The New York Times from New York, New York • Page 54

The New York Tin Magazine. August 12, 1917 Trail-Hitters Not Converts, Church Test Shows i Many Signers of Cards at Billy Sundays Meetings Were Church-: I goers Needed No; Revival, According to Investigator By George MaeAdasa. LMI 1 HE first test or the real rauti fv II -1 of three-month revivai campaign recently conducted In thin city by the Rev. Billy Sunday baa. just beoa eonv- I'" pleted.

According to that teat, the campaign was not the success It appeared to be. The evangel is departed from New York after be bad succeeded in packing bia bote tabernacle twice a day daring his long The free-will not bad aa lasting results in communities as it should, because the clergymen hare failed to do "follow-up work." Before bis first communion terries ia July, Dr. Martin bad made the effort to see, or bare seen, all card-signers in his district. To assist him. in this big task be en- gaged the' serrkea of the Rev.

Dr. John Allen, for many years connected with the Marble Collegiate Church as "the pastor for strangers." Dr. ADen is recognised as an expert in this field of ministerial. actirity, and it is the result of. hie follow-up work on 273 eard- signers that ia here given.

When Dr. offering, watch be turned ever to enaruy, Allen was asked for bis estimate of the was imposing. number of. bia trail- gain to the church and religion due to bitters was' But systematic In- the great Billy Sunday drive, be said: nines' among the trafl-hHters baa Before giving a direct answer I MMMtn'BAt should tay a eomplish what its backers claimed for it Sunday's campaign was launched, and kept at fever, heat for the sole purpose i of bringing about a religious awakening And so the real test of the revivalist's success if to be found ia the Sunday; himself accepted this aa the test a The invitation to bit the trail" was the spiritual climax of each err ice. There were certain men ap- pointed to keep tally ef those who eepted the invitation, and the numbers were regularly given out to the Tepre-.

sentatiTcs of the newspapers after each service. They were dwelt upon and advertised as the risible, tangible results of the revivalist's efforts. Erery person who bit the trail was asked to put upon a card, under the in- seription I now accept Jesus Christ as jny personal Saviour," bis nsme and ad-', dress, also the church and minister pre-, ferred, if any. After the campaign was over and Sunday had departed, these cards were sorted by a committee and distributed in packets to the ministers' who were respectively designated as pre- ferred, or, if no preference was stated, then to the minister whose church was most convenient to. the given address.

This was for follow-up work "to get into the churches the people that Billy 'Sunday, had awakened, to religion, to snake lasting the work that the revivalist bad The first church in New York to com-' plete this "follow-up work" is the Fort Washington Presbyterian Church," of: which the Rer. Dr. Daniel Hoffmann Martin ia pastor. This church was the nearest to the Sunday tabernacle, and It may therefore be said to bare been in the storm centre of the campaign. -Billy Sunday, like ether evangelists him, baa complained that his work has few words of the Fort Washington Church district Previous te this follow-up work I had made a special survey ef this district for the York Federation of Churches, -and as a result of that surrey I can tay that this district is thoroughly typi- cal of New York City; its- population, their; intelligence, their, occupations, their financial standing, are all typical of those of' the great mass of New York's inhabitants.

So I believe that a cross-section from the Fort Washington Church district, as given by the follow-up' of 27 card-signers, is equivalent to a cross section of the entire city. The results of Billy Sunday's work that I found here I believe will be representative of the entire city. "New, when you ask for an estimate of the results of the sensational revival conducted here for three months, every thing depends upon your definition of If the object was to secure trail-hitters Sundsy's work was a tremendous success: the official figures show that there were. 98,000 of them. This is colossal.

But what a good, many pastors, men who put vast influence of their church organizations behind the Billy Sunday campaign, are now asking is, not how many hit the but bow many converts were made, how many were induced, to use the terminology of the church, 'to lead a new i In the daily reports of the twice-a-day meetings at the tabernacle the trail-hitters were often spoken of as 1 In fact, the newspapers used these two terms aa' though they were equivalent and interchangeable. This was accepted by the general public, and also by many of the churches that had brought Billy Sunday to "New York and were standing back of him. The big daily batches of trail-hitters that mounted up. to the total of 98 000 gave the impression that a religions revival of splendid proportions was -taking place. But there were experienced workers who suspected that these 'trail-hitters', were not indicative of real results.

