Democratic howler and thief. I 
 do n't say, and I do not believe that all Demo- 
 crats are thieves. Horace Greeley once said that 
 all horse-thieves were Democrats, but all Demo- 
 
112 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 crats were not horse-thieves. I say that all 
 Democrats are not as bad as I was. I never 
 could see much difference between the Repub- 
 lican and the Democratic ward politician ; but I 
 honestly believe, from what I have seen, that 
 the very, very little difference is in favor of the 
 honesty of the Republican. I learned so much 
 about both parties that I knew the victory would 
 always be where the money was. 
 
 Now, before I tell about the great turning 
 point in my life, which I spoke of, which was 
 just after the fall caucus, October 25, 1883, where 
 I had done my share of stealing votes, I wish 
 to talk about some of the terrible things I have 
 been through ; things which I have suffered, 
 because I was so wicked, and things which I 
 have not yet spoken of 
 
 I have been showered with ice-cold water, 
 out of the mines ; I have worn the ball and 
 chain ; I have been bucked, and I have worn the 
 iron collar with a padlock to keep it on, and it 
 needed no starch to keep it stiff. 
 
 O, what terrible punishments I have had ! 
 But I never squealed or hollered in my life but 
 twice. Once in Clinton Prison, when I was 
 
//. O. WILLS. 
 
 113 
 
 locked up in the dungeon; and once in Detroit, 
 which Iwill tell about when I write the story of 
 the turning point in my life. This story will tell 
 how God manifested himself to me. 
 
 I have often wondered that but one man in 
 Detroit ever spoke to me about hell. This one 
 man was W. H. Suite. He used to say to me, 
 *' Wills, you are surely going to hell if you keep 
 on in the way you are going," and I would an- 
 swer : "All right; I will have lots of company 
 when I get there." And now, whenever I tell 
 the wicked what God says, " The wicked shall 
 be cast into hell, and all the nations that forget 
 God " (Psa. ix, 17), some of them answer me 
 as I did Suite — -that they will have lots of com- 
 pany. 
 
 Now as to the time I was locked up in 
 the dungeon in Clinton Prison. This dungeon 
 was a hell. On each side of me was a cell, and 
 both were occupied. Above me was another, 
 while in front a guard passed every half hour. 
 Still there was no compan}^ for me. No man 
 can describe how awful it is. Imagine yourself 
 in a bank-vault, with the door shut on you, and 
 
 you aware of the fact that they had lost the 
 
 10 
 
114 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 combination, are certain that you will never get 
 out. Do you think either the guard outside or 
 those above and around you would be any com- 
 pany for you ? O, how dark my dungeon was ! 
 So black and dark was it that it seemed thick 
 with black space, and full of lifeless air. No 
 company for me. If we continue in our wicked- 
 ness, and do not repent of our sins, the darkness 
 of a dungeon will be bright sunlight, compared 
 to the terrible darkness of hell, where the wicked 
 will surely go. 
 
 I used to think in those days that I had a little 
 sand," and could stand punishment, but it was 
 nothing. We had a prisoner called Tom Kelly 
 who was the devil in the flesh — like Christ was 
 the Lord in the flesh. He was sent to Sing 
 Sing from New York City for twenty years for 
 burglary in the first degree, but he was trans- 
 ferred to Clinton Prison, because they could do 
 nothing with him. He was always trying to es- 
 cape, and, always failing, invariably got punished 
 for the effort. After he was in the Clinton Prison 
 a week or two, he resumed his schemes and 
 working to escape, and kept right on getting 
 punishment. They would shower this man until 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 "5 
 
 he was drowned, then bring him to. The reader 
 can have no conception how terrible this punish- 
 ment is. Hands and feet in stocks, neck and head 
 in a trough filled with ice-cold water, and with a 
 towel packed around your neck so that the water 
 comes up around your mouth. Then the keeper 
 begins to talk to you. He asks if you will 
 behave, and the minute you speak he pulls the 
 string, and you do n't have a chance to catch 
 your breath. The little breath you have is taken 
 away by the rush of cold water, and it do n't 
 take long to drown you. 
 
 Now, when the man Kelly was served in this 
 way, and was brought to all shaking and shiver- 
 ing, as though his teeth would rattle out of his 
 head, they would ask him if he would behave 
 himself. He would take a breath, and then spit 
 in their faces. Next, they would buck and gag 
 him. To do this, they would handcuff Kelly's 
 wrists together tightly. Then they made him 
 sit on the stone floor of the cell, with his heels 
 drawn as closely to his buttocks as possible, thus 
 forcing his knees close up to his breast. Then his 
 fastened hands would be passed over his knees, 
 an arm on either side of his legs. Next a short 
 
Ii6 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 iron bar would be passed through, over the arms 
 and under the knees, and there he was abso- 
 lutely helpless. Next a wooden gag would be 
 put in his mouth, and tightly fastened there by 
 means of cords passing around either side, and 
 tied at the back of the head. Thus restrained, 
 and with no support except the floor, Kelly would 
 sit upright as long as possible, and then, through 
 pure fatigue, fall over to one side or the other, 
 and lie there until some keeper would come 
 along and set him up again. It is a hellish pun- 
 ishment, and becomes absolute torture in a very 
 short while. 
 
 But Kelly was a man of iron will, and with 
 the disposition of a bull-dog. Of course he could 
 not speak while bucked and gagged, and when 
 they would take out the gag that he might say 
 whether or not he would behave, he would again 
 spit in their faces. 
 
 The keeper would say : Will nothing tame 
 this man ?" Then I heard some of them say : 
 " Yes, yes ; forty-eight hours in the dungeon will 
 make even this devil crawl over the stone flags 
 in the hall of the prison, and beg like a whipped 
 school-boy. So into the dungeon he goes." 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 117 
 
 Let me tell how one feels while in this dun- 
 geon. It seems as though the walls were coming 
 together, and that, closing in on you, you would 
 soon be in a stone coffin, unable to move a finger. 
 Then you get so hungry, it seems as though 
 you could eat a stone, and there, right before you, 
 would appear tables loaded with food, rivers of 
 waters, and banks of fruit, and you not able to 
 even touch a thing, or stoop to get a drink. Next 
 the awful room would seem filled with all the 
 devils in hell, who had come for you and were 
 dancing all around you, grinning and shooting 
 fire-balls at you. You need not shout, no one 
 can hear you ; the doors are too thick, and the 
 walls are very heavily built of stone. 
 
 Well, this was the hell where Kelly was put, 
 and when his time was up they asked him if 
 he would behave himself, if they would let 
 him out? 
 
 O God, yes!" he cried in terror; " let me 
 out ! I will behave." 
 
 Thus, you see, may the horrors of a dungeon 
 on earth, made by the hands of man, affect a 
 strong man. What then must be the suffering 
 of those to whom God will say on that great day, 
 
Ii8 TWICE BORN. 
 
 " Bind him and cast him into outer darkness," 
 where there will be weeping and wailing ! Com- 
 pared to the sufferings in a dungeon made of 
 stone, it will be as an ocean to a drop of water. 
 When God locks the door of hell on us, the key 
 or combination is lost forever. I pray that the 
 words which are here written, by one whom God 
 in his mercy has saved, may rescue some from 
 this hell. 
 
 I used to say when in prison, when the min- 
 ister was preaching (and he was a poor preacher, 
 too) : " I wonder if that man would be preaching 
 like that, if, when a boy, he had been obliged to 
 sleep in a fish-stand, or under the docks, or in a 
 dry-goods box?" Then I would say: "I could 
 be good, too, if some one paid me for it, as they 
 paid him, at the rate of one thousand five hun- 
 dred dollars a year. I, too, would be good if I 
 had nothing to do but go around and talk, and 
 read the Bible, and get paid for it." 
 
 Well, friends, the time did come when I, too, 
 went around to preach and read the Bible, and I 
 did not get the one thousand five hundred dol- 
 lars either. 
 
 I hope no man will ever look to be converted 
 
H, O. WILLS. 
 
 121 
 
 just as I was. Just rest on God's promised 
 word, and believe what he says. I have proved 
 again and again, that God spoke the truth when 
 he said : " Be not deceived; God is not mocked : 
 for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
 reap." Hence I say, once again, do n't wait to 
 be converted just as I was, because you might 
 not live to go through it. I happened to have 
 *'sand" enough to bear it, and you might not 
 have this "sand." Don't wait, but believe in 
 God now. 
 
 Cease to do evil, and begin to do well. 
 
 Now, as you read this book, is the time to 
 begin. Take God at his word, and come to him 
 just as you are ; in prison or out of prison, God 
 will receive you, because he has said : " He that 
 Cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." 
 
 On the night of October 25, 1883, in the city 
 
 of Detroit, State of Michigan, I reached my home, 
 
 No. 309 St. Aubin Avenue. I got home early, 
 
 perfectly sober, and in my right mind. My 
 
 stomach was not out of order, and, so far as I 
 
 could tell, I was in perfect health. I was a 
 
 great hand to -read in bed ; and so that evening 
 
 I went to bed to read by the light of a large 
 1 1 
 
122 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 study lamp at the head of my bed, and, as was my 
 custom, I had my tobacco and cigars on a stand 
 at the head of the bed. (I had been for over 
 thirty years an inveterate user of and slave to 
 tobacco.) The stand near the head of my bed 
 was full of books, magazines, and papers, and not 
 one religious work in the lot. My wife was at 
 her sewing in the adjoining room. As I said, I 
 went to bed early and in my right mind, except 
 that I had no more thought of God than that I 
 would discover a method of making six out of 
 two and two. I had been to no meetings, I had 
 read no tracts, I had not heard any preacher of 
 the gospel, and I do not believe I had opened our 
 Bible since coming from prison, save to look at 
 a few pictures my wife kept there for want of a 
 better place. 
 
 Thus what followed that night can not be 
 credited to any religious influence through man's 
 intercourse with man ; and neither may it be at- 
 tributed to anything I had read, eaten, or seen. 
 No one had ever talked to me about my soul 
 since my dear, dead mother's departure, save 
 W. H. Suite, to whom I have already alluded 
 as telling me I was going direct to hell, sure. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 123 
 
 I had not met or talked with Mr. Suite that day, 
 or within a great many days. You see, I hated 
 him most bitterly, and was always on the alert 
 to avoid him. No, it was not me that hated 
 him; it was the devil, the "old" Wills, who 
 despised and would have killed him had he 
 dared to do such a thing. 
 
 About nine o'clock my wife came in to go to 
 bed. I was still reading, but as she came in I 
 asked her if there was any nervine in the house ; 
 if she had any valerian or other quieting medi- 
 cine. She said she had not, and so I got out 
 of bed and dressed myself. Then I went to 
 the drug-store, two squares away, and got a 
 bottle of valerian and returned. 
 
 If you were in good health, and in your 
 right mind when you went to bed," I think I 
 hear some reader say, " and if you had not been 
 drinking, and were in every way all right when 
 you retired, what sudden ailment had seized 
 you ?" you ask. 
 
 I will tell you. Call it a whisky delirium, 
 the tremens, superstition, an overloaded stomach, 
 or what you will, no earthly theory, no words 
 of man, no human power can cause me to 
 
124 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 change my belief as to the cause and details of 
 the revelation. 
 
 When I returned from the drug-store I asked 
 my wife to bathe my feet, and she did so. I 
 took two doses of valerian, and returned to my 
 bed. Picking up my book, I tried to resume 
 reading, my wife standing at the time at the 
 bureau. I could not read ; I could not lie still ; 
 ever}' nerve in me was acutely sensitive; the air 
 seemed to be rapidly becoming less and less 
 in quantity ; and, laying my book down on the 
 stand, I said to my wife : " Mamma, I am going 
 to die." 
 
 She tried to appear unalarmed, and smilingly 
 turned to me, with: "Why do you think so?" 
 
 This is the last of Wills," I said. "I have 
 been such a bad man, such a devil all my life, 
 that God is tired of me. The book is full, and 
 I am surely going to die." 
 
 My wife tried to quiet me kindly, but I in- 
 sisted; and as true as there is a God, I felt 
 that I was dying — that I would die. I asked 
 her to get the children, that I might bid them 
 good-bye ; and, realizing how bad a man I had 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 125 
 
 been, and feeling guilty because I had been so 
 wicked a husband, I craved her pardon, and 
 begged the forgiveness she so quickly gave. 
 
 As I talked with her, there suddenly appeared 
 on the ceiling directly over my bed a dazzling 
 white light about the size of a bean. (Bear in 
 mind that, at the time, my study-lamp was burn- 
 ing, and there was no darkness in the room.) 
 The light on the ceiling increased in size, and 
 shaped itself until it seemed like a large eye, 
 looking directly down on me. If I could pray 
 always as I began 'to pray as I saw the eye, 
 and as I prayed for a long time thereafter, I 
 would now do nothing else. O how I called to 
 God to forgive me, a sinner, and how (remem- 
 bering what I had heard while in prison about 
 Christ's forgiveness of the thief on the cross), 
 O how I told God that I was a thief, and had 
 sinned against him, and how I begged him to 
 forgive and save me ! 
 
 As I pleaded, some invisible and irrepressible 
 power gave me such a shaking as could not 
 have been duplicated by the combined efforts of 
 six men, each as large as myself, and I weighed 
 
126 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 two hundred pounds. Not a hand touched me. 
 I was alone ; for by this time my wife had gone 
 for Dr. J. E. Clark, my family physician. 
 
 What was it, or who was it that shook me ? 
 Do you ask the question, or do you say it was 
 imagination, a nightmare, superstition, or delir- 
 ium tremens? Say what you will, I got the 
 shaking up, and I got it good! It seemed at 
 times as though I would go bang to the ceiling. 
 And sweat ! Well, I have sweat in the foundry, 
 I have sweat in the dungeon, but never did the 
 perspiration run off from me as it did that 
 night. 
 
 When my wife reached Dr. Clark's office, he 
 asked her what was the matter, and she told 
 him I was praying so loudly that the whole 
 neighborhood was out. He told her that if 
 H. O. Wills was praying, she must get some 
 other doctor or some one else, as he (the doctor) 
 did not know how to pray. So she returned, to 
 reach my side just after I had seen the vision of 
 the eye a second time. When she told me what 
 the doctor had said, I cried: "Hurry, mamma; 
 hurry and bring Mr. Suite here, quick!" 
 
 So off she went, and at my request, for the 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 127 
 
 man I hated above all men on earth. What did 
 I want of him? I hear you ask the question, 
 and it is the question I asked myself after my 
 wife had started after him. Then I thought, in 
 fact I was cock-sure, that I would die if I saw 
 the eye a third time. I remembered that I had 
 read in prison that no man could see God and 
 live, and it seemed to me that I had twice seen 
 God's eye, and that each time it looked me 
 through and through. 
 
 Finally, after a third shaking, and with my 
 bed fairly saturated with perspiration, I said to 
 myself, "It is almost over," and, straightening 
 myself out as best I could, I folded my hands 
 over my breast, so that if I died before my wife 
 returned, she would find me laid out. 
 
 Mr. Suite's wife was opposed to his coming 
 over in answer to my request, because she knew 
 how I had hated him, and feared danger; but 
 when (after asking my wife what was the trouble) 
 she told him I was praying, he did not stop long. 
 I believe he would have gone into the portals of 
 hell had he heard that some one was there pray- 
 ing to God for help. You see, he had himself 
 been snatched from hell, and was no coward. 
 
128 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 He is to-day no coward, and doCvS not lack cour- 
 age to do anything that requires that qualit)^ in 
 doing God's service. 
 
 Well, just before Mr. Suite entered my house 
 with my wife, I saw, or seemed to see — as many 
 of my good friends have asked me to put it — 
 that bright, searching eye on the ceiling, and 
 then came such a shaking up as put the pre- 
 ceding shakes in the shade. Catching a view 
 of Mr. Suite as he entered, I cried : " Mr. Suite, 
 I am lost! I am lost ! lost 1" 
 
 "Thank God, you are lost!" he cried, as he 
 stepped to my bedside. 
 
 Even then I thought I was dying, and I said, 
 taking Mr. Suite's hand : " Have I lost my senses ? 
 am I out of my mind ?" and he said I was not. 
 
