inaccurate Billy Sunday quote

[Jonathan Lighter]

Several sources attribute the following patriotic statement to the
whiz-bang American evangelist Billy Sunday in 1917:

"The man who breaks all the rules but at last dies fighting in the
trenches is better than you Godforsaken mutts who won't enlist."

The N.Y. Times (Apr. 9, 1917), p. 1, quotes Sunday as follows:

"The soldier who breaks every regulation, yet is found on the firing
line in the hour of battle, is better than the God-forsaken mutt who
won't enlist, and does all he can to keep others from enlisting. In
these days all are patriots or traitors, to your country and the cause
of Jesus Christ."

A slightly different version:

1917 _The Outlook_ (Apr. 17) 687: [A] man who breaks every military
regulation and then goes into the trenches to face shot and shell is
better than the miserable mutt who won't enlist - and who tells others
not to enlist. In these days a man must be a patriot or a traitor.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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