The
Carter G. Woodson
&
Association for the Study
of African American
Life and History
Library
EMORY
Choiplciiia To Go Sfewm*dl
FROM 1864 TO 1914
FIFTY YEARS
IN THE
GOSPEL MINISTRY
Twenty-seven years in the pastorate; sixteen
years1 active service as Chaplain in the U- 8.
Army; seven years professor in Wilberforce
University; two trips to Europe; a trip in
Mexico. - - - -
*
In Two Parts, with appropriate illustrations
*
Introduction by Rev. Reverdy G. Ransom,
D. D, Editor of the A. M. E. Review.
By THEOPHILUS GOULD STEWARD
Author of "Genesis Re-read," "The Colored Regulars*
"The Haitian Revolution" and other works.
PRINTED BY
A, IN. IE. Ctorerit
631 Pine Street
Phila., Pa.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1864:
Bishops Quinn, Payne and Nazrey. Captain Robert
Smalls; Chaplain H. M. Turner; Rev. James Lynch.
Bishops Campbell and Wayman elected Annual Confer¬
ence in Salem, N. J. Bishop Wayman preaches; Rev.
W. H. W. Winder faints in the pulpit. Rev. A. L.
Stanford preaches; My first appointment; First visit
to New York; Sail to Charleston, S. C.; Organization
of South Carolina Conference; Ordination—'appoint¬
ment. Companions; IRevs. James A. Handy; J. H. A.
Johnson, etc. Organization of church in Beaufort; First
Sermon.
CHAPTER 11.
SECOND TRIP SOUTH:
Captain Walls; Miss Jennie Lynch; Experience with
discharged soldier—Georgetown; Rev. A. T. Carr; Sum-
merville, Mrs. Parker; Col. Thos. K. Beecher—Court¬
ship and marriage. Experiences in Marion, S. C. A
fight between an ex-slaveholder and a freedman; New
England Provost Marshal—Organize a church; Criminal
in jail calls me; Haunted house; Illiteracy; Second
Conference in Savannah; Native preachers; Rev. W. J.
Gaines; Andrew Brown. Revs. H. M. Turner and R-
H. Cain. Extract from sermon and address at Marion,.
S. O, 1866.
CHAPTER III.
WORK IN CHARLESTON, S. C.:
Journey to Macon, Ga. Conference in that city. Re¬
turn to Charleston—Trip by sea to Savannah. (Robert
iii
iv
CONTENTS
Smalls—Fourth of July in Macon, Ga.—Trip to Lumpkin,
Ga.—Work there—Conference again in Macon—Ap¬
pointment to the church in Macon.
CHAPTER IV.
GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1868:
Delegates from the South—Revs. J. M. Brown, J. A.
Shorter and T. M. D. Ward elected bishops. The union
question of 1864. Beginning my work in Macon—
Fine spirit in the church—a surprise—W. B. Campbell
attempts revolt—New church built—Selling cotton;
Freedman's Bank—Opening new church—W. J. Gaines
succeeds me; Mrs. M. E. F. Smith—transfer North.
CHAPTER V.
MEETING OF THE PHILADELPHIA CONFERENCE:
Trial of Rev. J. H. Turpin—Author's connection with
it—First election of delegates to General Conference—
Important measures introduced in General Conference
of 1872. Appointment to Wilmington, Del. Condition
of education in Delaware. Mission to Haiti—Return
to Delaware—Assignment to Brooklyn—Criticism of
Professor Huxley's lectures. Transferred to Philadel¬
phia.
Note: Brother Murray and Fleet Street Church.
CHAPTER VI.
WORK AT ZION MISSION CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA :
Rev. John H. Inskip and Mrs. Inskip; The Protestant
Episcopal Divinity School—Experiences there-—Dupli¬
cated by Rev. L. J. Coppin. Delegate to Gen. Conference
of 1888; Case of Rev. R. H. Cain, Resolution against sep¬
arate schools in Philadelphia. Second pastorate in Wil-
CONTENTS
v
mington, Del. Dedication—Bishop Brown's "Episcopacy."
The "mixed" school question. Appointed to Union
Church, Philadelphia.
CHAPTER VII.
THE NEW UNION CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA:
Annual report of Trustees—Conference of 1884—Case
of John E. Davis—General Conference of 1884—Bishop
Brown's "Dogmas"—Sermon on out-come of Cleveland—
Blaine campaign. Remarkable conversion of young
lady: "Oh it is grand to be trusting." (Resolutions—
Transfer to Metropolitan Church, Washington, D. C.
CHAPTER VIII.
DECDICATION OF METROPOLITAN CHURCH-
Pressing debt—Large building, Small membership.
Spiritual people—Representative congregation—Excellent
choir—Community work. Frederick Douglas' Confession
of Faith. General Conference of 1888—Much discus¬
sion—Combinations; Bishop Turner and organic law.
J. M. Henderson and the Ritual—Colored schools in
Baltimore—Isaac Myers—A white man and his colored
daughter in court-
CHAPTER IX.
APPOINTMENT AS CHAPLAIN IN THE ARMY:
Recommended by Honorable B. K. Bruce, John R. Lynch,
and John Wanamaker—With Regiment in Montana—
Reception—Col. George L. Andrews, Mrs. Andrews—
Refused admission to a hotel dining room—protest—
Commanding officer's attitude—settled—'Regiment jbr-
dered to mobilize for Spanish-American War—Recruit-
vi
CONTENTS
ing—Montauk Point—Denver—Special order to write
History of Colored Regulars—Ordered to the Phil-
lipines.
CHAPTER X.
VOYAGE TO THE PHILIPPINES:
Met with a fall—Services on board—tReport to the
Regiment at Bamban—Stay in Manila—My first social
dinner with Filippinos—Close 1899 with a "Personal."
School work in Zambales province—Devout catholics—
Letter to Archbishop Chapelle—Filippinos . Paterno, Ma-
bini; Poblete; Aguinaldo. Color on the transports—
Color line world-wide; thoughts written in 1900.
CHAPTER XI.
COMING HOME:
"Hail Columbia, Happy Land"—Stay in Fort Niobrara—
Good reception by the people—No good hunting or fish¬
ing—Transfer to Texas—Brownsville; Did the soldiers
shoot up the town? Retired—Settled in Wilberforce
—Employed in the college; Continued to write—Publish¬
ed "Gouldtown" in Collaboration with my brother—
Published "The Haitian Revolution." Summing up.