There were those who suspected that many of those who trod the sawdust path were mere card-signers and handshakers; that they were not people who had experienced any genuine spiritual awakeniag. Many of these experienced workers felt that the Sunday Tabernacle ought to have been provided with a place like the old-fashioned inquiry where the 'trail-hitters' would have been brought in contact with religious workers. In genuine cases ef spiritual awakening, this would hare served to further, to clinch if I may use the expression the work done by Sunday, and it would have eliminated the mere handshaker, the and sensation-seeker. This inquiry room has always been a feature of evangelical and revival work. It characterised the work of the great Dwight L.

Moody. But in the Billy Sunday meetings the only invitation was to bit the shake hands with Sunday, sign a card if they, would, (an usher assisting if necessary,) and then pass out The official figures, I am told, show that of the 98,000 that 4 hit the trail' only 65,943 signed cards. That reduces by almost one-third the apparent actual results of the Sunday campaign. I say' apparent actual for only. line that can be got on the actual results is by an investigation of these card-signers; we must learn who they are, what kind of a life they have been living, and what change the Sunday campaign has made in their lives.

It is the follow-up that puts the add test to the profession made in the enthusiasm of the moment, and under the stimulus of the crowd. It is the quiet talk the home that applies what I may call the diamond screen to the work of any revivalist "Now us see how the work of Billy Sunday stands up under this test Of the 273 cards that I investigated, 20 signers were out though ia each instance I called two or three times, or they had moved away and left no address. As we do not know what their attitude is, this 20 shoufd be eliminated from our calculations, reducing our basic figure to 253. Of this 253 I found that 174. or more than 68 per cent, were church members, regularly attending religious service! Many of these people said that they had enjoyed the Tabernacle services, but of course they could not be considered as results of the Sunday campaign.

"The next largest numerical division of the card signers I investigated is rep resented by those who were not known at the address given, or who had obviously given a fictitious address. There were 19 'not (though I made earnest effort in each instance, inquiring of Superintendent janitor, and tenants,) and 12 who unquestionably gave fictitious addresses. One of thee" addresses, for instance, was a storehouse, another was a Catholic church, others were vacant lots, or street and avenue numbers that do not exist This class of card signer, therefore, represents over 12 per cent of the total. "I found 8 who were connected with Sunday schools and attending regularly. I have now accounted for more than 84 per cent of the card signers that I followed and it is not until now that I come to results of the Sunday campaign.

There were eleven who were church members, but who, because they had moved away from their home town or for seme other reason, bad fallen off in church attendance. All of these promised to send for their Ictters and te become active church' members in the Fan. These eleven cannot be considered as but it was the Sunday campaign that gave us their names and that enabled us to bring them bark into the church. "There were twelve who were non-church members, but who bad attended church services more or lets, frequently. Three of lhe.e rave definite promises te join the church.

The remaining nine shaded in their attitude from the woman who said, 'I believe every one should have a church connection 111 talk to my husband about it' to the woman who said, I never signed a card at the Billy Sunday meetings. I must have been But of people who had never been to church, who.had never felt any religious influence. there were just seventeen, or not quile 7 er cent of the total. Of these, four promised'' to join the church, six promised. te come to 'some four were noncommittal, and of the three remaining, one said, I signed the card simply as a courtesy to Billy Sunday'; another, 'I didn't know the object of signing the and the last I am not a church momber and have no wish te become In my entire work I did not come across a single case of a person leading, or who had been leading, a vicious life.

No woman told me of a husband or son mho was lesdfng such a life. If Billy Sunday succeeded in reaching and awakening to a new life any of the booze gamblers, and other bad characters that he so often exhorted, they signed no csrd that pasred through my hands." Victor Hugo's Praise of Belgian Carillon Music It. By William Cerhasa Riee, The dreadful sight of Mooa and tears. Sweep. sows op Belgium, hut she hears tN In kr hrt the mtktdr Of soots she )ra4 whea ah free.