 Be sure !" I cried. " Do you think I am crazy; 
 do you think I know what I am talking about?" 
 He answered : "I am sure you are sane ; but 
 what 's the matter ?" 
 
 Be sure I have not been drinking ; that I 
 have not got the tremens, that I am in my right 
 mind !" I said. 
 
 ''Yes, go on; what is it?" said Mr. Suite. 
 
 " Well," I said ; I know there is a God ! I 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 129 
 
 know it for sure, because he lias been here, and 
 I have seen hini." 
 
 Mr. Suite said: Yes, Wills, I know, too, that 
 there is a God." And then, still believing that 
 I had but a short time to live, I said : " Mr. Suite, 
 I want you to tell the boys out in the street and 
 over in the saloon that I died believing in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and I know that he is the 
 Christ. Do n't forget to tell them that I died 
 believing in and praying to him." 
 
 Mr. Suite was sitting in a rocking-chair, and 
 as I finished speaking he said to me, in a 
 voice I never heard him use before or since ; 
 " Wills, you are not going to die. God has a 
 great work for you to do. Will you do it?" 
 
 Yes !" I answered. Then he asked a ques- 
 tion I had never heard put to any one before, and 
 have not heard it since : Have you counted 
 the cost ?" he asked. Have you counted the 
 great cost in this ? You will lose your business ; 
 men will scoff at you, and mock and laugh at 
 you. Will you stand all this patiently and for 
 God ? Will you tell of this night on the com- 
 mons and on the street-corners, in the saloons, 
 and wherever you have a chance to do so?'* 
 
I30 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 Again I said, "Yes," and then shouting, 
 " Glory to God!" Mr. Suite sang a hymn, and I, 
 having become calm and supremely happy, list- 
 ened with all the ears I had. Then he prayed 
 with me and for me for a long time. Finally, 
 with a kind " good night," and a warning to be 
 true to God, he left me. 
 
 I soon fell asleep, and after sleeping about 
 two hours I got up, had breakfast, and went to 
 my work of delivering goods. I came home 
 about eleven o'clock A. M., my wife meeting me 
 radiant and joyful at the door. Peace and hap- 
 piness had come to us at last. 
 
 I wish to say, parenthetically, at this point, 
 that Mr. Suite still lives, thank God, and is still 
 a resident of Detroit. To him, and to the citi- 
 zens of Detroit, where I have lived sixteen 
 years, and who knew the old Wills, and who 
 know the new Wills, I refer any doubting per- 
 son — and I can not blame any person, not yet 
 knowing God and his ways, for doubting my 
 story — who may wish to investigate my history. 
 Some people, not caring to investigate, may say: 
 " Bosh ! Crazy Wills ! Imagination !" Well, 
 for the sake of argument, let us admit that it is 
 
O. WILLS, 
 
 imagination. Then, from that awful night to 
 the present time, I have imagined that I don't 
 want to drink beer or liquor ; my imagination 
 has kept from me all desire to swear, lie, or 
 steal ; imagination has driven all the wicked 
 lust out of my eye and out of my flesh. Im- 
 agination has taught me to love God with all 
 my soul and mind and strength, and to hate the 
 devil and all his works. Imagination prompts 
 me to praise God's holy name. This being so, 
 all I can say is, that it is the most wonderful and 
 most blessed imagination I have yet heard about. 
 O, come and get some of this imagination, quick! 
 quick ! before it is too late ! Turn unto the I^ord, 
 and he will receive you. He that cometh unto 
 me, I will in no wise cast out." (Isa. i, i8.) 
 Read the good news ! 
 
 There you will find out how I was received, 
 and then you will learn why it was that the sec- 
 ond morning after my new birth I was able to 
 say to my wife : "I am not an Indian giver, and 
 when I gave my heart to Christ the other night 
 I gave it all to him and forever. In return, he 
 has given me one of flesh for the stony thing I 
 once called a heart." 
 
132 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 HOW THE NEWS WAS RECEIVED. 
 
 For nine years I had been known in Detroit 
 as "a tough," as wicked as the worst of them, 
 ready to fight at the drop of the hat ; absolutely 
 shameless in my devotion to vice ; drunk most 
 of the time, and disgraceful the rest of the time. 
 In brief, I was a faithful servant of the devil, doing 
 quickly, and to the best of my ability, whatever 
 he told me to do. Consequently, you may be 
 sure no " cannon-ball " train or fast-mail serv- 
 ice were required to quickly spread the news of 
 my conversion all over every part of the beau- 
 tiful City of the Straits, 
 
 Then I began to catch it ! Then I learned 
 the force of Mr. Suite's " Have you counted the 
 cost ?" There was hardly a block on any street 
 in the city that I did not hear, Come, Wills, 
 have a drink;" and, thank God, not one of those 
 invitations from that time to this has received 
 from me any other than a negative answer. 
 When I would say to my old cronies that I 
 would not drink, that I was through with beer 
 and all liquors, then they began to call me a 
 crank, a crazy bigot, a Salvation Army lunatic. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 135 
 
 Crank, crank !" was the most frequent cry, and 
 I could only say: "Well, a crank is something 
 that turns things around and upside down, and, 
 I thank God, he has seen fit to make of me a 
 crank to do my share toward upsetting the devil 
 and all that is his." 
 
 I kept working for Jacobson & Co. ; but even- 
 ings and Sundays, and whenever I could get a 
 chance or a hearer — at saloons, on the street- 
 corners, about the Soldiers' Monument, in stores, 
 anywhere, and at any time — I talked the word 
 of God. My Soldiers' Monument meetings were 
 grand successes in the cause of the good, great 
 Friend I had found. 
 
 As an example of the invariable courtesy 
 with which I have been treated by the press 
 everywhere, I present the following notice of 
 one of my meetings, which was published by 
 the Free Press : 
 
 About six o'clock last evening a buggy, drawn 
 by a meek little bay horse, stopped in front of the 
 Soldiers' Monument. It contained a thick-set, mid- 
 dle-aged man, with a heavy mustache, dark clothes, 
 and black Derby hat. A silver cross gleamed on 
 the lapel of his coat. He planted a short pole in 
 the buggy, and displayed a banner, with the words. 
 
136 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 in big letters : " Old Kentuck}- Bourbon Whisky." 
 Then, standing up, he began singing, in a hoarse 
 voice, " Come to Jesus." There were only two or 
 three boot-blacks on hand when he commenced; but 
 the streets were filled with people going home from 
 work, and in less than five minutes a motlej^ crowd 
 of men and boys surrounded the buggy, and stared 
 at the singer, whose song was strangely out of keep- 
 ing with the words painted on his sign. 
 
 "Praise God for the blood of the Lamb!" 
 shouted the man with the big mustache. " Praise 
 the Lord because he has made it possible for all 
 men to be saved 1 The good Book tells us that God 
 so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not per- 
 ish, but have eternal life. I w^as a great sinner 
 until I found God. For fort^-six years I was a thief, 
 a liar, and a drunkard. I couldn't say fifty words 
 without forty-five of 'em being oaths and lies. But 
 at last a great change came over me. The blessed 
 spirit of God filled m}^ heart, and I began to lead a 
 new life. O, I can 't begin to tell what a glad day 
 that was when I experienced religion. The old 
 H. O. Wills died, and a new man took his place. 
 Thank God, old Wills is dead!" 
 
 About this time a beer-wagon paused on the 
 edge of the crowd. It bore a sign in big letters : 
 " Philip Best's Milwaukee Lager." The driver, a 
 ros3--faced j-oung German, named Otto Schoefifler, 
 had noticed Brother Wills's placard, and stopped to 
 hear what^he was talking about. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 " I 've come down here to give you a gospel 
 temperance lecture," continued Brother Wills, shak- 
 ing out a placard, inscribed, " Fresh Cold Lager." 
 Then, observing the beer- wagon, he displayed an- 
 other, labeled, "Rotten Barley-water," and shouted: 
 " That 's what your cool, fresh lager is — rotten bar- 
 ley water !" 
 
 " Bet you a hundred dollars !" cried Schoeffler, 
 
 Brother Wills paid no further attention to the 
 beer- wagon, and went on v/ith his harangue. After 
 talking about twenty minutes, he gave way to a 
 young man named Charles Ege, who climbed into 
 the buggy, and told the crowd what a bad egg he 
 used to be until he experienced religion a couple 
 of years ago. He urged young men to let liquor 
 alone, and stop buying fine clothes and plug-hats 
 for saloon-keepers. 
 
 Ege talked about ten minutes, and Brother Wills 
 followed, displaying more placards, such as " $io 
 or 90 days ;" " Murder — The Sentence of the Court 
 is that You be Confined in State Prison ;" " Old 
 Sour Mash," and others, designed to illustrate his 
 remarks on the evil of intemperance. At 6.30 
 o'clock the meeting closed, and Brother Wills drove 
 away, after distributing a lot of tracts, headed, 
 ' Have you Heard the Good News ?" He announced 
 that he would hold gospel temperance-meetings at 
 the monument every evening at six o'clock until 
 further notice. 
 
 Mr. Wills is looking around for a chance to start 
 a mission near the market. It was a noticeable fact 
 
138 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 last evening that nobody in the crowd tiied to guy 
 him or make an}^ disturbance. The man is so hon- 
 est and sincere, and there is so much homely truth 
 in what he says, that his words are Hstened to with 
 respectful attention, even by those who are not in 
 sympathy with the cause he represents. 
 
 Was I ashamed ? Ashamed of Christ ! Not 
 a bit of it. Was I bashful ? What, me an old 
 fakir? Not much. I had talked to too many 
 street-crowds, and, having good lungs, I could 
 make myself heard. No, I gloried in my new 
 work, and was getting on. The devil was not 
 to be so easily defeated. Finding he could not 
 embarrass me, he did the next thing. He tried 
 to break down my temper O, how he has 
 tugged and tugged away to make me mad ! 
 When I would be selling goods in a store, he 
 would send men up to me who would shove a 
 glass full of beer under my nose, and say : 
 **Come, crank, have a drink ;" and the men, too, 
 would not have dared three months earlier to 
 have looked crooked at me. I would say to 
 these men : " Will you please tell me what 
 keeps my hands down by my side, or why I 
 do n*t knock your nose all over your face 
 
H, O. WILLS. 
 
 139 
 
 Then when they would look frightened and 
 draw away, I would add: "I'll tell you what's 
 the matter. It is because the old Wills you used 
 to know and get drunk with, is dead. It is the 
 new Wills you are testing, and you are putting 
 your tests against a man who has the same spirit 
 in him that was in Christ, when, as he was on 
 the cross, he lifted up his eyes saying : ' Father, 
 forgive them, they know not what they do.' " 
 
 On the other hand, my new life was not all 
 a fight against the devil, for God sent me a few 
 good friends who would come to my home to 
 pray with me, to teach me, and to read God's 
 iioly Word to me. One of those friends, one 
 who trusted me and believed in me, is now with 
 her God in heaven. Alas ! I did not know Mrs. 
 Orrilla Hawley and her whole worth until after 
 she was gone. She was a noble Christian woman, 
 whose silver hair and serene face were a bene- 
 diction upon all who met her. Another equally 
 kind supporter and friend was the good Mrs. 
 S. B. McNeil, late a missionary in Kgypt. God 
 bless both of these noble women! 
 
 Then there was the Jefferson Avenue Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church congregation, and their 
 
140 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 pastor, Wm. Dawe, who were very kind to me. 
 Many a time after my first relation of my " ex- 
 perience " — as alluded to in Rev. Mr. Dawe's 
 introduction to this volume — have I listened to 
 that pastor's lessons, crying all through the ser- 
 mons. My ! what food it was to my hungry, 
 broken spirit ! 
 
 Finally, Mrs. McNeil came to me one day, 
 and asked how I would like to talk to three 
 thousand people at once. I said I would like it 
 immensely, and she said : ^' Come with me on 
 Franklin Street, and talk to the poor people there, 
 who not only knew the old Wills, but who will 
 listen to and be benefited by the new Wills. 
 There's your start. Begin at the foot of the 
 ladder, and some day you will reach the top, if 
 you keep low. Then, some day, you will be 
 able to talk to three thousand, yes, ten thousand 
 people. Do n't begin at the top ; for starting 
 there, there is but one way to go, unless you 
 jump clear of the ladder." 
 
 I accordingly took her advice, and talked to 
 the people on Franklin Street, and in about the 
 " Potomac " quarters. I began at the foot of the 
 ladder ; and I am there yet, thank God. More 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 141 
 
 than that, I hope to stay there until God, the 
 good Master, shall say, " Come up higher." 
 
 HOW TO I.OSK ONE'S BUSINESS. 
 
 Up to the time I began taking Sister McNeil's 
 advice, the idea of becoming a temperance-talker 
 had not entered my head, and of course I had 
 never, publicly, said much about temperance. 
 
 Hence, although I had become quite well 
 known in the city as a "religious crank," I had 
 thus far been able to hold the whole of my trade 
 as a salesman. The time was at hand, how- 
 ever, when I was to be put through the fire for 
 a test. God only wants workers who are tried 
 and true. He has no place for cowards in his 
 army. 
 
 I had made the acquaintance of an evangelist 
 named Murrell, who was conducting a series of 
 revival meetings near the city limits, and who 
 had invited me to visit him. So, one day, not 
 being especially busy, I drove over to his house. 
 Mind you, up to this time I had never, at any 
 of my meetings, spoken a word about temper- 
 ance. I was at his house most of the forenoon, 
 during which time he played and sang for me, 
 
142 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 and just before dinner I was looking around the 
 room at the pictures on the walls. Presently 
 my attention was fastened on one picture show- 
 ing a white cross, and just above it were the 
 words, " He died for me." Mr. Murrell re- 
 marked that that picture had been presented to 
 him when he was a lad, that he prized it highly, 
 and would almost part with anything else rather 
 than that. Then dinner came, after which I 
 went home. Three days after that, while hold- 
 ing family service at my home, the Spirit of God 
 told me to start a temperance organization, and 
 take the white cross with its motto, " He died 
 for me," as the design for the badge of the or- 
 ganization. When God tells me to do anything, 
 I do it as soon as I can, and I did as he directed. 
 I began at once the organization of the White 
 Cross Temperance Society. At first I used little 
 badges made of cloth, but soon we had grown 
 so in members and resources that we were able 
 to have badges made of white metal. Soon the 
 nature of my new work became generally known 
 throughout the city, and almost as soon I was 
 out of business, commercially speaking. 
 
 You see all of my customers sold liquor, and 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 143 
 
 I was a confessed public organizer and worker 
 against that branch of their business. My cus- 
 tomers dropped me like a hot potato. Friends, 
 some of them Christians too, advised me to let 
 the temperance question alone, and talk nothing 
 but religion ; but God had told me to do this, 
 and he had my promise. I could not and I did 
 not want to break it. I knew that if I could 
 not sell goods any longer, I could and would 
 dig in the streets if necessary to get a living. 
 I had started to serve God with my whole soul, 
 and, with his help, I would never " gig " back on 
 my word. 
 
 For fifteen months after this I worked at 
 whatever I could get to do that was honorable, 
 even though it was humble, and so took care o'f 
 myself. Meanwhile the White Cross Society 
 grew, until thousands of the little badges, worn 
 on the outside of the coat — not on the vest or 
 under the lapel of the coat — testified to the power 
 of God in rescuing lost souls from the fiendish 
 grip of the devil's adjutants, the saloon and 
 liquor-men. Finally a grand lodge of the White 
 Cross was organized ; and so we grew, and praised 
 God that many of the hardest of hardened sin- 
 
144 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 ners were turned to God by our efforts. Clubs 
 existed all over the city and country ; many clubs 
 were organized throughout the State, and the 
 work had an overflow, until many clubs existed 
 in Canada. The work was now seen to be 
 plainly the work of God. The clergy stood by 
 me most nobly ; the ground was broken, and 
 the seed, which is the Word, was sown. Since 
 that time, and even now (and I pray God it may 
 continue for a long time to come), good, glorious 
 fruits are the result. As one of many, many 
 illustrations of this work and its results, I pre- 
 sent the following : 
 
 ALMOST LOST. 
 