PART II.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY DREAMS AND THEIR FULFILMENT:
Crossing the Atlantic—Landing in Glasgow—A hard
bed—The University—Art Gallery, etc.
CHAPTER II.
EDINBOROUGH:
A religious family—The University—The land question
—Palaces—Castle—Churches—Elevated civilization.
CONTENTS
vii
CHAPTER III.
TORK:
Its history—Minster—St. Mary's Abbey—Roman re¬
mains. Sir Theodore Martin—A great life.
CHAPTER IV.
XONDON:
History—Westminster—London Bridge—Hyde Park—
Plenty of seats—Only a penny—Colored and white peo¬
ple walk streets together—Dinners—Military—How easy
to visit parliament : Foundling Home.
CHAPTER V.
•PARIS:
To Dover, the English Channel—Genuine Corkscrew
motion—Calais—To Paris—Gaiety and song—Versailles ;
Squares—The French woman—M. Pol and his birds—
Law for married people.
CHAPTER VI.
SOUTHERN FRANCE:
St. Etienne—Our Consul Mr. Hunt, and his wife—Auto
trip up the Rhone—Sketch of the country.
CHAPTER VII.
TO ITALY AND HOME.
ILLUSTRATIONS
PART I.
Page-
Frontispiece Author-
Early Portrait of same 22
Author and Bride 64
Steward A. M. E. Church 136-
M. E. F. Smith 139
Margaret Sterling 160'
Bishop Campbell 192
J. A. Simms 228
Bishop Gaines 242
Isaac Myers 265
Colonel Andrews and Mrs. Andrews 269
Chaplain Steward 273
Elizabeth Gadsden Steward 281
Doctor Steward 302
PART II.
Clifford's Tower 401;
Trafalgar Square and York Minister 415
M. Pol 447'
The author regrets that despite his utmost care some
^errors have crept into this book. The important ones are
•corrected in the accompanying errata. Minor ones, which
-do not alter the sense the reader is asked to excuse.
ERRATA
-Page
68 13th line from top, read filth for "fifth.
1157 14th line from bottom read sociological for "theological."
"175 16th line from top omit the word "no."
188 14th line from top read thought for "ought."
322 3rd line from the bottom, read Venido for Unido.
501 11th line from the bottom read prisons for "persons."
FOREWORD
It is now 1921, and the story told in this book
came to an end in fact seven years ago; and now
standing upon the seventy-eighth terrace of the
highland I have been ascending, I turn to look back
and down upon the winding pathway by which I
have come. The first flat terrace, so near sea
level, seems not far away, and leaping over in
vision the rising plateaus, the scenes of my youth,
with the bright companions of those hours arise
before me. The boys with whom I played ball,
hunted, gathered nuts, skated and fished; the girls
with their laughing faces whom we bashfully met
at the various home parties, when the red apples
were ripe; the quiet cheery grandmothers with
their frilled caps; the busy mothers and daughters
who baked the pies and fried the dough-nuts. Oh,
but we were hungry boys then! And eating was
a large part of our enjoyment. That was the morn¬
ing of the day; the spring-tide of the year. I
thank God for my youth. The country school; the
Sunday school and the church made our triangle,
and the circle that inscribed these included our
'home, family and community life.
Then next I see the terrace of decision. It is
marked about the fifteenth, and stands out with
X
FOREWORD
its plain sign-board. The dream of the sea with
its romance and song; the book, "Jack Halliard,""
and stories told by sea faring men had set up in my
mind a fairy picture. My first step in this direc¬
tion left a disgusting damp upon my fervor. We
were engaged in clearing a swamp; it was August
the days were hot and long; the work irksome;:
and I complained to my father. Fortunately he
was a wise man and in a few days came in, mak¬
ing the announcement, "Theoph, I've got a job*
for you." "What is it?" "To go on the steamer
Express." I should sail; I should see the city which
I had never seen; I was happy. I went on board ^
a white apron was tied around me and I was shown,
how to stand and wait. The waiter's position
then was not what it is now. About six days end¬
ed my apprenticeship: I came home, went back inta
the swamp to work; father never said anything to
me nor I to him over the matter. I think he was
immensely pleased with the outcome. I never got
a cent for my time on the boat, and I do not think
I earned any beyond the food I ate. The next
year I shipped on a sailing craft, which I liked
to a passion; but the John Brown raid had created
such excitement that I was obliged to leave my
vessel in Annapolis, Maryland, and take passage
north on a vessel that had been cleared from a
point in the south. I made many efforts to secure
protection as a sailor but failed.
FOREWORD
xi
Then there came into our community Rev. Joseph
II. Smith, a man who knew how to interest boys:
"who was full of life, but an earnest, whole-souled
gospel preacher. He had a rich voice, and knew
liow to use it; preached always wit'h his eyes ap¬
parently shut, but never got lost in his sermons.
Under his preaching, as he portrayed the love of
God, I was deeply convicted; I was also reading
"Baxter's Saints' Rest." The clear light of pardon
and acceptance came to me on a bright moonlight
night as I was coming home from the meeting,
walking with my oldest sister. I knew then, and
I know now, that God owned me as His child.
Praise His name!
It was probably the next day, certainly soon
thereafter, before I had got adjusted to my new
life, that a fellow perhaps not knowing of my con¬
version, rushed into me for something of the by¬
gones, and I found myself engaged in a fight. I
had not learned the "other cheek" lesson. When
I came to myself I was chagrined, sorry, and in
spiritual darkness. I thought I had forfeited my
right and should give up at once. My mother
saved me from a breakdown here. She was wise
and good and while impressing upon me the wrong¬
fulness of my act, gave me encouragement to go
to God for forgiveness, and hold on to my pro¬
fession. I was saved. An unwise counsellor might
have driven me away.
xii
FOREWORD
Not long after this came the distinct and clear
call to the gospel ministry. I hesitated; but it
finally came to be to me a question of personal-
salvation. I must preach or becorre a cast-away.
I informed my class-leader, Mr. Abijah Gould, who.
asked me if I had fully counted the cost, and did
I remember that, to use his own words, "the finger
of scorn would be pointed at me." I assured him.
I had made up my mind fully, and was ready ta
accept whatever might follow. License came, and
in 1864 I was ushered into the ministry to begin
the story I have just finished. Great have been
the mercies of the Lord to me. From the plateau
to which I have arrived, I can not only look back¬
ward and downward, but I can look forward and
upward. What do I see in that upper region to¬
ward which I mount? In the sweet and inspiring^
language of the older and deeper hymnologists I
can read:
"I see a world of spirits bright,
Who taste the glories there,
They all are robed in spotless white,
And conquering crowns they wear."
