men say what they will about religion being played out, it still is the one thing that gets nearer to the center of human interest than any other theme. The very faults of Mr. Sunday's preaching, about which his critics so severely complain, should help to convince them, and all of us, that the American people are still in the grip of a profound belief in God."

VI

MEETS HIS FUTURE WIFE AT A PRAYEP MEETING

I

T is very significant that Sunday first met the woman who became his wife at a prayer meeting, a pretty

sure evidence that the hand of the Lord had much to do with arranging a life partnership for the man who was to be so wondrously used as an evangelist.

Among the members of the church with which he united was a young woman by the name of Helen A. Thompson, a deeply religious young lady, who was a Sunday school teacher and an active worker in the Christian Endeavor Society. She had for about six years been living a devoted and consecrated Christian life, and was exerting a constantly widening influence for good.

She was also a young woman of strong personality, artistic temperament and unmistakable talent in several lines, not the least of which was her rare good sense. She was of a nature so ardent and ingenuous that religion with her had to be a life, and for life, and this was the young woman in whose acquaintance with Mr. Sunday the hand of the Lord is as clearly seen as it was in leading the servant of Abraham to find a bride for Isaac in Rebecca.

Miss Thompson's father was William Thompson, one of the pioneer wholesale dairymen and ice cream manufacturers of Chicago. He was a soldier in the Civil

As

War, and was badly wounded at the battle of Shiloh. He served in Company I, Fifty-second Illinois Infantry. He was converted after he had passed the meridian of life, and had united with the same church Mr. Sunday joined, and continued in that relation until his death. Mrs. Sunday's mother died several years ago. may be supposed, from the way in which she trained her daughter, she was a woman of sterling Christian character. Both of Mrs. Sunday's parents were of old Scottish stock, and were born in the Highlands. She is very proud of her Scottish ancestry, and rejoices in the fact that she is a full-blooded Scot. She was born at Dundee, Ill.

When Sunday and Miss Thompson first met it was a case of love at first sight with him, but not so with her. She already had a friend toward whom she had quite a strong inclination. Soon after she and Sunday began to meet in church circles, she tried to get him interested in one of her girl friends, and so managed as to have them frequently thrown together, but beyond this all her scheming failed.

But finally Sunday managed in some way to get the girl by whom he had been so deeply smitten to see that he had no interest at all in her chum, but did have a great interest in her.

It was some time, however, before the course of his wooing became anything like smooth, and mainly because Mr. Thompson brought down his foot against his daughter having a ball player for a suitor, though Mrs. Thompson was very much predisposed in his favor because he was a Christian.

While this state of affairs existed he could not call upon the young woman at her home. The only place he could make sure of seeing her was at the prayer meet

ing; but then her 'steady company' was there too. This rival took her home week after week, but Billy bided his time, and at last there came a time when Helen was there alone. He was quick to improve his opportunity and was accepted as an escort.

The Thompson home was only a hundred yards from the church, but the very first shot out of the box the ball player inaugurated a new system-for he was a 'fielder' and no short-stop,' and so he insisted upon walking around four sides of the block to the Thompson home, instead of half of one. From that time on he had his innings, and was never whitewashed.

Sunday was twenty-four years old when he met his future wife. He had been playing with the Chicago White Stockings since 1883. Her home was at the corner of Throop and Adams streets. The West Side Ball Grounds were between Harrison and Congress streets, and Billy managed to pass the Thompson home four times a day while the team was playing on the home grounds. Mrs. Sunday says the front steps seemed to need sweeping many times a day when the team was on the local schedule.

Many who were acquainted with the old West Side Ball Park in Chicago will remember the toboggan slide Anson had in operation there during favorable weather in the winter time. Anson was never more contented than when, for one reason or another, he had Sunday with him. His partiality for the young player had long been noted, but Sunday was so generally liked it had never caused any enmity or jealousy. So Anson insisted that Sunday should act as one of the managers of the slide, and to this Billy agreed on condition that Helen Thompson should have all the free slides she wanted. The number of these turned out to be many.

In the spring of 1888 Sunday was sold by the Chicago White Stockings to the Pittsburg team. This caused a great separation between the lovers that was most trying to them, but it added not a little to Uncle Sam's revenue from the sale of postage stamps.

"I frequently got letters from him that were fortyeight pages long," says Mrs. Sunday, “and really they contained nothing but variations of 'I'm so lonesome!'"

It may not be surprising to the reader to know that this lonesome feeling still troubles Mr. Sunday whenever he has to be separated from his wife.

There is one room in their home at Winona Lake in which Mrs. Sunday keeps a small old-fashioned sofa and a picture that hung over it in Father Thompson's parlor when the baseball player went there courting her. The picture was from her own easel, and one of her earliest efforts in the realm of art.

They were married September 5, 1888, and made their wedding journey in connection with the movements of the team at the close of the season.

Their marriage has been an ideal one, and though they have four children, two of whom are themselves married, the Sundays are still lovers, and never tire of each other's company. He never takes a step of any importance without consulting her; and there are not many minor affairs that he will decide without wanting to know what she thinks, and the moment he knows what she thinks he knows what he will do-and so does she. The same is no doubt just as true of her. Their married life is a partnership, in which each partner has equal rank in the firm, and an equal voice in all its transactions. She is the power behind the throne with him, and is just the kind of wife such a man must have to win a great

success.