inaccurate Billy Sunday quote

Dan Goncharoff thegonch at GMAIL.COM
Sat Nov 19 22:11:42 UTC 2011


Just wondering, how do you know which quote is inaccurate? Billy Sunday was
a traveling evangelist speaking to large crowds without amplification. He
could have delivered different versions of his sermon to different crowds
at different times, making all the versions "accurate".

Or am I missing something?
DanG


On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 4:46 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      inaccurate Billy Sunday quote
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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