Comment by Brendinooo

If you'd never heard of him, Billy Sunday was a MASSIVE public figure who has largely been forgotten; people would construct huge temporary "tabernacles" to facilitate his public revivals, and he was a bit of a polarizing figure because he kinda combined church and spectacle in a way that wasn't familiar to the people of his time.

Thought maybe the Jack Cade connection was a hallucination but a Google search for Jack Cade and Billy Sunday yielded some pretty interesting results, so...who knows!

Maybe I'll ask about Lincoln Beachey next, another guy on my "crazy popular but now mostly forgotten" list...

User

> What do you make of Billy Sunday and his events?

talkie-1930

> I think Billy Sunday is a very able and energetic revivalist, and that he is doing a great deal of good. He has effected, and is effecting, a vast amount of social reformation in America. He has induced thousands to abandon vicious courses, and to lead honest and sober lives; and he has warned other thousands to flee from the wrath to come. In short, he has extended the kingdom of righteousness, and diminished the kingdom of sin. The abuse which has been heaped upon him has only served to make him more popular; and the personal attacks to which he has been subjected have in no way impaired his efficiency. He has been compared to Jack Cade, and other disreputable characters in history; but the simile is

User

> continue. the simile is...?

talkie-1930

> He has been likened to Jack Cade, and other disreputable characters in history, but, though the parallel holds in some points, it fails in others more important. Jack Cade proposed to effect a social revolution by violent means, and perished in the attempt; Billy Sunday aims at a social revolution by peaceful agencies, and is prospering in the attempt. Jack Cade gathered round him a band of outlaws; Billy Sunday collects an audience of quiet citizens. Jack Cade talked treason; Billy Sunday preaches loyalty. In conclusion, I think that Billy Sunday is a useful, though somewhat noisy, auxiliary in the great work of social regeneration, and therefore I wish him God-speed.