 " Is not this a brand plucked from the fire [Zech. m, 2^ 
 CHARI.KS Getty, the subject of the following 
 sketch, died in the village of Leamington, County 
 of Essex, Canada, on Sabbath, the 28th of March, 
 1886, at the early age of thirty-two years. Born 
 and brought up in ordinary circumstances, his life 
 was spent in the occupations common to the lot of 
 the farmer or working-man. About seven j^ears 
 ago he settled a little to the west of the village, on 
 a farm adjoining that of Mr. Theodore Quick. Hav- 
 ing been addicted to the excessive use of intoxicat- 
 ing liquors and profane language, Mrs. Quick felt 
 impelled to talk to him about his manner of life, and 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 reprove him for his conduct ; but with no good 
 effect. She often spoke to him about his soul, 
 heaven, hell, and eternity. He listened respectfully, 
 but would not carry on any conversation. To her 
 only would he listen. All others attempting to speak 
 to him were at once and decisively repelled. He 
 would say : I do n't believe in Christianity ; I do n't 
 bother myself about hell." He avowed himself to 
 be an atheist, and was regarded one of the most 
 hardened unbelievers in the village and vicinity. 
 His wife was brought under serious conviction dur- 
 ing a revival meeting held some time ago in the 
 village. Rev. Mr. Harris called one day to see and 
 converse with her. Mr. Getty was present, but would 
 allow no conversation on divine subjects with him- 
 self. During prayer, which was permitted to be 
 offered, he remained sitting, and sneered at the peti- 
 tions offered up. 
 
 Some time ago consumption laid its hand upon 
 him, and brought him low. Mr. Harris visited him 
 in his sickness, and upon his entrance to the sick- 
 room said : "I have come to see you." " O !" was 
 the reply. "I do n't wish to hear anything about 
 religion ; I am perfectly satisfied." He persisted in 
 saying that man is no better than the lower animals, 
 and perishes like them. " Do you wish to die like 
 a beast?" "I do," was the reply. "I want to be 
 left to myself. I have no preparation to make." 
 No prayer was offered up on this occasion. On a 
 subsequent visit, the same gentleman was greeted 
 with the words, " Are you come to palaver again 
 13 
 
146 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 about religion?" To his own friends he often said 
 he hated to hear anything said about rehgion. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Burtch also visited him. He was 
 kindly received ; but Mr. Getty would not allow him 
 to read the Bible or pray, notwithstanding the ear- 
 nest entreaties of ^his wife to allow him to do so 
 God, who 
 
 " Moves in a mysterious way, 
 His wonders to perform," 
 
 had his agents secretly at work to break this hard- 
 ened man. To all appearance, man's words of warn- 
 ing and advice were as the gentle ripples touching the 
 foot of the rock-bound coast, leaving no trace of 
 their touch on the towering cliff. Some Christian 
 friends who, unknown to each other, had become 
 secretly drawn to this man, bore him on the arms of 
 their faith to their Savior. Their prayers had for some 
 time been wafted on high for the conversion of this 
 enemy of God and his truth. As his life kept ebb- 
 ing away, their hopes became fewer ; but their 
 faith did not falter. The impression was made on 
 their minds that he would yet become a trophy of 
 the redeeming grace of God. Mr. H. O. Wills, of 
 the McAuley Mission, Detroit, was in lycamington 
 addressing meetings. On the afternoon of Tuesday, 
 the 1 6th of March, after his address in the Presby- 
 terian Church, he and the village minister agreed 
 to offer up, separately, secret prayers for Mr. Getty 
 and others. On Friday evening Mr. Wills called 
 at the house of the dying man. Mr. Wills told of 
 his own conversion, and then asked to be allowed 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 147 
 
 to pray. The request was refused, whereupon Mr. 
 Wills said he would pray elsewhere that God would 
 deal savingly with him. As the invalid was apparently 
 sinking fast Mrs. Quick felt impelled, in her spirit, to 
 speak once more to him of his state. On the Satur- 
 day forenoon (the 20th) she warned him, that should 
 he die as he then was, he would be lost forever ; 
 and that if he were lost, her words would ring in his 
 ears through all eternity. He then showed the first 
 signs of interest in his spiritual state; arid asked 
 some of his neighbors, who had called, if they be- 
 lieved in the existence of a God, a heaven, and a 
 hell. Shortly before dinner-time, Mr. Fuller, banker, 
 called on business. When the business was trans- 
 acted, Mr. Fuller spoke seriously to him ; told him 
 of his position before God, and pressed on him the 
 necessity of fleeing from the wrath to come. By 
 way of an apology Mr. Getty replied : " I never 
 wronged or cheated anybody ; I do n't see that there 
 is anything wrong with me." Though admitting 
 that he was a sinner, he pleaded that he was no 
 worse than many others. Mr. Fuller told him of 
 our relation to Adam ; then related the account of 
 the fall, and Adam's hiding himself from the pres- 
 ence of the Lord. He also explained the nature of 
 sacrifice, and that the sacrificial death of Christ is 
 the only ground of the sinner's hope before God ; 
 for without the shedding of blood there is no re- 
 mission " of sin ; and also, that to be received into 
 God's favor and friendship, we need to be clothed 
 with the robe of Christ's righteousness. 
 
148' 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 In the afternoon, about three o'clock, he called 
 his wife to his bedside, and said that he was about 
 to die and go to hell. He bade those around good- 
 bye ; then, stretching himself out, appeared to be 
 dead. In this state he continued but a few minutes. 
 When he regained consciousness, he cried at the top 
 of his voice that he was lost. *' O, I am going to 
 hell ! I am going to hell ! there is a God, there is 
 a God ! I am going to hell, and will burn forever 
 in the fire, and forever cry out, O God, O God !" 
 For some time this was the burden of his cry, which 
 was mingled with the prayers, " O save my soul ! O 
 pray that God would save my soul !" His piercing 
 cries were heard rods away. Then he called on Mr. 
 and Mrs. Quick to come and pray for him ; and 
 afterwards cried : " Send for all the preachers and 
 praying people in I^eamington to come and pray 
 for me." Some in the room were alarmed, and left. 
 Friends gathered around his bedside, and pointed 
 him to the Savior. To them he related a vision he 
 had seen. He thought he was dead, and that he 
 went to heaven. The I^ord standing at the gate 
 stopped him, and said he could not enter, but bade 
 him go down to hell. Having gone, he there saw 
 the agonies and heard the blasphemies of the 
 damned, and himself was made to feel something 
 of, as he said, the bitter pains of hell." Having 
 returned to heaven, he was told that he must go to 
 earth and repent of his sins before he could enter. 
 He was to tell his companions that there is a 
 God, a heaven, and a hell, and that they must 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 149 
 
 repent of their sins, and pray to the lyord for par- 
 don, else they would perish forever. Revs. Messrs. 
 Miers, Burtch, and Scott were soon at his bedside. 
 As they were administering comfort his cry was : 
 " There is a God, there is a heaven and a hell ; I 
 am lost, I am going to hell; O Jesus, save my 
 soul ! Pray that God would save me." He even 
 belched out profane and blasphemous language, 
 that can not be written, and said : " That is the way 
 they speak in hell." 
 
 When directed to go to the Savior for pardon, 
 his cry was : " It is too late ; I have sinned away the 
 day of grace." Messrs Miers and Scott, who re- 
 mained, said : No ; God has not left you, but has 
 aroused you to feel yourself to be a sinner; and 
 God says he is able to save to the uttermost all 
 who come to him through Christ Jesus, his Son." 
 Friends filled the room, and in wonder, amazement, 
 and pity, saw him in his soul agony, and heard his 
 piteous words. He complained of a burden that was 
 bound on his soul, and that the devil, by means of 
 it, was crushing him down to hell. That burden 
 he acknowledged to be his sins. 
 
 About seven o'clock Mr. Getty sent for Messrs. 
 Harris and Burtch, and asked their forgiveness for 
 the way he treated them. His soul was still tossed 
 about. Mr. Harris asked : "Is it the fear of hell — 
 of being lost — that makes you feel this way, or is it 
 sorrow for your sins ?" His reply was most satis- 
 factory : It is sorrow for my sins against God, 
 who has loved me so much." Among passages read 
 
TWICE BORN. 
 
 and quoted to him were; "Ho, every one that 
 thirsteth, come ye to the waters," etc. (Isa. Iv, i.) 
 " Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life 
 freely." (Rev. xxii, 17.) "Behold, I stand at the 
 door and knock; if any man open the door, I will 
 come into him, and sup with him, and he with me." 
 (Rev. iii, 20.) " If we confess our sins, he is fafthful 
 and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us 
 from all unrighteousness." (i John i, 9.) Comfort 
 was sought to be given to him from the sympathy 
 and work of the Redeemer. " A bruised reed shall 
 he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not 
 quench; he shall bring forth judgment unto truth." 
 (Isa. xlii, 3.) 
 
 After these ministers left, Mr. Scott called again, 
 and found him still troubled. "Are you wishing to 
 be saved?" asked Mr. Scott. " Yes !" " Do you be- 
 lieve that Jesus is willing to save you?" "Yes!" 
 " Then repeat this prayer : * O Lord Jesus, save my 
 soul ; cleanse it from all sin, for thy name's sake. 
 Amen.' " He repeated these words with all the ear- 
 nestness of a dying man. As Mr. Scott required to 
 leave for a short time, and Mr. Getty was anxious 
 to have a minister constantly beside him, Mr. Miers 
 was sent for, came, and conversed with him. When 
 both were again at his bedside, Mr. Getty said that 
 he died at three o'clock that afternoon, but that God 
 gave him life and repentance; that God was teach- 
 ing him to pray, and not he was speaking, but God 
 in him. Fears still clouded his soul. He was asked 
 if he could give himself to the Savior, and trust 
 
//. O. WILLS. 
 
 himself in the hands of Jesus. " Yes !" he repHed ; 
 "I give my sins, my body, my soul, my spirit, my all 
 to Jesus." Still the tempter made him think that 
 he was lost. He complained of the devil's power 
 over him. Mr. Scott then read Heb. ii, 14, 15 : 
 " Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of 
 flesh and blood, he also [Jesus] himself likewise 
 took part of the same ; that through death he might 
 destroy him that had the power of death, that is, 
 the devil, and deliver them who, through fear of 
 death, were all their life-time subject to bondage." 
 In explaining these words, he pointed him to the 
 fact that Jesus lived and died, not only to save his 
 people from their sins and eternal misery, but to 
 conquer Satan, and deliver the oppressed from his 
 power. Seeing Mr. Getty's mind was not now so 
 much troubled about God's willingness to save, as 
 about his own lack of knowledge or feeling that he 
 was saved, he directed him to Phil, i, 6 : " He that 
 hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until 
 the day of Jesus Christ." Also to John vi, 44, 37 : 
 *'No man can come to me, except the Father, which 
 hath sent me, draw him." "All that the Father 
 giveth me shall come to me ; and him that cometh 
 to me I will in no wise cast out." He showed that, 
 as God had, as Mr. Getty admitted, begun the good 
 work of salvation in him, so God would finish it. 
 That as he had gone to Jesus for salvation, it was 
 because God the Father drew him to Jesus,, or God 
 the Son ; that as the Father had drawn him to the 
 Son, and had given him life and repentance, so he 
 
TWICE BORN, 
 
 was God's child, and that no one, not even the devil, 
 would pluck him out of God's hand. (John x, 
 28, 29.) "What you need," Mr. Scott added, " is pa- 
 tience, till God shall finish the good work he has 
 begun. He will yet give you light; he will take 
 away this burden, and fill your heart with peace in 
 believing." Mr. Miers directed him to cast his bur- 
 den on the Lord, to cling to Jesus, who says: Come 
 unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give you rest." "Rest for me?" "Yes; rest 
 for you !" As it was getting late, and he seeming 
 inclined to sleep, most of the visitors left. 
 
 About midnight his mind was again much 
 troubled; but after a short sleep he awoke about 
 two o'clock, and exclaimed: "Praise the Lord, my 
 burden is gone." He asked for a Bible. It was 
 opened at the fourteenth chapter of John. Having 
 read that and following chapters, he exclaimed: 
 **0 how sweet ! it is God's word." Mr. Scott, who 
 had gone early to see him, on hearing his story of 
 deliverance, asked if he had any message to his 
 former companions. " Yes," he replied ; " tell them 
 there is a God, and I know it ; tell them there is a 
 heaven and a hell. Tell them I am a converted 
 man ; that my soul is saved ; that unless they re- 
 pent, and pray to Jesus for the forgiveness of their 
 sins, they will go to hell, and perish forever." Dur- 
 ing the week the ministers frequently visited him, 
 and friends from all parts came to see this miracle 
 of saving grace. The clouds of Charles Getty's 
 sins, and the thick clouds of his trangressions, he 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 153 
 
 now felt to be rolled away. Light shone into his 
 soul ; his body made a temple of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Charlie," said Mr. Fuller, during a visit in this 
 calm, which continued till death came, "have you 
 not all your life been trying to get away from God?" 
 " Yes !" he replied ; and again said: " The Lord hath 
 saved me ; there is no use in resisting ; the Lord 
 hath showed it unto me." His mind was perfectl}'- 
 clear when relating what the Lord did for him. 
 Next day he transacted some business with business 
 men, to their full satisfaction. During the week 
 his bodily strength gradually failed him. On the 
 Saturday, when in delirium, his words were : "Lord, 
 Lord ! light! light !" He died next morning at nine 
 o'clock. 
 
 As soon as Mr. Getty was brought to realize 
 that he was a lost sinner, his first cry was to God 
 for mercy, through Jesus Christ. He did not urge 
 the plea of personal righteousness, nor that he was 
 as good as his neighbors. Even in his agony he 
 showed that the Holy Spirit taught him the true 
 nature of sin, as against God, and led him to Christ 
 only for pardon. He laid hold of the rope of sav- 
 ing faith the Spirit threw out to him, as he was 
 struggling in the waters of conviction ; and by God's 
 help, he held on till he was landed on the shores of 
 "peace in believing," where he experienced "the 
 joys of salvation." 
 
 The change was not in the heart only, but in 
 the conduct of Mr. Getty. As soon as the Spirit 
 of God took away the stony heart, Mr. Getty asked 
 
154 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 the forgiveness of those he had formerly repulsed, 
 and sent a message to Mr. Wills to the same effect. 
 
 In his hardened state he would not allow a Sab- 
 bath-school paper or a religious tract to be in his 
 house. He had no Bible, and confessed he never 
 read it. Now he would have the Bible beside him, 
 and either read it himself, or get others to read it 
 to him. It opened up a new world to this, a new 
 creature. He desired more light from the Scripture, 
 and frequently expressed great surprise at the infor- 
 mation given in the Word of God. He regretted 
 he had not lived a better life, and said that had he 
 been a changed man before, his home would have 
 been a happier one. He requested his wife to bring 
 up their children in the fear of the Lord, and 
 pleaded with unconverted relations to give them- 
 selves to Jesus, to live good lives, join the Church, 
 and earnestl}^ prayed for their salvation. 
 
 Reader, what is your state before God at this 
 moment? Accepting Christ as your Savior, or re- 
 jecting him? "He that believeth on the Son [of 
 God] hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth 
 not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God 
 abideth on him." (John iii, 36.) "I have no 
 pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that all 
 should come unto me and live." (Ezek. xxxiii, 11.) 
 Jesus saith : " Him that cometh unto me I will in no 
 wise cast out." (John vi, 37.) 
 
 Unconverted brother, do not think that some 
 such striking event will happen to you. " The 
 wind bloweth where it listeth," etc. (John iii, 8.) 
 
//. O. WILLS. 
 
 155 
 
 But it does not always blow with the force of a hur- 
 ricane. To you the Spirit of God says: " Behold, 
 now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day 
 of salvation." (2 Cor. vi, 2.) 
 
 Utter indifference to death is no preparation for 
 future existence. One may not fear to die, yet be 
 a lost soul. After death comes the judgment. Are 
 you prepared for this ? If you, brother, neglect this 
 salvation — the only salvation in existence — which 
 God has provided for you, how can you escape the 
 furious storms of divine wrath, or free your soul 
 from the guilt and curse of sin ? (Read Prov. i, 20, 
 to end.) 
 