And among them are some whose lives on earth
were closely woven in with mine; and their white
robes are beckoning me from the heavenly sphere..
Only a little while, dear ones, and I too will fly
from the mount below to the bending heights,
above.
INTRODUCTION
Dr. T. G. Steward has been a voluminous pro¬
ducer of potential literature. His works include
pamphlets, and substantial books on theology
and history. The book presented here is probably
his last and crowning work. It is biographical,
covering a most interesting period in the history
of the country and the church—the fifty years from
1864 to 1914.
The reader will find here, revolving about the
writer's own career which is portrayed, intimate
glimpses of the religious, social and political his¬
tory of the times. The fifty years' service of our
author have not been bounded by the pulpit, the
rostrum and library. As a chaplain in the the
United States Army he has seen service in tent,
in barracks and in the field. Haiti to the south of
us, and the Philippines on the border of the Orient
are far flung outposts in which our author has
served with distinction and honor.
Dr. Steward will long be a marked figure among
us. Since his retirement from the Army, he is one
of the few men among us having the leisure to¬
gether with the culture and ability to lead a lit¬
erary life. An appreciation of Dr. Steward, writ¬
ten several years ago by that careful observer and
xiii
xiv
INTRODUCTION
judicious chronicler, Mr. John Wesley Cromwell,
lately honored by Howard University with the de¬
gree of Doctor of Laws in recognition of 'his val¬
uable history and literary labors, will show better
than any words of mine how our author was re¬
garded at close range when he was at the zenith
of activities in church life. Dr. Cromwell says:
"The career of Rev. Theophilus G. Steward,
D.D., as an evangelical preacher closed by his ap¬
pointment as Chaplain to the 25th U. S. Regiment
stationed at Fort Missoula, Montana. Dr. Steward
certainly has no superior as a pulpit orator in the
A. M. E. Church. Of him the words of Rev. J. C.
Embry to me, that he can say what he wants to
say better than any other preacher in the A. M. E.
Church, will certainly be indorsed by all who have
listened to his administrations of the Word during
his pastorate of the Metropolitan A. M. E. Church.
Washington, D. C. Never seemed a pastor better
adapted to the great needs of a people than he.
Cultured, genial, pious, eloquent, he continued to
attract to the church people who never believed it
was possible they could see anything good, any¬
thing elevating, in the Methodist Church.
"By his personal example he won many a soul
to an open profession in the belief of a risen Sav¬
iour. When the relations of the church and him¬
self were severed in 1888, there were many sad
hearts. An experience of three years has shown
INTRODUCTION
that he is the best man yet developed for the place.
Without going any further into much that has no
legitimate place here and now, suffice it, that 189L
found Dr. Steward in charge of a church at Balti¬
more with his family here where they were located
for the increased educational opportunities af¬
forded. Then it was that he was induced to make
a formal application for a U. S. Chaplaincy. In
this he had the support of Hon. B. K. Bruce and
Hon. John R. Lynch, with that of P. M. G. John
Wanamaker, who had known him in Philadelphia.
"Ten years have elapsed. Dr. T. G. Steward is
once more here. He is now on leave from his.
regiment stationed in the Philippine Islands now
in possession of the United States as an outcome
of the war with Spain. Since he was appointed
Chaplain he has been a widower and is now re¬
married* This time the occasion of his visit to
Washington is an engagement to lecture on the
Philippines in the Metropolitan A. M. E. Church,
Sunday, September 8, 1901, he preached from his.
pulpit by invitation of the pastor, Rev. D. G. Hill„
and the courtesy of former Chaplain (War of the
Rebellion) Wm. H. Hunter, the presiding elder*
whose service it was. The congregation was an
unusually large one. Douglas was not there,
neither was Bruce nor Langston, these having all
gone to the silent land. One half a generation has
passed since he was appointed there as pastor in
xvi
INTRODUCTION
1886, yet there were many brought to the church
during- his pastorate and who worshipped there
regularly, to welcome him and his message.
"It was a service of great spiritual uplift; to
those who heard Dr. Steward for the first time
it was a revelation of his great oratorical and
spiritual power. Prof. Layton gave a solo and
after the service hundreds pressed forward to
greet their former pastor by the hand. Monday
night the Chaplain was entertained by a dinner at
Murray's Cafe. Twenty sat down to one of the
finest dinners in his honor. Such men as Judge
Terrell, R. S. Smith, L. M. Hershaw and Eugene
Brooks were among them. It was the first time
that Chaplain Steward had been thus honored and
he appreciated the occasion accordingly. It was
nearly twelve when the party separated with so
many pleasant remembrances and with so much
instruction and enlightenment on conditions in the
Philippines.
"At the lecture on the subsequent night nearly
three hundred persons were present. As chairman
of the committee of arrangements I presided and
introduced the lecturer, Bishop Jas. T. Holly being
in the audience made the invocation."
Biography is the richest form of history. It
presents an intimate picture of the life and times
which it treats. Frederick Dogulass and the late
Booker T. Washington have each given us bio-
INTRODUCTION
xvii
graphies which are of consuming interest, and
will ever remain among the most treasured pro¬
ductions of the period of American history which
they represent. But here is something different.
Here we have an American of African descent who
is not struggling "Up from Slavery," but a Chris¬
tian scholar who met the freedmen on the very
threshold of their emancipation, and who since
with singleness of devotion has been guiding them
and their descendants in the paths of knowledge,
character and virtue.
For many years the African Methodist Episcopal
Church has had an official historian. But here is
something spontaneous and unique. Dr. Steward's
painstaking thoroughness, together with his learn¬
ing and experience, sufficiently guarantee the value
and reliability of the contents of this book. We
count it an honor to have the pleasure of com¬
mending and speeding on its way this book which
is in itself a rich treasure garnered from fifty
years of the faithful life of Theophilus Gould
Steward.
REVERDY C. RANSOM,
Editor A. M. E. Review.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1864:
Bishop Quinn, Payne and Nezrey. Captain Robert Small; Chap¬
lain H. M. Turner; Rev. James Lynch. Bishops Campbell and
Wawman elected; Annual Conference in Salem, N. J. Bishop Way-
man preaches; Rev. W. H. W. Winder faints in pulpit; Rev.
A. L. Stanford preaches; My first appointment; First visit to
New York; Sail to Charleston, S. C.; Organization of South
Carolina Conference, Revs. James A.Handy ;J.H.A. Johnson, etc.
