Changes

By 1914, he was a national celebrity, conducting campaigns in big cities which lasted many weeks and attracted tens of thousands of people.  In 1917, he conducted a ten-week campaign in New York in which 98,000 people accepted Christ.<ref name=billysundayorg/>. Gale's ''American Decades'' says that by 1920 he was the best-known evangelist in America.  

By 1914, he was a national celebrity, conducting campaigns in big cities which lasted many weeks and attracted tens of thousands of people.  In 1917, he conducted a ten-week campaign in New York in which 98,000 people accepted Christ.<ref name=billysundayorg/>. Gale's ''American Decades'' says that by 1920 he was the best-known evangelist in America.  

Sunday was unabashedly uneducated and spoke in the plain speech of ordinary people, a marked contrast to the dignified style of other ministers. This was quite unusual, even shocking at the time. High schools and colleges trained students elocution and rhetoric, and public speakers, including ministers were expected to use formal, educated English. A 1920 book for English teachers bracketed Sunday with a humorist famous for introducing slang into written English:

Sunday was unabashedly uneducated and spoke in the plain speech of ordinary people, a marked contrast to the dignified style of other ministers. This was unusual, even shocking at the time. Schools trained students in elocution and rhetoric. Ministers and public speakers were expected to use formal, educated English. A 1920 book for English teachers bracketed Sunday with a humorist famous for introducing slang into written English:

:...it would be interesting to study idioms and even slang. The latter may not be deemed wise by purists in English courses but all of us enjoy baseball slang, and [[George Ade]] and his rival in slang, Billy Sunday, are popular because they use these picturesque shortcuts that in many instances are destined to become the main paths of verbal expression.<ref>Hall-Quest, Albert Law (1920) ''The Textbook: How to Use and Judge it'', Macmillan, [http://books.google.com/books?id=a3bfVRnNovwC&pg=PA159&dq=%22billy+sunday%22+%22george+ade%22 p. 22]</ref>

:...it would be interesting to study idioms and even slang. The latter may not be deemed wise by purists in English courses but all of us enjoy baseball slang, and [[George Ade]] and his rival in slang, Billy Sunday, are popular because they use these picturesque shortcuts that in many instances are destined to become the main paths of verbal expression.<ref>Hall-Quest, Albert Law (1920) ''The Textbook: How to Use and Judge it'', Macmillan, [http://books.google.com/books?id=a3bfVRnNovwC&pg=PA159&dq=%22billy+sunday%22+%22george+ade%22 p. 22]</ref>