 "It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all ac- 
 ceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to 
 save sinners." (i Tim. i, 15.) If we confess our 
 sins to God, he is faithful and just to forgive us our 
 sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
 (i John i, 9.) " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and thou shalt be saved." (Acts xvi, 31.) 
 
 J. B. SCOTT. 
 
 IvEAMINGTON, May 3, 1886. 
 
 WILLS AT THE McAULEY MISSION. 
 
 In November, 1884, Mr. Wills opened an un- 
 denominational Christian church-building, which 
 lie named the McAuley Mission. On the night 
 of the dedication services, Rev. Dr. Duffield, Rev. 
 Louis R. Fox, Rev. Wm. Dawe, Rev. C. R. Hen- 
 derson, Rev. Dr. Smith, Charles Buncher, and a 
 
156 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 large audience participated. The enterprise was 
 kept open until April, 1886, when it was closed. 
 As a sample of Mr. Wills 's earlier style of work, 
 the following report by the Free Press is re- 
 produced : 
 
 " For the benefit of those, both young and old, 
 who have come in here to-night for the first time, 
 and may never come again, I want to say that this 
 is the McAuley Mission, and that you '11 have to 
 keep quiet. When there 's any talkin' to be done, 
 we '11 do it from up here ; but when we 're singin' 
 you kin all join in." 
 
 These words were last night addressed to the 
 three hundred or more people who had assembled 
 in the McAuley Mission, corner of St. Aubin Ave- 
 nue and Sherman Street, by Henry O. Wills, one 
 of the gentlemen who has undertaken the arduous 
 and thankless task of expounding the Gospel to 
 those in that locality who have no church home to 
 go to, and, even if they had, would not probably be 
 in attendance oftener than once a month. 
 
 The persons for whom the language was espe- 
 cially intended did not seem to comprehend the 
 force of Mr. Wills's argument, judging from the 
 loud conversation which was kept up, and he directed 
 one of his lieutenants to put any one out who acted 
 in an unruly manner, which had the desired effect. 
 
 Several hymns were sung in succession, after 
 which Mr. Wills announced that the next one he 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 157 
 
 would give out would be the last before the meet- 
 ing was formally opened. The first stanza had not 
 been concluded when a terrific crash was heard, and 
 the frightened audience made a break for the door. 
 Mr. Wills took in the situation in an instant, and, 
 jumping to his feet, told them to keep their seats ; 
 that nothing more serious had occurred than the 
 toppling over of a rickety chimney. The incident, 
 however, afforded him a good opportunity to lecture 
 his frightened hearers, which he did by telling them 
 that if the mere falling of a chimney would frighten 
 them, and if they were unprepared for it, how much 
 more unfitted and frightened to meet their God would 
 they be when the last great crash came! He said: 
 " When the last great earthquake comes — and we 
 can't get away from that, boys — you won't have an}' 
 chance to run out of the mission then. You want 
 to be ready to say to the Master, ' I 'ni ready,' and 
 up 3^ou '11 go with him. We will now finish the 
 singing of this hymn, and when we are through. 
 Rev. George Dufiield will take charge of the 
 meeting." 
 
 The hymn being concluded, Rev. Mr. Dufiield 
 made a prayer, following with a short sermon to the 
 children, in which he illustrated the benefit to be 
 derived from following in the footsteps of Him who 
 said: "Suffer little children to come unto me, and 
 forbid them not, for of such is the kingdon of 
 heaven." He also told the little ones of the terrible 
 fate which befell the children who wickedly mocked 
 and scoffed at Elisha, and admonished them so to 
 
TWICE BORN. 
 
 live that when they reached the age of maturity, 
 they would look back with pleasure to the days 
 when the saving truths were explained to them from 
 the pulpit of the McAuley Mission. He then di- 
 rected his remarks to the older portion of the audi- 
 ence, and said that no heart was so black but that 
 God could and would cleanse it. People seemed 
 afraid to fall at the feet of God, who had given his 
 only Son to be crucified that the sins of all might 
 be atoned for. Christ died for all, individually and 
 collectively, and every one who would give his heart 
 to him and take up the cross would be saved. 
 
 Mr. Wills brought the meeting to a close with a 
 few short remarks, in which he detailed the manner 
 of his own conversion. 
 
 THE CASINO TABERNACI.E. 
 Of the last very important work done in the 
 city of Detroit by Mr. Wills but little need be 
 said; for at this writing (June, 1890,) the work 
 itself still remains, a monument to his earnest- 
 ness and efficiency as a worker in the field of 
 religious labor. The work in question is best 
 known as the Casino Tabernacle of Detroit. 
 
 The Casino " was the name of a low variety 
 theater in the very business center of the city, 
 and directly across a narrow street from the 
 city's high-school. It was a stench in the air, 
 
// O. WILLS. 
 
 159 
 
 an excrescence on the beautiful face of a lovely 
 city. Mr. Wills, by his own energy, raised a 
 sum sufficient to influence the lessee of the 
 Casino Theater to agree to transfer the lease to 
 Mr. Wills, could he raise a sum large enough 
 to pay a good rent. The situation was laid be- 
 fore W. H. Brearly, of the Detroit Evening Jour- 
 nal^ and the result was that about the first of 
 May, 1889, the Casino Variety Theater ceased 
 to exist, and the Casino Tabernacle opened for 
 business, with H. O. Wills as the evangelist in 
 charge. To-day the Casino Tabernacle has 
 business men's prayer-meetings each noonday ; 
 each evening religious meetings are held ; and 
 on Sundays large congregations (undenomina- 
 tional) are present, mornings and evenings ; and 
 a Sunday-school, having several hundred pupils, 
 is conducted there. 
 
 AN EXAMPI^E OF WILLS'S STYLE. 
 The Detroit Evening Journal^ preserving the 
 spontaneous enthusiasm of Mr. Wills in excel- 
 lent style, published the following : 
 
 "G1.0RY TO God !" It was Brother H. O. Wills. 
 Who else could it be, with those lungs and that 
 
i6o 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 salutation? Detroit's Sam Jones "has been to Sara- 
 toga. Ever}' time sin showed its head he mauled 
 it. The work kept him pretty busy. Yesterday 
 morning he dropped into the Journal office to tell 
 about his trip : 
 
 O dear ! what meetings I had I Such a crowd ! 
 We had to ]jold up the sides of the tent so that the 
 crowd outside could hear. I fought against sin, and 
 I fought against the people living away from home. 
 One man said there was no harm — did n't God say, 
 'Go and take a rest awhile?' 'O dear, no!' I an- 
 swered ; ' Jesus Christ did n't go to a place like Sar- 
 atoga, but into the desert, to rest; and. when the 
 people saw him coming, they took a short cut across 
 lots, and Christ took compassion on them. Christ 
 was in the desert, and the people got hungry' and 
 he fed them ; and it gave the disciples more work 
 than ever, and the}' got no rest at all.' 
 
 " Both those in charge of the tent and the minis- 
 ters told me I spoke too loud. They said it was an 
 outrage to let that man talk. The language that he 
 uses and the slang that he uses is an outrage. I 
 said : ' Let me alone. I know how to fish. I am 
 fishing for eels and bull-heads, and they lie in the 
 bottom, and I have got to use live bait.' That put 
 me in mind of the boy who, when he was asked 
 what he had got in his mouth, said : ' I have got 
 wo'ms for bait.' He caught fish. I had the 'wo'ms' 
 in ni}' mouth. But some o' these ministers, the}- 
 can "t get the people on the hook, because the}^ 
 
//. O. WILLS. 
 
 i6i 
 
 don't get their hooks baited with live bait — 
 worms." 
 
 "Were there many ministers in Saratoga ?"J 
 
 " O, dear man aHve ! Hundreds of 'em — play- 
 ing croquet, and ministers going to the races ! 
 They were mostly from country towns." 
 
 " What do you think of the Saratoga women?" 
 
 " Loud ! That 's it. Loud in every way ! I 
 can not see where the good looks come in. They 
 had lots of toggery on. Diamonds — but they 're 
 only rhinestones when you get close to them. I 
 said in my talks in the tent : ' God says, Strip, and 
 show them that it was not outside dress that counted 
 v/ith God.' I had some green corn in my tent, one 
 day, when I spoke to a large audience. I showed 
 them a cob with nice husk around it, and I said : 
 ' This looks like a good one, but strip it.' I stripped 
 it, and the cob was all soft — just a little nub. ' And 
 so some of you look like Christians ; but when any 
 one comes to strip you, you kick and don't like it, 
 because you are only little nubs of Christians.' 
 
 "'No harm in playing croquet?' said I to the 
 ministers. ' You pay sixty cents an hour for the 
 grounds. Then some of your congregation come 
 along and see their pastor playing croquet. Then 
 they think if he can play it, surely it is not wrong 
 for them to go to the horse-races. Same with the 
 club and dances and balls.' 
 
 " O dear ! what a blaze of diamonds I saw ! I 
 told them I was going to put th-e plowshare six 
 14 
 
l62 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 inches deeper than usual, and I told them if they 
 did not like it they must lump it. When I got 
 through the plowing, then came the cultivating 
 (that 's the '^asy task, you know) ; and the last two 
 nights there were fourteen came for the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. And there were some young, wealthy ladies 
 came out too. I had stacks of letters sent to me. 
 One man addressed me as ' H. O. Wills, Hallelujah 
 Devil-driver.' A man from Fairhaven, Conn., said 
 he had been benefited by my preaching. He had 
 had many doubts in his mind before I went there ; 
 but he had attended th-e meetings, and he had heard 
 everything, and was made strong in Christ. 
 
 *' O yes, Saratoga would be a good place for me 
 to go another summer, and it would be a good place 
 for winter. I had people from all parts listen to 
 me — from Kentucky, Louisiana, New York, and 
 Boston, and ever so man)^ other places. They had 
 a big coach there, with dudes and ladies all over 
 the top of it, and four horses hitched on, and a horn 
 as long as my two arms — a tally-ho they called the 
 thing. So I got a wagon, and tacked my ' Devil's 
 Toboggan-slide ' picture on the wagon, and got a big 
 tin horn, an' when they blowed I blowed too, and 
 blowed louder than they. 
 
 "A great deal is being done to get Pat Brady 
 liberated," continued Mr. Wills. " Mr. Moody wrote 
 a long letter to Governor Hill, and a lawyer in Troy 
 has written a number of letters, and he is bound and 
 determined to get Brady out. I am just as sure that 
 I shall get Brady out as I am that I am in the Jour- 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 163 
 
 nal office. I can 't fail now. It can 't be done in a 
 minute, but it 's only a question of a little time now. 
 
 " I have had a big battle, and I have had a good 
 time. I like the work. I went to a number of 
 places while I was out there. I went to Northfield 
 and Round I^ake. Sam Jones was at Round L<ake, 
 and got twelve hundred dollars for five days' 
 work." 
 
 *' Do they give you anything?" 
 
 " They do 'nt give me anything. I worked five 
 days in Schuylerville, N. Y., and they gave me 
 twenty-five cents less than my railroad fare cost me. 
 In Saratoga I got about one hundred dollars, and 
 they paid for my board. I made quite a little from 
 selling my photographs. There were some who ob- 
 jected to my selling my photographs; but I told 
 them that I had taken the best counsel in the West 
 on the matter, and I thought there was no harm in 
 selling my pictures. Why, one man said to me, 
 ' Brother Wills, that is the very best way to progress 
 in this work.' 
 
 " I am going to try and get Beecher's hall for a 
 week or so. You tell the people that I have n't 
 brought Brady with me; but I will — I'm positive 
 I will." 
 
 A PHII.OSOPHKR'S COMPARISON. 
 George P. Goodale, for years city editor of 
 the Detroit Free Press^ and at present dramatic 
 critic and special writer for that paper, is the 
 
164 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 author of the following, one of his " pictures " 
 being of Wills : 
 
 TWO PICTURES. 
 
 BY SIGNOR MAX. 
 JTo. 98. 
 
 Could we rightly interpret all the lessons of life 
 we might be able largely to control our happiness, 
 or at least mitigate our miseries. 
 
 Within a week the pious world has been shocked 
 by one of the most pitiful and tragic endings of a 
 human life that it is possible for us to conceive. A 
 young girl's suicide under any circumstances must 
 excite a lively sympathy in all but the wholly sel- 
 fish or the wholly depraved; but when she goes 
 down to the grave that she has dug for herself, with 
 words of despairing and awful reproach to Almighty 
 God upon her lips, horror is added to sympathy. 
 
 Here was a girl reared in the religious atmos- 
 phere ; to whom Christian precept and practice were 
 familiar, who had presumably walked untainted along 
 her short way of life, and yet who in the hour of 
 death bequeathed to the world these desperate and 
 whirling words : 
 
 *' I have never found that God kept me in the 
 hour of trial, and I have never dishonored him be- 
 fore man. O, terrible to love a supposed friend and 
 Savior, and to find the one you believed to be al- 
 mighty to save, neither able nor willing to do aught 
 for you ! As to the peace and love and joy that is 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 165 
 
 promised to a Christian, it is all a farce, and there 
 is no such thing." 
 
 These sentiments have been characterized by 
 some of the journals of the day as blasphemous. 
 One writer has been found who made them and the 
 circumstances of the tragedy his justification for 
 assailing the dead girl's integrity. Being an influ- 
 ential writer and widely read, I assume that many 
 of his audience favorably entertain his opinion. 
 While that may not very strongl)^ support their 
 own claim of Christian charity, I do not feel called 
 upon to judge them, well knowing that there are 
 men and women so thick-clad in virtue as never to 
 have been penetrated by compassion for the vicious. 
 To loathe the sinner as w-ell as the sin is a natural 
 expression of their sense of exact justice. It is not 
 for me to cast doubt on their conviction of superior 
 and unassailable holiness, or to hint that there is 
 aught in their judgment of human acts that sug- 
 gests the Pharisee or the assassin. They are rather 
 to be applauded for declining to recognize any claim 
 of the woman who, while walking hand in hand 
 with despair and death, could be so insensible to 
 the wrath as to declare these things : 
 
 " I believed in God, and tried to brave it out. 
 
 "I have suffered enough to kill ten people that 
 had not the bravery of a lion. 
 
 " I fought against unkindness until I could stand 
 it no longer. 
 
 , " I have loved righteousness with all my heart. 
 
TWICE BORN. 
 
 "O terrible! to love right, and feel there is no 
 power in heaven or earth that can bring any good 
 to triumph over evil, or help those who strive after 
 righteousness." 
 
 Duty to society and loyalty to our beloved faith 
 alike command us to set our faces in perpetual 
 frown against such blasphemous lamentation. In 
 that conviction I am immovable, though when I 
 began to consider the case I found it a little diffi- 
 cult to dispose of that fragment of history which, 
 you remember, runs in this wise : 
 
 **And about the ninth hour 
 Jesus cried with a loud voice, 
 Saying, M}^ God ! my Go;l ! 
 Why hast thou forsaken me ?" 
 
 This mournful end of a life that we must believe 
 was sweet and gentle in itself, and opulent once in 
 promise of love and happiness, brings up anew the 
 very old story of wreck and disaster wdiere woman 
 garners up her heart and finds her rock but shifting 
 sand. The vigilant telegraph has told us why this 
 woman wrote her Book of Lamentations. " She 
 had been engaged to a young clergyman of New 
 York City, but her affianced proved fickle, and dur- 
 ing her absence in the country was married to an- 
 other woman. It is believed that this unfortunate 
 love affair was the prime cause of her despair and 
 suicide." 
 