Orgaization of church in Beaufort; First sermon.
In May, 1864, civil war was still raging in our
land, although the Confederacy was then approach^
ing its collapse, emancipation had taken place and
the ex-slaves were crowding into the Union army.
It was at this eventful time that the General Con¬
ference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
met in Philadelphia, assembling in old Bethel
Church, on the ground where Allen preached, and
where the denomination had its birth. The body
was composed of all the traveling elders of the
connection of six years standing and over, and
•of certain local preachers who were admitted in
the sense of lay delegates. Rev. Alexander W.
Wayman was chief secretary, and the sessions
were presided over by Bishops Payne, Nazrey and
'Quinn alternately. It was a very earnest, orderly
and in every way, respectable body of men.
The chief speakers on the floor were Revs.
19
20 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Charles Burch, W. A. Dove, W. R. Revels, Enos
Macintosh, Elisha Weaver, J. M. Brown, and
others, principally from the West. Rev. M. M.
Clark, and an Indian minister by the name of
Sunrise were conspicuous figures, as were also
Rev. James Lynch and Chaplain H. M. Turner.
Captain Robert Smalls of "Planter" fame visited
this conference. (See note.)
Perhaps the most impressive session, aside from
that of the ordination service, was that held with
respect to the memory of Dr. J. J. Gould Bias
who had died not long before. Bishop Payne on
that occasion delivered an elaborate and very care¬
fully prepared address in which he emphasized
especially Dr. Bias' important work in the cause
of popular education and temperance.
As this was the first conference of ministers
that I had ever witnessed, and as I then was in
the course of preparation to enter the regular min¬
istry, or according to the phrase then in use, was
preparing to "join the itinerancy," it was but
natural that I should receive lasting impressions
of both the subjects discussed and the speakers
who took part in the discussion. I can, therefore,
remember the speeches made both by Elisha Weav¬
er and J. M. Brown on the subject of divorce and
re-marriage; and also much of the discussion re¬
lating to the union of the two African Methodist
Churches. I attended the convention held by the
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 21
representatives of these two bodies and was not
favorably impressed at the time. I felt that there
was mutual distrust and that each side was seek¬
ing to test the other. Rev. R. H. Cain appeared
to be the leading mind among our men.
After the adjournment of this conference, the
Philadelphia Annual Conference met in Salem, N.
J. Bishops Wayman and Campbell who had been
ordained in the General Conference of Philadelphia
met this conference, although Bishop Nazrey ap¬
peared to be in actual charge. At the close of the
conference Bishop Nazrey took formal leave and
departed to his work in Canada. Bishop Wayman
preached a very impressive sermon from the text,
"They shall hunger no more" (Rev. 7:16-17). This
was the first time I had heard him and I was
charmed with his rich voice, his beautiful imagery,
and his calm and effective delivery. Rev. A. L.
Stanford preached a powerful sermon on "Angelic
Agency," taking for his text, "The angel of the
Lord encampeth round about them that fear him
and delivereth them" (Psa. 34:7). I was sitting
near a white minister while Stanford was preach¬
ing, and as we were well back in the congrega¬
tion, I noticed that this minister was pretending1
not to be giving any attention to the sermon, but
was using his pen-knife on his finger nails. A
degree of contempt for the pitiable fellow arose in
my heart, which I made haste to stifle, that I
22 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
might enjoy the speaker's 'masterly discourse.
Here also Rev. W. H. W. Winder attempted to
preach after having gone through the ordeal of
'examination for elder's orders, and fainted in the
pulpit. Bishop Campbell came to the rescue at
■once and held the attention of the congregation
lion.
It was at this conference, on June 4, 1864, that
I was admitted to the traveling connection on pro¬
bation. The committee examining me were: on
Doctrine, Rev. Peter Gardner; on Discipline, Rev.
W. D. W. Schureman; on English and general in¬
formation, Rev. A. L. Stanford. Each of these
ministers was an expert on the subject he took
in hand, and the examination was genuine. The
beginning of my ministry is coincident with the
iiate of this conference.
On joining the conference I expressed a desire
lo go South, but it was not thought best at that
time, and I was appointed to a little church in
South Camden, called Macedonia. Many years af¬
terward I met a man who had been a class leader
in middle age at the time of my pastorate there,
and remarked to him that I had at one time been
his pastor. He could not recollect me at all. Af¬
ter much explanation he finally called up my min¬
istry by remarking, "O, I do remember; confer¬
ence sent us a boy one year; are you that boy?"
On entering Conference, June
1864
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 23
It was not unpleasant for me to acknowledge the
fact.
At my first quarterly meeting here, my pulpit
was supplied by Rev. Elisha Weaver, Bishop Camp¬
bell and Rev. W. D. W. Schureman and the ferry
boats leaving South Street, Philadelphia, were fill¬
ed to their capacity with colored people coming
over to my meeting. The church was packed and
all the open spaces around the church, so eager
were the people to hear these great preachers.
During the day Mrs. Stidum, a member of our
church living in a building near by, received word
that her husband, a soldier, had been killed in bat¬
tle, and her cries of sorrow were heard mingling;
with the joyous shouts of the people made glad:
by the gospel.
Rev. W. D. W. Schureman preached at night
as no other man could preach, from the text, "And
a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind!
and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water
in a dry place as the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land" (Isa. 32:2). He was a man of fine
appearance, well proportioned, graceful and im¬
pressive in manner, with a clear flexible and pene¬
trating voice, and wonderfully skilled in elocution.
But underneath all was his fine spiritual nature,
rich imagination and capacity for sympathy with
men, which God used in this servant to the pulling
down of the strongholds of the devil. As a preach-
24 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
er, and in the administration of discipline as church
governor, he was eminently successful. In his
private and domestic life he was not happy, and
as a pastor he was not satisfactory, yet because
of his great powers as a preacher all the churches
desired him. On this occasion his accustomed elo¬
quence carried the people beyond themselves, and
my quarterly meeting was a high day, indeed.
Thus the older preachers helped the "boys" in that
day. I remember also the kindly help of the Rev.
J. B. Reeves, the ablest of the Presbyterian preach¬
ers, who came over from Philadelphia and preach¬
ed for me from the text, "Oh, that I had wings as
a dove," etc.
Rev. William Moore, who had special oversight
of my work, and who was a forceful and earnest
preacher, stern for the right and stern against
the wrong, but tender and loving toward men who
were willing to hear the word of God, like a true
father in Israel, guided and defended me during
my ministerial infancy. In my revival efforts he
was mighty; his words were as nails fastened by
the Master of assemblies, as he rehearsed the sins
of men from the text, "Against thee, thee only
"have I sinned," or "How shall we escape if we
neglect so great salvation?" These great preachers
of a past generation! May their sons in the Gospel
rise up and call them blessed!