Henry van Dyke. HIGH ia Belgian towers hang octaves chromatically attuned bella, These, with their playing mechanism, make the majestic musical instru- -went named in Flanders a be iaard or carillon. Of the beauty of its music Rossetti, Stevenson, Thackeray, Thomas Hardy, Victor ago, Cau tier, Verlalne, Macdonald, Do If organ, Do Amkls, Longfellow, and ran Dyke hare written. Saint Rombold'a Tower, at Ma-lines, baa forty-fire such bells; the belfry ef Bruges has forty; the same num- ber sound from Antwerp's cathedral spire. In the belfry at Meat are forty- four such bells, and from the belfry of Ghent, whence on Christmas Ere, 1814, cfme the harmonies which marked the signing of the treaty ef peace between the United States and Great Britain, fifty-two bells ring out" Now, war's de- sanction' has been let loose in Belgium," and many towers art gone.

The Cloth Ifall of Ypres, with iU forty-four WHs, has been battered down, and Termonde'a Town Hall, with its forty bells, lies in ruins. centuries, in constant companionship with time, and on market days, on rait days, on Sundays, and in Summer evening concerts, in tender melody, in folk-song, and in patriotic air, the deep and silvery notes of the carillon bare floated down rer the regions of its birth. Set In towers there, which are themselres symbols el 'aspiration and civic freedom, (this unique communal music has nobly celebrated historic events and, with even wider range of influence, has made holidays merry for young and old, enlivened the buyers and sellers in the street and. rejoiced and inspired thousands whose lot is cast ia most simple 'prosaic occupations. Travelers from other lands return again and again te the Low Countries, attracted by picturesque scenes of market place and busy harbor," of civic ball and church tower, of quiet canal and lush field, but ealy when this musk of bells is heard ever all does the charm become complete.

Below Is a 'paraphrase of a charming poem by Victor Hugo, having an indirect war association and never before adequately translated. Five years' search in this and other countries by several of my literary friends and myself has revealed but one translation, rather trifling and anonymous published in Frsmr's Magazine about 1850. The theme is a description of the wonderful carillon music at Mali new, Belgium. Hugo was there about 1845, and tradition says that awakened at night, he wrote the verses with his ring upon the window pane of the little inn where he slept On Aug. 17, 1914, Belgium's most distinguished csrillonneur, Josef Deoyn, mounted Saint Rombold's Tower at Malines and gave his usual Monday evening 'concert It was the last time the carillon was played.

Below were crowds of the allied troops, and they rejoiced to hear "Valereux Liegeois," "God Save the Kiag," "The Russian Hymn," "The Marseillaise," The Lion of Flanders," and other patriotic songs. Then Malines wss bo.abarded and the population fled Here is Uugo's poesa, rendered into English: TWK CSnilXO AT Mr-CRMS, M4I by TiTTon srto. (44pcattMv by WOltoM Crh.m ftlr I th carillon la thin anrlrnt tona, FUnder. guardian ef a rrtl worth. Where the cold North, thourh "by tradJMoa clelirtd, A glow warmth mrldlr.n ha feund.

Caught from rnotrd un hrtrht Tha carillon with aurry mlollg Adorns the unawaited mlrirlirht hour. Till faint afcov. In I atoned flrlda. Imagination hlmmrlng gleam Of form moat Ilka a fpanlh dancing maid. In raiment mualc-flUed and aflvtry.

Which thn, down-coming through tr nitrae air, Ar-ptara a being, radiant and gay. On glittering wing aha tweepa o'er Ore roofs. And atrewlng wide ber magic rippling axitaa, Awakea without remoraa earth'a weary aaa. Now rlaing. falling.

a a Joyoua bird. Now quivering aa a dart that atrikea tae targe. Now touching the trinipareni cr atal aUlr That frail denenda from helghta EJaitn, Behold this aplrlt quick, thia aeul of This elf a rial from ar other aphere. Bold. glad, extravagant of motion, free Anon aha mount, anon descend the akiea.

Then te sy step, with ticklings delicate. In distance far. the vlaloa fades away..