 Were I a teacher to whose voice the people 
 would give willing ear, I think I could offer some- 
 thing on a phase of the so-called woman question 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 167 
 
 that would be heard with interest ; but being the 
 unknown toiler that I am, let me persuade the 
 reader to note that Washington Irving (whom 
 none, I am sure, will refuse to hear) has said most 
 beautifully what I would as beautifully say if I 
 could : 
 
 Man is the creature of interest and ambition. 
 His nature leads him forth into the struggle and 
 bustle of the world. Love is but the embellishment 
 of his early life, or a song piped in the intervals of 
 the acts. He seeks for fame, for fortune, for space 
 in the world's thought, and dominion over his fel- 
 low-men. But a woman's whole life is a history of 
 the affections. The heart is her world ; it is there 
 her ambition strives for empire — it is there her 
 avarice seeks for hidden treasures. She sends 
 forth her sympathies on adventure ; she embarks 
 her whole soul in the traffic of affection ; and if shi])- 
 wrecked, her case is hopeless — for it is a bankruptcy 
 of the heart. Woman's lot is to be wooed and won ; 
 and if unhappy in her love, her heart is like some 
 fortress that has been captured, and sacked, and 
 abandoned, and left desolate. Look for her, after a 
 while, and you find friendship weeping over her 
 untimely grave, and wondering that one who but 
 lately glowed with all the radiance of health and 
 beauty should so speedily be brought down to 
 * darkness and the worm.' " 
 
 I do not know what is in the mind of that 
 " young clergyman of New York City," but I re- 
 member that a repenting Judas of old time cried 
 
TWICE BORN. 
 
 out, " I have sinned in that I have betra3'ed the 
 innocent blood," and went out and hanged himself. 
 
 The melancholy story of L^aura Nourse is a pic- 
 ture all in shadow. I know another story of one 
 fellow-creature's experience with the spiritual side 
 of earth which is all light. The two are hung at 
 opposite ends of the gallery of life. I do not know 
 that they teach a universal lesson, but I think every 
 mind may dwell upon them with interest and pos- 
 sible profit. 
 
 In the first picture we see a woman w^hose path, 
 from petted infancy to her dismal death, was strewn 
 with the flowers that bloom in Christian homes. 
 
 The second picture is of a man who knew noth- 
 ing of beauty, nothing of virtue, nothing of high 
 thought, and all of depravity, for more than forty 
 years, yet who has now consecrated himself to 
 good w^orks, and is daily doing the noblest and most 
 devoted service to man in the ideal Christian's 
 spirit. He is no fanciful creation, but a tangible, 
 walking, toiling, flesh-and-blood fact. Until two 
 years ago, he was a dangerous menace to society — 
 a brawler, a criminal, a convict, a drunkard, a de- 
 bauchee — a vulgar and brutal despot in his 
 squalid home, and a common butcher of the decen- 
 cies of life. 
 
 These are harsh lines ; but they comprise a truth- 
 ful likeness of the man as he was. I knew him at 
 his worst. I know him now, and it is my opinion 
 that a better citizen can not be found in the direct- 
 ory. The change in him is a nineteenth-century 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 169 
 
 miracle. Two da^'s ago I asked him to recite his 
 version of it, and this is the storj' he told : 
 
 " It was all brought around by God's love and 
 mercy. You know there was n't a harder man livin' 
 than me, nor one that cared less for superstition and 
 religion and all that. I had done everything that a 
 bad man could do who did n't know what good con- 
 duct meant, ever since I was eight years old. Xobody 
 ever talked to me about religion, and I do n't know- 
 as I 'd ever thought about it. Two years ago this 
 fall I went home one night after a long drunk, with 
 nerves all gone, pockets empt}', and no food for my 
 family. I tried to sleep, but I could n't close my 
 eyes. While I la}" on the bed wide awake, and won- 
 derin' whether there was n't a bottle of valerian in 
 the house, I took a sudden notion that m}- time had 
 come. Now, you know I've been in the toughest 
 places a man ever got into and out of, and never 
 squealed — not even when I've nearly had the life 
 kicked out of me. That do n't count much, maybe, 
 but I never knowed the time that I feared an5rthing 
 in mortal shape. I was n't afraid to die ; but all at 
 once I was overwhelmed with a rushin' sense of my 
 whole life, like a dam breakin' away with the spring 
 floods, and sweepin' ever\'thing in its course along 
 helpless. On the wall I seen a glimmxer of light. 
 (I know it 's natural for you to smile at that ; but 
 3-ou want me to tell my true story, and I 'm doing it 
 literal.) As I kep' lookin' at it steady, it gradually 
 took the form of an ej^e ; and I says to myself: // 
 God's offer of a last chance! When I lay down on 
 15 
 
TWICE BORN. 
 
 that bed I was an unclean thing, soaked with whisky, 
 steeped in tobacco, and a blasphemer of everything 
 that men hold sacred in time and in eternity. From 
 that hour, now twenty-two months back, I've never 
 once had the name of God on my lips, except in rev- 
 erence and prayer. 
 
 " O yes ! I thought I was bound to quit tobacco 
 and drink, as well as other unclean habits, because 
 I did n't see how I could make my body God's tem- 
 ple without first givin' it a scourin' out. The love 
 that has filled my heart from that time on has 
 brought me happiness and peace greater 'n I can 
 ever tell. O, my dear friend, you should come to my 
 home, and see the wife and children who have come 
 out of the depths of sorrow. If you could only 
 catch — if I could only express — the meaning of God's 
 merciful goodness, as it has been shown to me, you 
 would n't wonder that I 'm resolved to serve him 
 with clean hands and all my heart. From the night 
 when his eye pierced me, I 've never felt the slightest 
 wish to go back to the old way of livin', and though 
 I 'm a rough, uncultured, storm-beaten old pilgrim, 
 I thank God that I can feel the inspiring truth of 
 his love, and that I can find words, such as they are, 
 to tell men what that love has done for me. I 'm 
 tryin' to be a livin' epistle, and if men won't read the 
 Scriptures, they must have a chance to read Wills." 
 
 My imagination has not led me into raptures or 
 exaggeration. I have given facts and set down 
 without embellishment the words of this ignorant 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 171 
 
 man, whose rude eloqueiiee and glowing zeal have 
 made his little mission-house the pool where many 
 Helons come to wash their leprosy. 
 
 DID N'T WANT A PENSION. 
 
 Shortly after the appointment of Corporal Tan- 
 ner as pension commissioner, Mr. Wills received a 
 card from the Pension Bureau, asking him to fill out 
 a piinted blank on it, regarding his army record. 
 The information was desired as an addition to a rec- 
 ord that has been established in the Bureau of Pen- 
 sions of all surviving soldiers and sailors who 
 served in the Union army or nav}^ during the 
 late war. 
 
 Brother Wills is not particularly proud of his 
 war record. In the rebellion days he was num- 
 bered among the Philistines. He was a bounty- 
 jumper and deserter of the most accomplished type. 
 He filled out the blank as follows, and forwarded it 
 to Washington : "Name, Henry O. Wills ; late rank, 
 ' high private ;' company, F, in all round regiment ; 
 enlisted in Troy, N. Y., in One Hundred and Twenty- 
 fifth New York ; vessel, Deserter ; squad, homeward 
 bound. Discharged? No, ran away at Chicago in 
 '62 ; enlisted again at Buffalo, and deserted again. 
 Enlisted again and again, and deserted each time. 
 Residence, 357 Clinton Street, Detroit. Future 
 change of residence. Heaven, I hope; for if I was a bad 
 soldier in time of peril, now I am a soldier of the 
 cross, and enlisted for the war. Have served faith- 
 fully for six years, and am now orderly sergeant ; 
 
172 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 but I hope soon to be promoted to a captaincy. I 
 hope this card will find its way to some one who 
 is a true soldier of the cross ; or, if not, that it may 
 meet the eye of some one now in rebellion against 
 the best government in the world; namely, the 
 government of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless 
 Corporal Tanner for his love of the soldier ! Please 
 do n't think I am a crank. Make an investigation." 
 
 All over the card were pasted little stickers, 
 bearing Scripture texts. 
 
 WILLS AT BAY CITY. 
 One of the most successful missions ever 
 conducted by Mr. Wills was at Bay City — the 
 third largest city in Michigan — and while great 
 work was done, through God, the experience re- 
 sulted in a somewhat interesting Ji7iale. The 
 Bay City Tribune^ speaking of Mr. Wills's ef- 
 forts and methods during the revival, said: 
 
 The arch enemy of mankind is on the run. 
 Evangelist Wills got his head turned in the right 
 direction Saturday evening, and last night set him 
 in motion. It was a bad night for people to leave 
 their homes for any reason; but while the wealthy 
 and aristocratic remained inside, and the preachers 
 in the fashionable churches spoke to empty pews, 
 several hundred workingmen, with their wives and 
 families, made their way through the pelting storm 
 to the City Mission. Every chair was occupied, and 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 173 
 
 standing-room was in order before the services com- 
 menced. Brother Wills had two clocks fastened to 
 the wall over the platform, and used them to illus- 
 trate the address of the evening, after music by 
 Hudson's orchestra. Both clocks bore the same ap- 
 pearance to the unaided eye ; but, while one was 
 perfect in its works, well regulated, and capable of 
 keeping good time, the other was without works at 
 all, and of no value whatever. 
 
 " Faith without works is dead," quoted Brother 
 Wills ; " and if that clock is taken to represent faith, 
 it is without life. You would n't put any faith in it 
 either, if you wanted to know what time it was." 
 
 The good clock represented the Christian ; the 
 other, the man without the love of the Lord in his 
 heart; and the speaker drew the comparison be- 
 tween the two very finely and skillfully from first 
 to last. The story of Patrick E. Brady's prison-life 
 was again quaintly told, and the latter made a brief 
 address, in which he stated that Thursday or Friday 
 night he would relate his prison experience, suffer- 
 ing confinement, innocently, for nearly thirty-one 
 years, to a Bay City audience. He returned to De- 
 troit last night to look after some work in that cor- 
 ner of Brother Wills's vineyard, but he will be in 
 Bay City again Thursday morning. Some of Brother 
 Wills's quaint sayings last night were as follows : 
 
 " How will the miser feel when he goes to hell, 
 and the Lord takes the love of money out of his 
 heart ? Do n't you think that will add to his pun- 
 ishment ? 
 
174 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 "You need never think that God will go with 
 you into a game of cards, and help you out, espe- 
 cially if you hide a good hand up your sleeve. 
 
 **You laborers, who get but ninety cents a day 
 while your employers are coining your life's blood 
 into gold need not be ashamed or too modest to 
 come to Christ. He was a workingman himself, and 
 if he were here now I believe he would be at the 
 head of the Knights of Labor instead of Powderly. 
 
 When a man with old clothes on, and moccasins 
 upon his feet, calls at your house for help, do n't turn 
 him away. You do n't know who he may be. Christ 
 used to go round in plain garb himself. 
 
 ** If you are sinking in the sea of sin, and I 
 throw 3^ou a rope, you may not want to take it, and 
 if you do n't, you ought to hand it to some other 
 fellow." 
 
 Just before the meeting was dismissed Brother 
 Wills asked all those who desired his prayers to hold 
 up their hands. Two or three were raised. Then 
 he asked those who considered themselves Chris- 
 tians to stand up. Over fifty did so. Finally, about 
 twenty-five men and women, the most of the former 
 looking like woodsmen, expressed a desire to lead 
 better lives, and at the close of the meeting had a 
 few minutes' conversation in private with the 
 evangelist. 
 
 Illustrating the gossip, the backbitings, and 
 other trials which all evangelists must meet, and 
 to show Mr. Wills's method of fighting such 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 enemies, the following from the Detroit Evening 
 News is published: 
 
 There is some question about Brother Wills's 
 board-bill at Bay City, according to the Bay City 
 Press. In flaming, double-column head-lines it an- 
 nounces : " Brother Wills's Board-bill !" " He stopped 
 at the Rouech House for ten days, and the question 
 agitating the mind of the landlord is, Who will pay 
 for the brother's meat and drink?" " The Board of 
 City Missions refuses to pay." " Brother Glidden 
 promised to be responsible, and it looks as though 
 the burden would fall on his shoulders. Sequel of 
 the recent revival." 
 
 The paper then gives the details of a recent 
 meeting, and says : 
 
 " The bill of H. O. Wills for fourteen dollars for 
 board at the Rouech House during his stay here 
 was disallowed. The Board was unanimously of the 
 opinion that the mission funds should not be di- 
 verted to such a purpose. There was considerable 
 dissatisfaction expressed at the record Wills made 
 while here ; and the city missionary was further 
 enjoined not to hire any more so-called evangelists. 
 It is the purpose of the Board to conduct the mis- 
 sion in a quiet, orderly way, and it does n't approve 
 the hullabaloo method of assaulting the ramparts 
 of Satan. The regular meetings of the Board will 
 hereafter be held on the second Tuesday of each 
 month." 
 
 A News reporter called at Brother Wills's resi- 
 
176 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 dence, 357 Clinton Avenue, this morning, but the 
 evangelist was down street. The above item was 
 shown to Mr. Brady, who was at Bay City with 
 Brother Wills. 
 
 "Disallowed, eh?" said Mr. Brady. "Well, I 
 heard the city missionary' tell Mr. Wills during a 
 conversation in Mission Hall at the expiration of 
 the week's work there, that Mr. Wills's expenses at 
 the hotel would be paid." 
 
 "How" were your expenses paid, Mr. Brady?" 
 
 " Mr. Wills told me that he paid two dollars a 
 day for me out of his own pocket." 
 
 Later Mr. Wills was interviewed on the subject, 
 and said : 
 
 " The biggest share of the Bay- City Mission 
 Board is Universalist, as I understand it. That 's 
 the reason they do n't believe in onslaught. I '11 
 tell you how it was. I was in Alpena with Bradj^ 
 holding a sort of little lecture tour for the purpose 
 of raising money enough to send him home to Eng- 
 land. Rev. Mr. Glidden wTote me, asking what I 'd 
 come to Bay City and work for. My wife forwarded 
 the letter to Alpena to me. When through at 
 Alpena, I had intended going to Bay City anyway 
 to get a hall for Brady to tell his story in, and while 
 there I thought I might as well do the mission- 
 work. So I telegraphed Mr. Glidden in answer to 
 his letter, to get me a place to stop, and that I 
 would be there that night. He got bills out after 
 he received my telegram that da}^ announcing us 
 for that evening, and had a bell-boy from the Rouech 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 177 
 
 House meet us on the train before it reached Bay 
 City, to conduct us to the hotel. 
 
 " I spoke in the Mission Hall Saturday and Sun- 
 day nights. Monday night was their meeting, and 
 they held it. Tuesday, Rev. Mr. Glidden came to 
 me, and said the Board could n't pay me anything, 
 but would pay my bill at the hotel, and Mr. Glidden 
 so told Mr. Rouech. I asked Mr. Rouech before 
 coming away: ' Is it understood between you and 
 Mr. Glidden that the Board will pay my bill here ?* 
 Mr. Rouech replied that was his understanding, 
 and said everything was all right. I paid Brady's 
 board. Mr. Glidden gave me all the collections of 
 the mission that week. 
 
 "Now as regards my hullabaloo methods, I wish 
 to say that the Board not being evangelical, but a 
 big share of it Universalists, no doubt they do n't 
 like my handling of them without gloves. That 's 
 the sum and substance of it. I preached for Rev. 
 Mr. Morgan in the West Bay City Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church Sunday morning, and talked to the 
 largest Sunday-school that 's been known there since 
 their church was built. 
 
 "If my methods have, been wrong, they never- 
 theless called people to the Mission Hall until they 
 had to be turned away. Sunday night the hall was 
 packed and jammed, and standing-room was at a 
 premium because * Christ was lifted up.' (John 
 xii, 32.) Rain was coming down in torrents, and 
 still they stood in the streets to listen. Seven dol- 
 lars was given that night by the common working- 
 
1 78 TWICE BORN. 
 
 people at the collection. That shows whether the 
 work was appreciated or not. 
 
 "At the meeting Sunday night, that is, after the 
 dismissal of the people, we held a second meeting, 
 at which between thirty and fifty men and women, 
 without any pulling or hauling, walked deliberately 
 to the front, and made a decided stand for Christ. 
 If that 's hullabaloo, God send some more hullabaloo 
 methods to Bay City to assault the ramparts of 
 Satan and Universalism. The devil and kirmess 
 and Universalism have truly got a stronghold there." 
 
 THE DEFENSE IS GOOD. 
 
 The Evening News continues : 
 
 Evangelist H. O. Wills has received the follow- 
 ing letter from George L. lyusk, of West Bay City, 
 regarding that unpaid board-bill. Mr. Lusk is su- 
 perintendent of a Methodist Sunday-school, and his 
 words will carry weight : 
 
 " WEvST Bay City, January 23, 1890. 
 