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
25
*1 served in this church with more or less suc¬
cess until the first of May, 1865, not completing
a full conference year.
On April 30, 1865, in the evening, I received a
note from Bishop Payne to meet him in New York,
prepared to embark for Charleston, S. C.; and by
8 o'clock next morning I was on the train, on my
way to that city. I arrived there about noon on
the first day of May; and the first day of May at
that period was the greatest day of the year, in
New York City. It was "moving day"—the day
of general change of domicile. This was the oc¬
casion of my first visit to that city, and I was
bewildered with what I saw. The streets were
crowded with furniture cars, and other vehicles;
it was raining violently; anger, greed, and dis¬
tress were everywhere visible; in a language which
*When I began my work in Camden in 1864, I laid out: the follow¬
ing daily program: From 7 to 9 A. M., Ancient History; from
9 to 10, Thelogy; from 10 to 11, Homiletics; from 11 to 12, Fletcher's
Appeal, etc.; from 3 to 4, Composition; from 4 to S, Reading. This
was a very unwise schedule and it was as impossible as unwise.
No one but a "boy" unschooled could have conceived a day of
seven hours or more spent in books.
*0n August 7, 1921, I visited Macedonia Church, the Rev. R. B.
Smith being pastor at that time, and there met Mrs. Mary Laws,
a hale, hur.py looking elderly lady, who informed me that she
joined the church under me in 1864, being at that time twelve years
of age. Her name at that time was Mary Painter. She had been
a member 57 years.
26 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
sounded decidedly foreign to me, I could distin¬
guish amid the harsh yelling, oaths and cursing m
strains more vehement than I had ever heard
before.
With an Irish hackman for pilot and driver, I
succeeded in finding the Bishop and lodgings. I
remained in New York until May 9th, during which
time I visited Greenwood Cemetery, Barnum's
Museum, and every other place of public interest
that I could reach. In the meantime Rev. James
A. Handy and Rev. James H. A. Johnson from the
Baltimore Conference had joined our jcompany.
Of the latter I can say that I heard him preach
for the first time while we were here in New
York. It was in Bethel Church on Sullivan Street,
and while he was reading his sermon, a sudden
current of air swept over the pulpit and carried
away some of the loose pages of his manuscript,
leaving him in a hiatus, until a kind brother picked
up his scattered leaves and replaced them before
him, thus relieving his embarrassment.
On May 9th, about 10 A. M., after much negotia¬
tion, Bishop Payne, Brothers Handy, Johnson and
myself were permitted to go on board the fine
government transport "Arago," bound for Hilton
Head, S. C., then the headquarters of the depart¬
ment of the South. By twelve we were steaming
out of the harbor. The wind was west; it was
raining gently; and the sea was comparatively
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 27
smooth; l^tit as we were all, except Bishop Payne,,
most thorough landsmen, we soon began to feel the
effect of the ship's motion. *For myself, all I can
say is, I was sick, very sick, extremely sick, sick
from head to foot, all over sick, completely down
and out, willing to become anything or nothing.
It was not pain; but, Oh, such nausea, a sick¬
ness unknown on land, a sickness that no one in¬
experienced can understand; it was sea-sickness. I
have had it many times since, but never like that
first time. Old Neptune demanded his initiation
fee, and he got it—dinner, dumplings and desert.
This initiatory ordeal lasted about thirty-six hours,
after which we were let off as seamen on probation.
We passed Hatteras and our mercury climbed to
76, and on the 12th, three days from New York,
an awning had to be spread to protect us from
the sun.
The Honorable Benjamin Brewster was a pas¬
senger on this trip, and the conversation carried on
by him and Bishop Payne to which the rest of our
company were merely listeners, was a great source
of enjoyment and profit. We arrived at Hilton
*Not being used to any such experience, it is now admitted that
I was right down scared and considerably agitated. I started out
sick, and was sick from Tuesday to Thursday; but was encouraged
by a knowledge of the fact that we were on a mission for the
Lord. I was not able to eat more than two meals in three days;
and as twelve dollars had to be paid for three days in advance,
those two meals cost me six dollars a piece, and have been tasting
like green backs ever since—Quarto-Centennial address of J. H. A.
Johnson, delivered in Charleston, May 16, 1890.
28 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Head, about sixty miles from our destination, and
were within the military department of the South,
commanded at that time by Major-General Q. A.
Gilmore.
We remained at Hilton Head until about 10
o'clock that night, observing while there the num¬
erous government buildings and hotels, and espec¬
ially the little Freedmen's village named in honor
of the astronomer-general, Mitchel, who early gave
his life in the cause of the Union. Mitchellville
then contained about 1500 inhabitants, and three
churches, in which public schools were taught by
"Yankee Teachers." Numerous officers appeared
to be strutting around in new uniforms; ladies
were riding along the beach on horse-back or in
ambulances: Hilton Head, though formerly a rebel
stronghold, was experiencing on every hand the
tread of the "Yankee" foot.
At ten o'clock P. M. we took the little steamer
"W. W. Coit" for Charleston; the moon was shin¬
ing brightly, the wind was slight, yet the sea was
quite rough; but we slept. At five o'clock in the
morning we were on deck to view the harbor
scenery. Fortunately I made the acquaintance of
a gentleman on board, Moore by name, a native
of Charleston, familiar with all the features of the
harbor. By him I was shown Sullivan's Island,
Fort Sumter, and every other place of interest
within sight, until the "Battery" came into view.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 29
This so captivated my guide that he forgot all
else. The "Battery," or front park of Charleston,
is the pride of every resident of that city, and well
deserves to be, presenting as it does to the visitor
coming by sea a scene of rare picturesqueness and
harmony.
We arrived in Charleston at about 7 A. M., land¬
ing at what (was then called Accommodation
Wharf; and were conducted to the house of Mrs.
Williams, a Methodist lady living at that time in
Laurel Street. Later Mrs. Williams became the
wife of Rev. Richard Vanderhost, a very eloquent
preacher in our denomination, who afterward be¬
came one of the first two Bishops of the Colored
Methodist Episcopal Church. On our way to this
residence we passed through Broad, Meeting and
King Streets; and there saw the havoc of war.