 Dear Brother Wills, — I wish you to be- 
 lieve that this is a huge love-letter, in point of size, 
 of spirit, and true fraternity. I send you with this 
 mail a paper which will, no doubt, reveal statements 
 quite misleading — certainly unjust and entirely un- 
 justified. I believed when first I saw this con- 
 temptible head-line that your version of the matter 
 had not been given, and I know such information 
 from yourself would put a vastly different light on 
 the question. I looked for some defense by Mr. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 179 
 
 Gliddeti, or some one as well informed, in your be- 
 half, but have seen none in the papers. I believe 
 the paper is directly responsible for publishing such 
 meanness, and stigmatizing a worthy name without 
 cause. I have ordered my paper stopped indefi- 
 nitely. 
 
 " I would add my wish for your health and hap- 
 piness. I am truly happy in the remembrance of 
 your visit to our Church and my home Sunday. 
 From a personal condition, it was one of the best 
 occasions in a young life. I am delighted in the 
 memory of our association together Sunday. I 
 have listened to Talmage with eagerness and de- 
 light ; to our eloquent Vincent ; to Wendling, Wil- 
 lits, Henson, Wright, Fisk, Foss, Goodsell, New- 
 man, and a host of such grand men — listened to 
 each and all of them with pleasure and sincere ap- 
 preciation; but, withal, it remained for H. O. Wills, 
 in truth and love, and by the vigorous recital of 
 pathetic and irresistible facts, to touch my inner- 
 most being, and open every avenue of my soul in 
 gratitude to God. That was a magnificent effort. I 
 wish that you could continue to tell such a story for 
 one thousand years. The joys of life to a million 
 souls would surely be more plenteous, and heaven 
 would be richer in very deed. 
 
 * Tell it again ! Tell it again ! 
 Salvation's story repeat o'er and o'er,' 
 
 " I pray that God will continue to lead and bless 
 you and yours graciously. 
 
i8o 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 " I shall follow you as you go on such missions 
 of love and ' good-will to men ' with much eager- 
 ness and high anticipation. 
 
 "Very sincerely yours, 
 
 George Iv. Lusk." 
 
 PAT BRADY'S STORY. 
 
 One of the most interesting achievements in 
 the life of Mr. Wills was his success, after years 
 of w^ork, in obtaining a pardon for Patrick 
 Brady, serving a life sentence at Auburn (N. Y.) 
 prison. Brady's thrilling story, already alluded 
 to in this volume, is told in his own words as 
 follows, which narrative he first reduced to 
 writing to send to Mr. Wills : 
 
 H. O. W11.1.S : 
 
 Dear Sir and True Friend, — Embarrassed 
 with emotions of mingled gratitude and anxiety, I 
 am seated in my lonely cell, attempting to acknowl- 
 edge your kind and welcome letter, and to give you 
 an outline of my unhappy life and its perpetual 
 thralldom. I am encouraged to this by the fact 
 that, in this gloomy gulf of deep despair, you yet re- 
 main the one unextinguished, constant beacon-light 
 that cheers me to make another feeble struggle to 
 reach my long and vainly-sought haven of hope, 
 which else must prove the paradise of my despair. 
 
 When but thirteen years old, I left home with 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 183 
 
 my uncle, an officer in the English navy, to be 
 trained and schooled in that service until old and 
 steady enough to enter college. My home was 
 then in Ireland. This uncle carried me to the 
 Black Sea in 1854, where he went on some mission 
 connected with the Crimean War. For some breach 
 of discipline he severely flogged me. In conse- 
 quence of this, I ran away from him when he re- 
 turned to England, and went to another uncle, who 
 was the captain and owner of a ship. He took me 
 as cabin-boy on several voyages, until I ran away 
 from him at Quebec, and came into the State of 
 New York at Niagara Falls, in May, 1858, when I 
 was seventeen years old. I gradually worked my 
 way to Albany, where I got into bad company, 
 which resulted in my commitment to Clinton Prison 
 on December 19, 1858, for a term of three 3^ears and 
 six months, on a charge of burglary in the third 
 degree. Early days of July, 1861, I was persuaded 
 to escape, although nearly three-fourths of my sen- 
 tence had then expired. 
 
 There were some ten of us to go. James 
 Sewell was the leader. We were at work as a night- 
 gang in the rolling-mill. Sewell had provided a 
 key to unlock the mill door. There was no time 
 fixed to start ; we were to go the first opportunity 
 to unlock the door. My part was to carry a sack 
 of bread that was secreted near where I worked. 
 The open door was to be the signal to make the 
 break for liberty. A few minutes past midnight, 
 July 12, 1 86 1, I saw the door wide open, snatched 
 
TWICE BORN. 
 
 the bread, and rushed out just behind some others 
 of the party. I saw nothing of our keeper (Au- 
 gustus Wright) nor Sewell when I went out. 
 Seven escaped, the hearts of three having failed 
 them at the last moment. Four of us crossed the 
 fence together. When we were over, Sewell said: 
 ** Boys, I have killed Wright !" He said, when he 
 made the start he ran against the keeper, caught up 
 a four-inch bolt, and struck him with it, intending 
 merely to stun him; but that hitting har4, in the 
 excitement of the moment, and striking the temple, 
 the blow proved fatal. Sewell had the keeper's 
 watch and pistol. Three da3^s after, we were caught 
 and returned to the prison. Sewell admitted at 
 once that he alone was responsible for the death of 
 Wright. We were chained to the floor of dungeons, 
 and thus remained for three months. Early in 1862 
 we were carried to Plattsburg, to stand for murder 
 in the first degree. 
 
 The three convicts who staid behind at the 
 time of the escape were promised pardon for testi- 
 fying against us. We were denied the right to chal- 
 lenge the jurors. Two of the seven, w^ho had influ- 
 ential friends, were not tried; and two others, who 
 had friends with money, were acquitted. The trial 
 commenced at the opening of court in the morning, 
 and three of us were convicted and sentenced by 
 seven o'clock P. M. the same day. We were sen- 
 tenced to hard labor for one year, and to be hanged 
 at the end of that time. 
 
O. WILLS. 
 
 185 
 
 The next morning after this sentence a chain 
 was riveted to my leg, to which was attached a 
 twenty-six-pound ball, which I wore day and night 
 altogether five years, one month, and twenty-five 
 days, from which resulted lameness for life. I was 
 put to work in the tailor-shop for some time ; then 
 I was returned to the rolling-mill, with my ball and 
 chain. After a time, my services being very valu- 
 able, the ball and chain were taken off, and I w^as 
 again put to work with the night-gang. Four hor- 
 rible years had passed over my wretched head un- 
 der sentence of death all that time. For three years 
 I looked every morning for the mail to bring my 
 suspended death-warrant, which was in the hands 
 of the governor. 
 
 The rolling-mill was fully five hundred j^ards 
 from the prison. It had been a one-story saw-niill. 
 The unbarred skylights were but a few feet from 
 the ground, and a ladder always handy. At any 
 time I could put myself on the ground in less than 
 a minute, where my way would be clear to liberty. 
 The temptation to this constant opportunity through 
 the long hours, night after night, and the anticipa- 
 tion of what the morrow might bring, at last ren- 
 dered my situation intolerable. I went away, but 
 was caught before a great while, and returned to my 
 recent chain and its heavy ball. After ten years of 
 excruciating suspense, under the shadow of the 
 wing of the death-angel, my sentence was com- 
 muted to a doom of perpetual incarceration in a 
 16 
 
TWICE BORN. 
 
 living tomb, the cruel, bitter experience of which 
 has now been my lot nearly fifteen tedious, dreary 
 years. 
 
 With the many noble and humane efforts that 
 have been made for my relief you are not acquainted. 
 The recommendations of all the leading citizens of 
 Plattsburg ; of the British consul ; of the New York 
 Herald, at the expense of sending a representative 
 to ithe prison to investigate, a three-column article 
 and a long editorial, as the result, in issue of Sep- 
 tember 8, 1879, and a liberal article in issue of 
 August 20, 1880; and of your own kind exertions 
 since. 
 
 Year after year I am held, seemingly the vic- 
 tim of example, while scores of cold-blooded mur- 
 derers, whose guilt was undoubted, have been par- 
 doned. Many and many times have I been told, 
 ** We do n't give a d — n whether you are guilty or 
 innocent; you will be held just the same, simply for 
 the sake of example." I am persuaded that this 
 spirit, and the lingering prejudices entwined with 
 the record of my last escape, have combined to gen- 
 erate the untoward influence that has prevented my 
 liberation for the past ten or more years. I believe 
 that each governor before whom my applications 
 have been presented, labored under the erroneous 
 impression that my last escape was after my com- 
 mutation of sentence. Justly the escape should not 
 have prejudiced my cause. I was not legally in the 
 rolling-mill in the tempting presence of that oppor- 
 tunity. My sentence of a year at hard labor had 
 
//. O. WILLS. 
 
 187 
 
 expired three years before. There was no legal au- 
 thority to keep me at work another day after that 
 expiration, while the death sentence remained un- 
 disturbed. Properly I should have been in a cell 
 m a county jail. Certainly the officials had no right 
 to have me away from the prison at work in the 
 night. Under all the circumstances, few rational 
 persons can blame that escape. In my conscious 
 innocence, I knew I was fleeing from an unjust 
 doom. 
 
 Besides his early admissions long since, Sewell 
 made two affidavits exonerating me from any com- 
 plicity in his crime ; he is now dead. James F. 
 Brady and Charles O'Conor declared the law under 
 which I was convicted unconstitutional; its aban- 
 donment, together with the fact that out of eighteen 
 capital sentences under it there was not one execu- 
 tion, confirmed their theory. Out of the eighteen, 
 all but our ill-fated trio have been liberated more 
 than fifteen years. This seems to afford further 
 proof that the law was without authority. If the 
 law was unconstitutional for others, why not for 
 me? Can it be, in this free country and enlight- 
 ened age, because I was a friendless stranger and a 
 convict when I was tried? 
 
 Out of more than two hundred life men in the 
 prisons of the State at the time of my conviction, 
 there is but one now in confinement. The average 
 time actually served by the large number who have 
 been released by executive clemency was less than 
 fifteen years, and very few, if even one, of them 
 
i88 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 were in as long as I have been, nor were the\' re- 
 leased under plea of innocence. O, perverted jus- 
 tice I O, partial mercy I Where, O where, slum- 
 bers th}^ vaunted equity and divine attributes, to 
 permit influence to unshackle the guilt}' while thy 
 ministers are deaf to the prayers of the innocent and 
 friendless? The law under which I was tried was 
 passed in i860, and repealed in 1861, after the escape, 
 but before the trial. This circumstance should be 
 considered, together with the fact that I was a boy 
 at the time of escape ; but there was no testimonj- 
 against me more than against the two who were 
 not tried and the two who were acquitted ; that the 
 only witnesses were three convicts, originally of the 
 part}' to attempt the escape, and that they were 
 bribed with the inducement of pardons ; even the}-, 
 however, did not implicate me in the assault on the 
 keeper. 
 
 Samuel D. Phillips, an officer at Clinton Prison, 
 the person on the spot after the assault was com- 
 mitted, swears that all the circumstances and evi- 
 dence of the convicts present at the time of the 
 assault went to show that James Sewell was the 
 only man who struck Augustus F. Wright. Two 
 other keepers, William H. Graves and Abner S. 
 Roberts, swore to the same. The chaplain, August 
 24, 1879, says : " Patrick Brad}' is one of a few men 
 confined in this prison for whose liberation I am ex- 
 ceedingly anxious. I am fully persuaded that his 
 long confinement has much more than answered the 
 ends of justice, and that therefore he ought to be 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 free at once. From what I have learned of his 
 case, I can not consider it an aggravated one Jjvy 
 any means. I can discover in him no disposition to 
 wrong his fellow-man ; on the contrary, I see in him 
 the elements of an industrious man and good 
 citizen." 
 
 I write you this letter with some uncertain, 
 shadowy hope that you may be able in some way to 
 make it instrumental in enlisting such good people 
 in my behalf as might be induced to sue for my 
 emancipation from the fearful doom, and not in vain. 
 I have no other medium of appeal to the world, from 
 which I have been so long and cruelly banished. 
 Surely there are many good people in the common- 
 wealth ready, if they knew the hardship and injus- 
 tice of my awful situation, to take measures to pre- 
 vent its perpetual continuance. If such intercessors 
 can not be found, there is no end to anticipate but 
 the redemption that death must some time bestow. 
 To the contemplation of the guilty such a fate must 
 be terrible, to the innocent it is nameless. 
 
 O, I am a friendless waif, the sport of adverse 
 circumstances in a strange land ! In the name ot 
 benignant charity, I beseech all Christian people 
 for the love of Christ, and all honest people for the 
 love of justice, to let me breathe my last beyond the 
 polluted shadows of these walls, free from the men- 
 ace of these bars and bolts, to whose stern frown 
 and stifling breath I have been a prey for 10,240 
 days, 245,760 hours, 14,745,600 minutes, 884,736,000 
 seconds — think of this! Kach one of this appalling 
 
190 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 accumulation of seconds has been to me an infinit}^ 
 a pulsating pang of living death. I am prematurely 
 aged, bent as under the weight of fourscore 3^ears, 
 maimed and emaciated. O, who but God can 
 measure the depth of my anguish as I turn on my 
 pillow in these slowly journejang nights in my 
 twent3'-ninth 3^ear of brooding darkness and haunt- 
 ing despair, that makes me wish for that sleep that 
 knows no waking ? Again and again I had the 
 greetings of a "Happ3^ New- Year " — w^hat hollow 
 mockery! Happiness to me is a stranger for ever- 
 more. I must sensibl3^ realize that I have no claim on 
 you or the public, more than what friendlessness and 
 wretchedness under unjust persecution have ever3^- 
 where on common humanit3% and on this I must 
 fondl3' rest m3" earnest application, and will tr3^ to 
 trust that it may be crowned and blessed this once 
 with success. 
 
 Your ver3^ humble and much obliged servant, 
 [Signed,] Pat. Brady. 
 
 Auburn Prison, N. Y., June 27, 1S87 , 
 
 It only remains to be said that on »Septeniber 
 4, 1889, Governor Hill signed Brady's pardon, 
 who, after thirt3' years, seven months, and twenty- 
 six days of existence as a convict, was a free 
 man again. He went into prison a bo3' onl3" 
 seventeen years old; he came out prematurely 
 old, white-headed, bent, and broken. Wills was 
 on hand to meet him (having been notified by 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 191 
 
 Governor Hill), and at once he brought him to 
 his home in Detroit. Six or eight months later, 
 through God's goodness, shown through Wills's 
 efforts, he was able to start for Europe, in the hope 
 of finding his relatives. 
 
 Reaching England, he found two sisters still 
 living. Brady's real name, never learned till he 
 returned to Europe, is Charles E. Beresford. 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 The above word looks well in large type, but 
 in its appearance it comes nowhere near ex- 
 pressing the gratitude and pride I feel in the 
 receipt and ownership of a bushel or two of let- 
 ters, all bearing evidence of the power and 
 glory of God. I publish a few, trusting that 
 you are sufficiently interested in the matter to 
 examine this book to its end; and all I have to 
 say in regard to them is, that they are among 
 my choicest treasures, coming as they have 
 without solicitation, and, as I firmly believe, 
 from the very depths of the heart of each and 
 every writer. 
 
 WIIvI^S AT I.ANSING. 
 
 I^ANSiNG, Mich., Nov. 22, 1889. 
 To H. O. W11.LS: 
 
 Dear Brother, — I write you commendation, 
 and nothing else. 
 
 Whenever I have had the privilege of listen- 
 192 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 193 
 
 ing to you, I have thought of Paul to Tim- 
 othy," second book, fourth chapter, and five first 
 verses: "Preach the word;" "watch;" "endure 
 affliction;" "do the work" of an evangelist; 
 "make full proof of thy ministry." Keep hum- 
 ble; lie at the foot of the cross. God bless you, 
 and give you thousands of souls as seals to your 
 ministry. D. C. Jennings. 
 
 Lansing, Mich., Nov. 25, 1889. 
 