Houses on every hand had been perforated by huge
shot and shell from Gilmore's fleet; great fires
had swept through the city leaving a vast army
of sullen-looking, solitary chimneys; business was
generally suspended; grass was growing in the
streets; the greater part of the population had
fled; and only the beating of drums, the clattering
of military horsemen, and the continual promenad¬
ing of the "boys in blue," many of whom were
black boys, relieved the general monotony that
prevailed. War, Jwar, what a scourge is war!
Man arises to be his own whip-master, and terrible
30 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
are the blows he inflicts upon himself. Let us
hope that the fearful castigations he gives himself
from time to time may ultimately result in his en¬
lightenment and correction.
It was Saturday when we landed, and having
arrived at our lodgings, returned thanks to our
Kind Preserver, and breakfasted, we organized
informally to make preparation for the ensuing
Sabbath, and then devoted the day generally to
quietness and rest.
Sunday morning I preached in what was called
*"01d Bethel," a little frame church situated on
Calhoun Street near Pitt Street. Incidentally I
noticed that all the women of middle or advanced
age wore beautiful turbans instead of bonnets:
and that the young ladies universally sported
broad-rimmed hats. I noted also, the generally
soft expression upon all female faces. Very little
gaudiness was visible except in the matter of jew¬
elry, which many wore to excess. The feather
fan was in the hand of almost every woman. Fol¬
lowing me, Rev. C. L. Bradwell of Savannah de¬
livered a brief exhortation, giving evidence of a
good mind and of fine feelings. In the afternoon
*The church contained nothing remarkable, except its pulpit. This
was very high, cramped, and over it was suspended a kind of
sounding board appearing like a huge bell without a clapper, re¬
minding one constantly of a deadfall intended to entrap the preach¬
er. Underneath this apparent man-trap, with a lively sense of in¬
security I attempted to preach.—My Diary.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 31
I preached in St. James Church, corner of Spring
and Comings Streets. At four o'clock Bishop
Payne preached to an enormous congregation in
Zion Presbyterian Church.
On Monday morning, May 15, 1865, the first
conference held by our church within the territory
of the South Atlantic and Gulf States began its
sessions in the Zion Presbyterian Church in Char¬
leston, S. C., Bishop Payne presiding. The great
building was crowded with spectators, and there
was much more in the way of explanations, preach¬
ing, singing and prayer, than of business. The
sessions continued from the 15th to the 22nd, a
full week. During the session, Major Martin R.
Delaney delivered a very important lecture on the
"'Unity of the Races," bringing into view the teach¬
ings of anthropology up to that date, and sustain¬
ing his own position with abundant forceful
argument. Brother J. H. A. Johnson and myself
were ordained deacons and elders during this con¬
ference, so great was the emergency. We were
ordained in Trinity Methodist Church, the property
of the M. E. Church, South. At that time all of
the churches were in the hands of the military
authorities. Our conference at its close numbered
twelve members, classified as follows: elders, six;
Deacons, four; Licentiates, two; the old apostolic
number. The elders actually present were: James
A. Handy, James H. A. Johnson, James Lynch
32 Fifty Years «• >»' G"#*
u. hut R H. Cain and A. L. Stanford
trrivSTsoon after the adjournment of the con-
ference and took up the work assigned them, the
former at Charleston, the latter at Savannah.
In this conference, which met in Charleston May
16, 1865, beside the men who came from the North,
and whose names have been given in the pre-
ceeding pages, there were present from the cities
of Charleston and Savannah the following breth¬
ren: Charles L. Bradwell, William Bently, James
Hill, Gloucester Taylor, Robert M. Taylor, Rich¬
ard Vanderhost and John Graham. These were
all leaders or exhorters. or, in case of one at least,
local preachers; and were of much experience,
character and talent, having been recognized as
such by the ministry of the church to which they
belonged. Charles L. Bradwell, however, was the
only one among them who was prepared at that
time to leave all and enter upon the work of the
ministry, although he was then a prosperous
mechanic with a business of his own.
I have a very distinct recollection of *John
Graham, who was the class leader of the lady
whom I married while in Charleston. He was
*He was a Christian spiritual giant of many cubits, leading a
mighty host of Christian followers in and out of this grand old city
by the sea. In physique he was well proportioned; in moral courage
and Christian fortitude, he was a fac-simile of St. Paul; in natural
ability and far sightedness into future developments as the result
of well laid plans, he had few equals and certainly no superiors • in
acquired literary attainments he ranked generally with the men of
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 33
then about sixty years of age; a very sincere,
earnest, intelligent and devout Christian man. He
had served many years as class leader in Bethel
Church, and as such was a very honored leader
of the Sunday morning prayer meetings. Rev.
Charles L. Bradwell was received on probation, as
were also Gloucester Taylor, Robert M. Taylor
and Cornelius Murphy; but these latter three did
not take work. William Bently and James Hill
were ordained deacons and were left to work in
a local capacity in and around Savannah, to meet
the appalling need of the thousands of freedmen
who were in that vicinity, devoid of the services
of a Christian ministry.
This whole section, with its hundreds of thou¬
sands of men, women and children just broken
forth from slavery, was, so far as these were con¬
cerned, lying under an almost absolute physical
and moral interdict. There was no one to baptize
their children, to perform marriage, or to bury the
dead. A ministry had to be created at once—and
created out of the material at hand. The courage
of the leaders of our church is to be commended
in that, in the face of the great crying need, so
his day. This grand old man and Christian hero, at the time he
entered the ministry of the A. M. E. Church, had passed his merid¬
ian of life in the flesh by twenty-two years, yet his spiritual life
was just at its zenith, hence of all the galaxy of men who began
this glorious church work in those days, the brightest among them
was John Graham.—Address of J. E. Hayne, Quarto-Centennial,
Charleston, May, 1890.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
apparent to all, they dared to lay hands on men,
not fearing the criticism of those who openly pro¬
claimed in Charleston in 1S65 that the A. M. E.
Church had "neither the men nor the money" to
carry on work in the South. These critics forgot
that God could call the men; and that the A. M. E.
Church had the authority to commission them
when thus called. To the six ordained men brought
on the ground from the North, the church addei
by ordination in 1865 five more, including the Rev.
William Gaines who was ordained by Bishop
Payne by authority of the conference, at Hilton
Head after conference had adjourned.
Later there carne into the field from the North,
Rev. George. W. Brodie and Rev. Charles H. Pearce
from Canada, and Rev. George A. Rue. Rev.
George A. Rue was assigned to Newberne, N. C.,
and Rev. George W. Brodie to Raleigh, N. C.