 Dear Brother Wills, — I thank God that 
 1 have had the privilege of hearing a man that 's 
 not afraid to speak the truth. 
 
 For a long time I have had a hungering and 
 thirsting for the truth, and you have explained 
 the Word as I never heard it before, and I have 
 fed on it with relish ; and mean, by God's help, 
 to keep up the search that I may be the means 
 in God's hands of doing more good than I ever 
 have done. 
 
 I shall ever remember you in my prayers, 
 that God may bless you in your work. God be 
 with you till we meet again. Good-bye. 
 
 Mrs. a. Childs. 
 
 17 
 
194 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 Lansing, Mich., Nov. 21, 1889. 
 
 I have attended as many of the meetings 
 from the first as I possibly could, and have ap- 
 preciated them very much. I am convinced that 
 Brother Wills has done a great work in this city. 
 
 He has been the instrument through which 
 the lyord has rescued many souls, I am satisfied. 
 I think he has reached many who never would 
 have been saved but for his efforts. I know it 
 is through him that great joy has been brought 
 into the hearts of my husband and myself, and 
 a light into oiir lives, which has given us a peace 
 which we never knew before — ** the peace which 
 passeth all understanding." 
 
 Very sincerely, Mrs. S. C. Oatman. 
 
 Lansing, Mich., Nov. 22, 1889. 
 
 Brother H. O. Wills, — Please accept a 
 small offering from a laboring-man, as a partial 
 compensation for the many good and true things 
 which it has been my pleasure to hear you say. 
 
 What do I think of your work? Well, I 
 think nothing succeeds like success, and I re- 
 gard you as an enemy of all unrighteousness. 
 Please accept my best wishes for your success, 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 ^95 
 
 and believe that so long as you continue stead- 
 fast, I shall hold you in the highest esteem. 
 In the hope of eternal life, I am, 
 
 Very respectfully, Frank L. Henderson. 
 
 lyANSiNG, Mich., Nov. 22, 1889. 
 
 Brother W11.1.S, — Having attended your 
 gospel meetings every night so far, I wish to 
 say that you have preached the gospel of our 
 Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as I have never 
 heard it preached before, so plain, that all poor 
 people, like myself, could understand it. 
 
 I can say that I have learned more of God 
 and the Bible than I ever learned before. May 
 God bless you and your family and Brother Stuart ! 
 
 Accept this mite, this one dollar which I send 
 you, and the Lord prosper you in your great 
 work! By the help of the Lord we will meet in 
 heaven. Until then, I remain, yours for Jesus, 
 
 ChAS. M. PULCIFER, 
 Member of Central Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 
 and member ot the Church of God. 
 
 Lansing, Mich., Nov. 21, 1889. 
 
 H. O. W11.1.S : 
 
 Dear Sir, — The position of an evangelist 
 or preacher of the gospel is one to be en- 
 
196 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 vied. At peace with his God, doing fully his serv- 
 ice, his own heart approving his work, he ought 
 to be happy. Yours truly, 
 
 Charles H. Thompson. 
 " The Lord bless thee and keep thee." The 
 Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gra- 
 cious unto thee." " The Lord lift up his counte- 
 nance upon thee, and give thee peace." (Num- 
 bers vi, 24, 25, 26.) Ada Beli. Thompson. 
 
 Lansing, Mich., Nov. 20, 1889. 
 H. O. W., — This poor old pen of mine can 
 never write and tell you what blessings I have 
 received in the last four weeks from your teach- 
 ing, and my prayer will forever be that you may 
 always have success in teaching the love of Christ 
 to sinners. 
 
 From one that loves Christ, 
 
 Mrs. SchuIvTz. 
 
 North Lansing, Mich. 
 Brother Wills, — Preach plain, be in ear- 
 nest; it is through your earnestness that I have 
 been brought out of darkness into light. 
 
 Taffy is good, but it will not save souls. May 
 God bless your work, is the prayer of 
 
 D. A. OCTELL. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 ' 197 
 
 Lansing, Mich. 
 
 Dear Brother Wills, — I want to criticise 
 a little. I think you give the rich man a little 
 too much praise for doing part of his duty. I 
 know one poor woman in particular — an earnest 
 Christian (and there are others not far behind 
 her) — that has a drunkard for a husband, and he 
 opposes her in everything that is good. She has 
 been to the meetings nearly every night, and 
 every five-cent piece she gives would cover Be- 
 ment's check so that you could n't see the corners 
 sticking out from under it. 
 
 Go on, Brother Wills ; you are doing a glorious 
 work. I stood by you the first night you came 
 to Ivansing, and am going to stand by you till 
 the last night, and then keep right on fighting 
 the devil, whether he is in the Church or in the 
 saloon. 
 
 Praise the Lord ! I am a poor man, and this 
 campaign has cost me more than ten dollars, but 
 I feel it is well laid out in this grand work. 
 Glory to God ! 
 
 The Lord be with you wherever you go. 
 Praise his holy name ! 
 
 Your brother in Christ Jesus, now and for- 
 ever, Addison Childs. 
 
TWICE BORN. 
 
 Brother and Sister Wills, — I send a 
 small offering, not as a recompense for what 
 you have done for me, for money or words can 
 not express what I owe to you. You have 
 taught me the way of life more perfectly than I 
 ever knew it before, and may God reward you 
 with his choicest blessings ! Your banners have 
 been very instructive to me. If I had the means 
 I would like to give, as an offering to you, the 
 price of the banner representing the human heart. 
 It is indelibly written on memory's pages, and 
 it has shown me the sinfulness of my heart as 
 I never saw it before, and has taught me what I 
 must overcome if I would be acceptable in God's 
 sight. May God help you to present it to others, 
 that it may lead many to Christ ! 
 
 From your friend, Sarah Ransom. 
 
 WII.LS AT EAST SAGINAW. 
 
 East Saginaw, Dec. 19, 1888. 
 Dear Brother Wills, — I have not written 
 Brother Carnalia ; stand by your colors, and God 
 will give you the victory. 
 
 Grant said to his men: '''■Forward^ inarch! 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 199 
 
 Forward^ march ! Forward^ fozmrd P'' He never 
 allowed anything to stop liina — cannons, bombs, 
 grape-shot, fire, water, storms, death, groans, 
 suffering — all the same, forward. You have got 
 Christ with you, and God bless you. You have 
 got the stuff, saiid. 
 
 I would like to go, but can not ; it is impos- 
 sible ; so many things to do to close up the year. 
 In haste. G. W. Stevens. 
 
 Bast Saginaw, Mich., Feb. 18, 1889. 
 
 Dear Brother Wills, — I noticed by the 
 papers that you thitmped the whey out of some 
 dirty dog on the street-car, who was perse- 
 cuting you. Glory to God! I am glad to know 
 that there is one minister who, if necessary, will 
 fight to defend the religion of our blessed Savior. 
 
 Men take up arms and shoot the enemies of 
 our country and government like dogs. People 
 are not allowed to persecute any country, gov- 
 ernment, or nation. If they do, they must suffer. 
 The devil in this Dalton, whom you licked, got 
 beat with his own weapons. Now, do n't worry 
 about this. Any Christian man on God's universe 
 will say you did right ; you defended the relig- 
 
200 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 ion of Jesus Christ, and God loves you better 
 for it. 
 
 If you will lick the devil out of some more 
 such cattle, they will leave you alone, and in 
 doing it you are defending your profession against 
 the onslaughts of the dirty devils that are 
 in men. 
 
 Glory to God ! go in, old boy. Do n't weaken. 
 They would put you back in the gutter if they 
 could, and then jeer and laugh at you. If you 
 are fined, draw on me for the money. In haste. 
 Your brother, G. W. Stevens. 
 
 WILLS AT OWOSSO. 
 
 Owosso, Mich., Dec. i6, 1889. 
 Mr. H. O. Wills : 
 
 Brother, — Your meetings were highly ap- 
 preciated by myself and family. 
 
 I regret that you are about to leave us ; you 
 have explained the Word of God in such a man- 
 ner that there can be no excuse for either the 
 old or the young to misunderstand it. 
 
 I wish to God there were more men like your- 
 self and Brother Stewart. You will long be 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 201 
 
 remembered by myself and family. God is your 
 guide and protector in your good work. 
 
 Your brother, John I. Mackey. 
 
 Owosso, Mich,, Dec. i6, 1889. 
 
 Brother H. O. Wills, — I thank God and 
 you for the truths you have spoken, and of" the 
 many things you have shown us in the Bible. 
 I love my Bible, but the light I have received 
 by your lessons makes it seem doubly dear. 
 
 If we never meet again on this earth, I want 
 to live so as to meet in heaven. 
 
 O, pray for me as I will pray for myself! 
 With respect, Mrs. Elleoi Stuart. 
 
 Owosso, Mich. 
 Brother Wills, — Those Bible-lessons you 
 gave have been a great help to me. May God 
 Bless you for your labors in South Owosso ! 
 Yours truly, Mrs. S. R. Horner. 
 
 WILLS AT FLUSHING. 
 
 Flushing, Mich., Feb. 8, 1889. 
 Mr. H. O. ^ills : 
 
 Dear Sir, — I can not find words to express 
 my heart-felt thanks for the good you have been 
 
202 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 to me, through this revival. God has sent you 
 to do his work; and through you, by the help 
 of God, I am saved. 
 
 Please accept my offering, which is the iron- 
 work on your banner-pole, and twenty-five cents. 
 I hope, with God's help, never to forget your 
 goodness to me. 
 
 Thomas McKenzie, Blacksmith. 
 
 Flushing, Mich., Feb. 9, 1889. 
 Brother and Sister, — I can not express 
 myself in your behalf. You have brightened 
 our home and cheered our hearts, and taught us 
 many good lessons, which we are all thankful 
 for. Please remember us in your prayers. 
 
 Yours truly, Anna Root. 
 
 Flushing, Mich., Feb. 10, 1889. 
 
 Mr. Wills, — I write you these few lines to 
 tell you that I have enjoyed the meetings very 
 much. I think your banners and the lesson 
 they taught us are very wonderful, and I shall 
 never forget them. 
 
 I did not exactly like your ways when I first 
 heard you speak ; but after the first prayer-meet- 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 203 
 
 ing I attended, I changed my mind, and did not 
 notice your way of speaking. I did get angry 
 at things you said, and I knew you meant me, 
 because I thought I deserved it ; and you speak- 
 ing to us three girls as you did, showed me just 
 where I stood and what my duty was, and I 
 thank you for it. Yours respectfully, 
 
 AivLiE Ingham. 
 
 F1.USHING, Mich., Feb. 10, 1889. 
 Mr. H. O. W11.LS : 
 
 Dear Sir, — I am very grateful to you for 
 your seeming harshness, as I know this was the 
 means by which I was shown that I was stand- 
 ing on very dangerous ground. May God ever 
 bless you! Yours sincerely, 
 
 Nkttik Phelps. 
 
 Flushing, Mich, Feb. 10, 1889. 
 
 Dear Mr. Wills, — I am so glad and thank- 
 ful that I have known you. 
 
 I know that I needed just such harsh words 
 as you have spoken, to show me where I stood. 
 In all the things that you have said, that which 
 
204 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 touclied me the most, was when you said that 
 "we were spitting in God's face.'' I saw my- 
 self then as I never did before. Again I thank 
 you, and that God may ever bless you and your 
 wife, will be my earnest prayer. 
 
 Your faithful friend, Jennie Benham. 
 
 Flushing, Mich., Feb. lo, 1889. " 
 
 Dear Brother Wills, — For a long time I 
 have been seeking for more love for God's Word, 
 and more power in teaching it, and have been 
 almost in despair because I have not gained 
 what I sought. 
 
 I can not thank God enough that he sent you 
 to teach me how to feed on the Word. I can 
 never forget it, for my Bible is marked, " H-O-W 
 to find the bread of life," ''H-O-W-to be filled 
 with power," and so on through all the lessons 
 you have given us. I know I shall be more 
 meet for his use through the help you have 
 given me, and I shall strive to pass it on to all 
 within my reach. 
 
 May God ever keep you and your good wife 
 full of his love ! Lizzie Kent. 
 
//. a WILLS. 
 
 205 
 
 Flushing, Mich., Feb. 10, 1889. 
 
 Dear Brother and Sister, — Inclosed is a 
 small token from a heart which would willingly 
 give more if I had it at hand. If it had been 
 a week later, I could have done better. I have 
 all your banners, for they have all taught me a 
 blessed lesson, which I shall never forget. 
 
 If I chance to meet you again, I will make up 
 to you for the good you have done for me. I 
 shall never forget you or Mrs. Wills, and am 
 very sorry you are going away. 
 
 I wish you could stay all this week, but friends 
 must part. I thank you sincerely for what you 
 have taught me, and remain. 
 
 Yours truly, Mrs. Anna Graves. 
 
 Flushing. — From the Pastor of First Baptist 
 Church. 
 
 Dear Brother and Sister Wills, — I shall 
 ever thank God for these few days that have 
 brought us together in Christian work. I have 
 learned to love you dearly during this short 
 time, because I see in you the love of Jesus. 
 There are family features that mark you as one 
 of my Father's children. 
 
2o6 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 I can not tell how much good you have done 
 me, both in respect to my own Christian life, and 
 in respect to my work for Christ. 
 
 I expect to be a better Christian and a better 
 minister, because of the hours spent in your so- 
 ciety. May God bless you with heaven's richest 
 blessings, and crown your life with the greatest 
 success! is my prayer. Do n't forget to pray for 
 me, that I may learn at the feet of Jesus, and 
 be wise to win souls. 
 
 Accept this small offering from myself and 
 wife, not as the measure of our love for you and for 
 our common Savior, but as a small token of that 
 love. I wish it were ten times the amount it is. 
 
 Yours in the closest bonds of Christian love, 
 L. B. Pettit. 
 
 Flushing, Mich. 
 Dear Brother Wills, — Please accept the 
 inclosed as a small token of my appreciation of 
 your labors among us in Flushing. You have 
 done us great good, and I know the Master will 
 amply reward you. My whole family join in 
 warmest regards to you and your noble wife. 
 Your brother, Joseph Frazer. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 207 
 
 Brother Wills, — Please find inclosed a few 
 stamps. I wish it were possible to send more. 
 
 I shall always bless the day you came to 
 Flushing. Your sermon showing how the dia- 
 mond was polished, vshowed me why I have had 
 to endure so much chastening ; but, by God's 
 grace, I will suffer patiently as a true Christian. 
 I joined the Methodist Episcopal Church yester- 
 day. Praise God. Mrs. M. S. Hall. 
 
 Flushing, Mich., Feb. 8, 1889. 
 Brother Wills, — May our Father in heaven 
 reward you for the unceasing labor for the salva- 
 tion of sinners! is the prayer of your sister in 
 Christ. Mrs. T. T. Rogers. 
 
 Brother and Sister Wills, — Please ac- 
 cept my offering of one dollar and fifty cents, 
 with the prayer that you may have many stars 
 in your crown, on account of souls won to Jesus. 
 
 Your Sister in Christ. 
 
 Brother Wills, — I inclose two dollars, as a 
 thank-offering for the gratitude I hold in my heart 
 for what you have been instrumental, in the hands 
 of God, in doing for me. D. W. Turner. 
 
2o8 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 WILI.S AT VERNON. 
 
 Vernon, Mich., March 24, 1889. 
 Brother Wills, — I like your style of teach- 
 ing the word of God with your charts. They 
 are a sermon of themselves. You preach a 
 heaven and a hell. I have always believed in re- 
 wards and punishments. I have learned to love 
 you as a brother. I have been fed as never man 
 fed me before, and may God bless you for it! I 
 shall always think of you with pleasure. 
 
 John Q. Davids. 
 
 Vernon, Mich., March 26, 1889. 
 Dear Brother Wills, — My prayer for you 
 is that the grace of God our Father, and his Son, 
 and Holy Spirit may fill thy heart to overflowing; 
 that your strength may endure ; that you may be 
 a power in the hand of God, in saving a million 
 of souls ! From your brother in Christ, 
 
 A. W. Nichols. 
 
 Vernon, Mich., March 23, 1889. 
 Dear Brother and Sister Wills, — We 
 thank God that you ever came among us to 
 preach the Word in all its purity I 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 209 
 
 May your labor be as " bread cast upon the 
 waters!" Mr. and Mrs. R. Holmdkn. 
 
 Vernon, Mich., March 24, 1889. 
 Dear Brother and Sister Wills in 
 Christ, — We do thank you for coming to Ver- 
 non and using the gospel lash. We have taken 
 what belongs to us, and have received no more 
 than we were deserving of. Our spiritual 
 strength has been renewed ; and as we have list- 
 ened to the teaching of God's Word, we have 
 received light, and feel that we have Christ 
 crowned within us. Be not discouraged, brother 
 and sister, though the clouds look black and 
 heavy. Go forward ! Discharge your duty ! My 
 prayer is that you may be led by the Holy Spirit 
 into the realm of bliss, where Jesus reigns with- 
 out a rival, and where all the heart-forces are 
 united in the willing service of the King of 
 kings. Yours fraternally. 
 
 C. AND E. Huff. 
 
 Vernon, Mich. 
 
 Mr. AND Mrs. H. O. Wills : 
 
 Dear Friends, — We desire to express our 
 
 thanks to you for your efforts to present the 
 18 
 
210 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 gospel in a plain manner ; also, that you have 
 taught us to search the Scriptures, that we may 
 have eternal life. Although we have walked in 
 this narrow way since childhood, and have lived 
 as near Jesus as we knew how, we are deter- 
 mined, by the help of God, to live nearer than 
 ever before. We have regretted very much that 
 we could not attend the afternoon meetings, 
 but our position as teachers prevented us from 
 doing so. 
 
 We think the charts a good way of present- 
 ing the truth ; for one can understand what he 
 sees better than what he hears only. 
 
 May God bless and help you in your work! 
 is our prayer. 
 
 AiviviK Van Akin and Jennie Sheldon. 
 
 WILI.S AT CHEIvSKA. 
 
 Chelsea, Mich., April 15, 1889. 
 To Brother H. O. Wiees: 
 
 Dear Brother, — May God help and bless 
 you in your work! is the prayer of your friend. 
 God grant that you will remember me in your 
 prayers! and I will pray for you and for my- 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 211 
 
 self. I can say that I thank God for sending 
 you to Chelsea ; for it has brought me nearer to 
 my Lord and Master than ever before ; and may 
 God give you strength to preach the gospel ac- 
 cording to his Word, which I know you do, as 
 I have followed you through all your Scriptural 
 lessons. 
 
 May God bless you ! Please accept this 
 small offering from your friends, 
 
 Byron and Matilda Wight. 
 
 Chelsea, April 14, 1889. 
 
 To MY BELOVED BROTHER, H. O. WiLLS, 
 
 who led me a sinner from the path of sin to the 
 path of righteousness, and brought comfort to 
 our earthly home : I pray that God may reward 
 him in heaven, and that we may all meet in 
 that new Jerusalem. 
 
 John R. Thomas. 
 
 Chelsea, Mich. 
 Brother Wills, — I do believe you are a 
 sincere, true Christian, and that good has and 
 zmll attend your work here in Chelsea, and that 
 it will continue to bear fruit after you are gone. 
 
212 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 I like your pictures and plan of working. You 
 have done me and my family good; and if I 
 may say a word, it would be, Hurl as much 
 Scripture at the wrong-doer as you can ; put it 
 on thicker and faster and more of it. Thus 
 saith the Lord God." But do n't waste one 
 precious moment scolding them. It is not 
 right to hold it against them when Jesus said, 
 "Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
 they do." Yours truly,. 
 
 - B. L. Freer. 
 
 CHKI.SKA, April 14, 1889. 
 Brother H. O. Wills, — May God bless you 
 for what you have done, with his help, in sav- 
 ing my father and me ! 
 
 God bless you and crown you with success! 
 
 Miss Lizzie Page. 
 
 Chelsea, April 14, 1889. 
 
 Mr. H. O. Wills : 
 
 Dear Brother, — I am sure that one who 
 is so zealous in the cause of our Master as your- 
 self will hear, Well done, good and faithful 
 servant," at the last great day. 
 
 Emma R. Kempf. 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 213 
 
 WII.LS AT SAUGATUCK. 
 
 JUI.Y 13, 1889. 
 
 Dkar Brother, — You gave us envelopes to 
 fill with good news ; and we do jointly agree 
 with God to hold you up to the throne of grace, 
 that you may continue on, and become such a 
 servant for God that you can bring souls to him 
 by the thousands, with your banners and the 
 way you have explained God's Word to us. 
 
 We have looked into our hearts, and have 
 seen the dark corners that were there, and by 
 God's help we are willing to obey his laws. 
 Brother, you have done us a wonderful sight of 
 good, and it is through faith that we do believe 
 that God has chosen you as a teacher. May 
 our Heavenly Fathci bless you, and put into 
 your mouth words sharper than a two-edged 
 sword, that may send the truth home to the 
 poor sinner's heart ; and that he will give up 
 and do as we have done, and say, "Father, be 
 merciful to me, a sinner." 
 
 May God be with you and bless you! is our 
 prayer. Amen. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Mykrs. 
 
214 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 Saugatuck, Mich., July 13, 1889. 
 Dear Brother Wills, — God bless you in 
 your work ! With all my heart do I indorse 
 you; and have, with God's blessing, profited 
 from the Bible teachings. 
 
 Mrs. J. Q. Nies. 
 
 Saugatuck, Mich., July 13, 1889. 
 Mr. Wills, Brother in Christ : 
 
 We have no criticisms to make. We do 
 thank you for making the Bible so plain to us, 
 and also our duty to God. 
 
 Please accept what we are able to give. It 
 is freely given, and we only wish we had more 
 to give. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Frank Carmon. 
 
 WIIvIvS AT NEW I.OTHROP. 
 
 New Lothrop, Mich., January 13, 1889. 
 Please accept this small amount of money. 
 I wish it was ten times as much. I believe that 
 money in your hands, through God, will be the 
 means of doing a wonderful amount of good. 
 Praise God that his Spirit led you to New 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 215 
 
 IvOthrop ! The good yon, by the grace of God, 
 have brought to this place, can not be told in 
 words; and the prayers of my wife and myself 
 are, that God will keep you, and bless you and 
 yours ; and that wherever you go, success may 
 attend you in winning souls to Christ. Your 
 way of working just suits us. 
 
 Yours, Mr. and Mrs. O'Dell. 
 
 New IVOTHROP, Mich., Jan. 19, 1889. 
 Brother H. O. W1EI.S, — May God give you 
 great power and strength to perform the duties 
 which he has laid out for you to do ! 
 
 We thank God that he ever showed you where 
 to carry the worms when fishing for the souls of 
 men. All honor and praise be to his hol}^ name ! 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Davis. 
 
 New Lothrop, Mich., Jan. 20, 1889. 
 To Mr. and Mrs. Wiees : 
 
 Dear Brother and Sister in Christ, — 
 May you long live to do good and win souls to 
 God, ever keeping thyself humble before God, 
 and when your work on earth is done, may you 
 be gathered safe in the arms of Jesus! is my 
 prayer. 
 
2l6 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 Remember me and mine at the throne of our 
 common Lord ; when you think of us, think of 
 us kindly. Good-bye. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Bailey. 
 
 WILLS AT PERRY. 
 
 Perry, Mich., March 4, 1889. 
 Brother Wills, — Your banners and expla- 
 nations have made the way to live plainer than 
 it ever was before. I can not tell how much good 
 you have done us. 
 
 May God bless you in your noble work of 
 bringing souls to Christ ! 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. James Summers. 
 
 Perry, Mich., March 2, 1889. 
 
 Dear Brother and Sister Wills, — We 
 feel as though we never could pay you for the 
 lessons you have taught us. These lessons have 
 opened our eyes to see ourselves as God sees us. 
 
 Those banners have taught us more about the 
 Bible than we ever heard in all our lives before, 
 and we have been taught it from infancy. 
 
 We want you to always remember us in your 
 prayers. May the Lord ever bless you with an 
 
//. O. WILLS. 
 
 abundant harvest, and a crown with many shin- 
 ing stars! Ever yours, 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. George Haskin. 
 
 Perry, Mich., March 3, 1889. 
 Brother Wills, — Your coming to Perry has 
 shown me just where I stood; your Bible-les- 
 sons have been a great help to me. 
 
 May our God bless you and your dear wife 
 every day you live ! is the earnest prayer of your 
 humble sister in Christ, 
 
 Mrs. Bella C. West. 
 
 Perry, Mich., March 4, 1889. 
 
 Mr. H. O. Wills : 
 
 Dear Brother, — You have been the instru- 
 ment in God's hands of saving my soul. And 
 I pray that the spirit of the Holy Ghost may rest 
 and abide with you and yours forever and forever. 
 
 I have started out to serve Christ, and am 
 determined, by God's help, to at last gain a home 
 in heaven. Pray for me. 
 
 Yours in Christ, Lillian Dalrymple. 
 
 Perry, Mich., March 22, 1889. 
 Dear Brother Wills, — O, I am so thank- 
 ful that you came here and brought your ban- 
 19 
 
2l8 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 ners, you have done so much for myself, wife, 
 and boy. We never saw the light as we see it 
 to-day. Brother- Wills, please carry the news to 
 Vernon that Hiram Hosmer and wife have come 
 out on the side of the Lord. It may be the 
 means of helping to bring some poor soul to God, 
 for I lived in Vernon twelve years. 
 
 May God ever bless you and your good wife ! 
 
 Mary A. Hosmer. 
 
 WII.LS AT LUZERNE. 
 Luzerne, Mich., March 14, 1888. 
 Dear Brother, — Accept this offering from 
 a sister in Christ, if she is a washer-woman, for 
 the good you have done in Luzerne. May God 
 bless and keep you ! Mrs. John Smead. 
 
 Feint, Mich. 
 Dear Brother Wills, — Please accept this 
 from a washer-woman. My heart and hands are 
 with you in your glorious work. God bless you. 
 Remember me in your prayers. 
 
 Anna Tupper. 
 
 Luzerne, March 14, 1888. 
 My Dear Friend in the Lord (for I verily 
 believe you are a child of the Lord), — I write you 
 
H. O. IVILLS. 
 
 219 
 
 a few lines. I am quite well in the body, and 
 much better in the spirit of the Lord than I was 
 when you left here. Tell my wife the Lord is 
 with me night and day. Bless the Lord ! I 
 have a few things to confess to God and the 
 Church and all the people, which have been 
 hidden in my heart for eighteen years. No one 
 knew of them but God and myself. 
 
 Eighteen years ago, this spring, there were 
 five children sick with the scarlet fever ; they 
 all died except one, a boy. That boy had a 
 good Christian mother, and she, no doubt, offered 
 up many a prayer, and shed many tears, so that 
 God would save her little boy from death. The 
 father of this little boy was a sinful man, though, 
 sinful as he was, he prayed to the Almighty 
 God, and made a solemn promise that if God 
 would save his child's life, he would serve him 
 all the rest of his days. The boy lived, and is 
 alive to-day. The father is the one who is writing 
 to you, and the mother is my dear Christian wife. 
 I have been afraid many times that God would 
 cut me down like Ananias and Sapphira. I have 
 kept back part of the price. This will be news 
 to my wife, as I never told her of the promise I 
 
220 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 made God. How good the Lord has been to 
 spare me till the present time ! His spirit has 
 been striving with me all these years, and I would 
 not yield to it until now. What a wonderful 
 and most merciful God he is ! O, brother, I 
 can 't praise him enough ! I hope and pray that 
 this letter I am writing to you, if you read it to 
 the people where you go, will bring some poor 
 wanderer back to his Father's house. It is my 
 desire, if you see fit and think it is proper, that 
 you should read this letter to the people of Sandy 
 Hill. I want the world to know how good 
 God is to his children, and how good he has 
 been to me and my family. See how he has 
 spared me ! I believe it is for some good pur- 
 pose. The Lord has many ways to bring about 
 his work and his will among the children of men. 
 I hope the steps I have taken, and my prayers, 
 may be the means of turning many poor sinners 
 to God. Not that I have done any good myself, 
 but it is God's Spirit working in me. I can say 
 truly that Jesus Christ, the Lord, is in my soul this 
 blessed morning, making me do his will. I find 
 many blessed promises in his holy Word to sustain 
 and keep me. I am sixty-four years old in the - 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 221 
 
 world, and ten days old in the Lord. Bless his holy 
 name ! Let me hear how you are getting on 
 with your meetings. May God bless you, and 
 let you see his work being done in Sandy Hili 
 before you leave that place ! 
 
 From your brother in the Lord, 
 
 P. C. SCOVILL. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 Sandy H11.1., N. Y., April 3, 1888. 
 Dear Brother Wills, — It is with untold 
 gratitude that I thank God for sending you to 
 this place to redeem my lost soul. Dear brother, 
 your banners are wonderful. The man who can 
 not read can understand them. My earnest 
 prayer is, God bless you, and give you means 
 to spread the gospel news. God bless Mrs. Wills. 
 
 Joel F. Dickinson. 
 
 Sandy Hill, N. Y., March 31, 1888. 
 Dear Brother Wills, — After more than 
 three weeks of evangelistic work in my Church, 
 I take great pleasure in expressing to you my 
 appreciation of you as a Christian worker. I 
 have been instructed in the Word of God, helped 
 
222 
 
 TWICE BORN. 
 
 in methods, and certainly God has honored your 
 labors among us in a remarkable manner. May 
 your efficiency increase as the years go by ! 
 Wherever you may go, my prayers shall follow 
 you, that God will bless you, and that some- 
 time the desire of your heart may be realized 
 in an income that will enable you to start the 
 missions you desire. 
 
 Your brother and co-laborer in the work of 
 the Lord, C. Edwards, 
 
 Pastor Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 Brent Creek, January 20, 1888. 
 Rev. H. O. Wills, — May your efforts be 
 crowned by the acknowledgment of your Maker ! 
 is my best wish for you and the cause you are 
 engaged in. Yours respectfully, 
 
 E. A. Bailky. 
 
 MoRRicE, Mich., March 3d. 
 Dear Brother, — I will say as Paul said 
 to the Philippian brethren : " My God shall 
 supply all your needs, according to his riches in 
 glory by Christ Jesus." I shall never forget your 
 banners of the shipwreck and the Christian sol- 
 
H. O. WILLS. 
 
 223 
 
 dier. Pray for me that I may always wear this 
 Christian armor. 
 
 Your sister in Christ, 
 
 Mrs. B. a. McDivit. 
 
 Roscommon, Mich., Dec. 23, 1&88. 
 Brother Wills, — Little Ellen Mulserhill 
 willingly gives to you the pennies she had saved 
 for Christmas. God bless you. 
 
 Sharon, Mich., April 21, 1889. 
 H. O. Wills, Detroit, Mich : 
 
 Dear Brother, — Received your picture. 
 Myself and family were very much pleased that 
 you so kindly remembered us, although we have 
 been slow in expressing our pleasure at the re- 
 ceipt of them. We should be very glad to have 
 a visit from yourself and wife at any time. I will 
 meet you at Grass Lake any convenient date. 
 
 When I think of the past, I think your con- 
 version truly one of God's miracles. 
 
 Your visit strengthened and helped us much. 
 God be with you till we meet again. 
 
 With many good wishes from myself and 
 family, I remain your friend in Jesus, 
 
 J. R. Leman. 
 
WORDS BY CHAS. B. HOWELL 
 Tune: "In the Cross of Christ I Glory." 
 
 DEDICATED TO THE DETROIT WHITE CROSS REFORM CLUB. 
 
 Up above the clouds and darkness, 
 Up alDove the blinding mist, 
 
 Lo! the cross so white is lifted — 
 By the Son of God 't is kissed. 
 
 To the one whose life is smitten 
 By the curse whose end is death, 
 
 Lo! his white cross, pure and holy. 
 Comes with heaven's healing breath. 
 
 Lives are blasted; men are dying; 
 
 Lo, the world is full of strife. 
 Look upon this holy symbol — 
 
 Take new heart, and hope, and life! 
 
 From his throne the pitying Savior 
 Came, and "hung upon the tree." 
 
 Bitterest agony he suffered — 
 Yes, he died — "he died for me!" 
 224