North Carolina was thus pretty well manned:
Handy at Wilmington, Brodie at Raleigh, Rue at
Newberne, all experienced, able and efficient min¬
isters. Pearce had been assigned to Tallahassee,
Fla., where he found such worthy assistants as
William G. Stewart, the one-armed preacher; and
T. M. Long, the ex-soldier, a strong organizer and
a man of extraordinary sagacity and sound judg¬
ment.
But to return to the personal narrative. On
.Thursday, May 28, 1865, in company with Bishop
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 35
Payne, Brothers Lynch, Handy and Johnson, I
secured passage on the little steamer "Loyalist"
for Hilton Plead. The weather was threatening,
but the captain decided to take the outside pas¬
sage, although it is possible for steamers of the
size of our vessel to make the trip from Charles¬
ton to Hilton Head and even to Savannah without
risking the perils of the sea. The British Colone1
Maitland made use of these inland waters in con¬
veying his troops from Beaufort to Savannah in
1779, guided by some Negro fishermen, and thus
prevented the French and American forces from
capturing that city. Before embarking I had eaten
a quantity of South Carolina peanuts, as of course,
there was nothing in the way of food to be had
on the boat; indeed accommodations on the boat
were as bad as they could be. We left Charleston
at four o'clock in the afternoon, the wind was
from the southeast and blowing strongly. Later
it increased in violence, accompanied with thun¬
der and lightning. It was my first experience with
a storm at sea, and the awful grandeur of the
scene affected me greatly. Our little boat was
tossed by the waves as a thing without significance.
When off Stono Inlet an effort was made to change
our course so as to enter the inlet, and the boat
which had been until then kept head to the sea,
was swung around sufficiently for the sea to strike
her on the side of the bow; the rolling was fear-
36 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ful; all loose stuff was thrown overboard by the
violent pitching of the vessel; passengers became
alarmed and the cry started, "She is going down."
I awoke Bishop Payne who was until then asleep,
and told him of the horrors of the situation. I
said to him, "Bishop, it is reported the vessel is
going down." He lifted his head and said, "Noth¬
ing but the power of the Almighty can save us,"
and calmly lay down again, his action correspond¬
ing exactly to the prodigious sublimity of the
occasion and filling me with admiration and won¬
der. Our vessel, leaking badly, coal running low,
was compelled to keep head to the storm until
about 11 A. M., when it pleased the Almighty to
cause the wind to shift, accompanied by a heavy
downpour of rain, which served to beat down the
sea, and by three o'clock we were entering the
roadstead at Hilton Head. Anxiety for our safety
had become so great that another boat had been
despatched from the Head to search for us. I
said I had eaten a quantity of peanuts before em¬
barking, but during the storm these had all come
up de profundis and gone to feed t'he fishes.
Here at Hilton Head the pious and accomplished
-*J ames H. A. Johnson was to begin his labors. He
*Rev. J. H. A. Johnson, than whom a man more devoted to trutn
never lived, recounts the experiences of that night as follows:
"When they got to the pier they found nothing but a little nisigfi-
cant propeller called The Loyalist, that wa's not suitable for either
river or sea. And then the wind was blowing a perfect gale, but
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 37
^vas a man of most engaging manners, artistic
tastes, and scrupulous correctness in language,
'4ress and deportment. As a writer he was very
painstaking and explicit, leaving nothing for the
reader to be in doubt of as to the meaning in¬
tended. As a speaker he was very deliberate and
•emphatic. As a preacher, soundly orthodox and
evangelical. A psychometrist who had never seen
-him, and had no other knowledge of him save
what he obtained through occult means gave, in
~4xiy presence, the following reading: "He is a per¬
son of decided character. He formed his opinions
quite early in life and it is hard for him to adopt
:new views. One would take him to be a little
too positive to hear him talk; and yet he is willing
to weigh the arguments of those who hold opposite
views and to weigh the subject. He does not,
^however, give up his own notions until he has the
most indubitable proof to the contrary. When he
aboard this frail craft we had to go; and so Bishop Payne, Lynch,
JIandy, Steward and I passed down the gangway on to the con¬
tracted deck. There we awaited the signal for the casting loose of
hawsers; after some delay it was given and we moved out toward
the Atlantic. The trip we were to make required only seven or
eigh'. homs, but as we progressed and night came on the glooming
pale turned into a raging storm. The wind howled. With the
-down pouring rain and billows rolling high, it was a fearful storm.
In that frail craft, groaning and creaking, careening, and trembling,
•beaten about by that angry sea, surging sea, we were from evening
until morning and until every heart had given up in despair. I
said to Bishop Payne while he was lying upon some freight, "Bishop,
do you think there is any danger?" He calmly replied, "Nothing
1'Ut God can save us." We all then silently prayed and waited for
38
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
does change his views, he will be equally as posi¬
tive in his new position. He acts from principle
in every move he makes. His phrenological char¬
acter is conscientiousness, firmness, hope; the in¬
tellectual faculties are well developed. His rev¬
erence is more for principles than for persons. I
should think him qualified for a minister of the:
gospel. His intellectual attainments qualify him.
to fill any position requiring brain work, mercan¬
tile or educational. He would be well qualified to
fill the editorial chair—ivcll qualified. He is very-
self-balanced, has perfect control over himself. I
should take him to be about five feet eight inches,
in height; light complexion: a great deal of ex¬
pression in his eyes. His countenance is quite
expressive, especially when interested in conver¬
sation ; not very heavy nor very light-built—about
results. We should have been to the landing about 11 o'clock oa
Thursdays night, but Friday morning, May 26th, dawned and found
us still being tossed about in that raging storm; and we continued-
to be until the morning was pretty well spent. Finally an abate
ment came and we were able to make headway towards land. As.
we were doing so a steamer hove in sight and we found it to be
one that had left Hilton Head to see what had become of us. With¬
out her assistance The Loyalist made port at 3 o'clock on Friday
afternoon. When we landed we felt as though we had escaped from
the jaws of death, and that God himself had saved us."
The reader will note the apparent discrepencies in these accounts
as to calling Bishop Payne. We were together, Johnson and I, and
each so excited as not to note what the other did. I reported the
rumor that the boat was going down, I am sure; and Brother John-
son is just as sure that he asked as to danger; and the reply of the
Bishop came to us both.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
39
medium; his weight might be 145 pounds, perhaps
■a little more; he takes hold of any work as if he
meant to accomplish something. There is a great
-deal of energy in him. His tastes are intellectual."
T have quoted this reading in full not only as a
matter of curiosity (as the man who gave it was
•aged and blind), but also because it gives a most
-accurate description of the man whom I count
•among the best of men I have met, and who was
to me a friend in whom my soul confidently trust¬
ed—a cultivated Christian gentleman.
From Hilton Head I proceeded to Beaufort,
about 16 miles distant from the "Head" (as we
•soon learned to call the headquarter post), situated
on Beaufort River, landing there Saturday, May
.27, 1865. Here, inexperienced, unaccustomed to
the climate, and entirely unprepared to cope with
the topsy-turvey conditions I met, I began my
work. *1 began at the beginning; by securing board
temporarily with a Mrs. Bram who kept a kind of
■officers' mess where were boarding Major Augusta,
* It was thought that the American Missionary Association would
asstime a part of the support of the missionaries whom Bishop
Payne took with him from New York. The following letter received
by me acknowledging receipt of my report, confirms this view; but
ior myself, I can say that I never received any support from that
association.
New York, July 25, 186S.
I-iev. T. G. Steward,
Beaufort, S. C.
.Dear Brother:
Yours is received. We thank you lor promptly filling and return-
40 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
chief surgeon of one of the colored regiments, and
who was in fact the first colored man to put on;
officers' uniform in the Union Army during the
civil war and from whose shoulders ruffians tore-
the straps in Baltimore; Captain O. S. B. Wallv
and a number of colored civilians. I did npt re¬
main in this public house long, but soon after
found board with a lady named Cruz from Palatkav
Fla. She and her daughter kept a very pleasant
home and here I and Major Martin R. Delaney
boarded. I visited the sick and buried the deadr
and finally got together and organized a church:
A brother had been preaching there before, under
the supervision of our missionary, Rev. James
Lynch, but the church had not been organized.
Hence I did not begin my formal work as pastor
of a mission church until June 18, 1865.
It is probable that I had heard of Bishop Way-
man's popular sermon on the text, "I seek my
brethren," which he had preached in so many places
directly after the war, although I had never heard.
ing our circular. Vou are right in the part we assume in your
support. We shall remember you with great interest as we see you
toiling for the spiritual good of those whom we hope will gladly
receive the Word of life at your hands, and be made rich with im¬
perishable riches. A glorious mission is yours. May God grant
you grace to fill it, so as to honor the Master.
We hope you will remain in health of body and mind. We shall'
ever be glad to hear from you.
Yours very truly,
GEO. WHIPPLE,
Cor. Sec. A. M. A.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
41
the sermon nor seen any notes of it in print. But
recognizing that the Bible is a free book for all
.preachers, and that no man can take out a patent
right on any particular passage of God's book, I
■determined to employ the same text. Accordingly
my first sermon in Beaufort was from the text,
"I seek my brethren." I have preserved these
notes and now present them to the reader with
the explanation, that I did not then, and do not
..now, preach from manuscript; nor do I memorize
•my discourses. Thus it is not at all probable that
I used the exact words as written. My custom
has been during my half century of preaching, to
work out all of my ideas, writing them out in the
order in which I intend to present them, and trust
to the occasion for the language. In my earlier
clays in writing my sermons, the following pas¬
sage from one of my brother's poems often gave
- me stimulus:
' "A ship at anchor in the distance shows
By the wan gleam of starlight, and the crew,
Pull a small boat towards the breaking shore,
Where none but madmen dare to risk their lives;
But at the heldm, a swearing steersman sits,
Who knows the path—has traversed it before."
I have always felt that the preacher should know
'the path over which he pilots his thoughts, and
42 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
know it because he has traversed it before
Inaugural Sermon, Beaufort, S. C., June 18, ISS5
Text—"I seek my brethren" (Gen. 37:10.
Jacob, the patriarch, sometimes called Israel, had
twelve sons. Next to the youngest was Joseph,,
who was very much beloved by his father and
others; and several dreams that he had showed
that God loved him also, and that He had raised
him up for a special purpose. One night Joseph
dreamed that he and his brothers were all binding
wheat in the fields, and it came to pass when he-
had bound a sheaf and stood it up, that the sheaves,
that his brothers had bound all fell down before,
his sheaf. He told this dream in the presence of
his brothers and his father and mother. His,
brothers became jealous of him and hated him.
A few days thereafter the older boys took the
flocks of sheep and cattle several miles away from,
borne to pasture and staid by them to watch them,
night and day for several days. Now after they
had been gone some time, a fortnight perhaps, the
father wanted to know how they were getting
along—if they were well, if the flocks were all.
right: so he called Joseph who was a little lad of
a boy, saying, "Joseph!"
The lad answered, "Here am I."
"I will send you to see how are thy brethren.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 43
Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy
brethren and well with the flocks and bring me
word again."
So the little fellow started out and went to the
place where he had heard his brothers were keep¬
ing their flocks; but when he got there, he could
not find either his brothers or the flocks. He, as
.any other sensible boy would do, commenced wan¬
dering in search of them. While thus doing a man
met him and asked him what he was looking for;
and he answered in the words of our text, "I seek
iny brethren."
As this is the first time I have ever had the
-privilege to meet you, I have thought I could not
better tell you my business than to quote this
language of Joseph and claim it as my own—I
.seek my brethren. I come from New Jersey to
South Carolina in search of, or hunting for, my
■brethren. First let me give you the object sought,
.-or tell you who are my brethren.
1. Those whom Joseph sought as his brethren
were all the sons of one father, but of different
mothers. For instance, there were ' Reuben,
.Simeon, Levi and Judah born unto Jacob by his
first wife, Leah; then there were Dan and Naph-
tali, sons of Rachel's maid, Bilpah; and Gad and
.Asher born of Leah's maid, Zilpah; but these
Joseph calls brethren because all of one father.
'With this same feeling have we come here to
44 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
preach the Gospel—to find, our brethren. And in.
one sense we look upon 3.11 men as our brethren,
lor, though they may be born of different mothers*
that is, may belong to different races and nations,,
yet they are of one Father who is the source of all.
life; and who of one blood has made all nations,
to dwell upon the face of the earth; and like
Jacob acknowledges them all his sons. We, there¬
fore, like Joseph, acknowledge them all as breth-
len. All. mankind is the object of our search.
2. But more expressly have we come to seek
those who are our brethren by virtue of race; not.
because we care anything for races or nations, but
because they have been and are yet in a great
measure our brethren in affliction. And that very
affliction has served to bind us together by the
two-fold cord—sympathy, for the oppressed, and
love of man. Our fathers have passed through,
the fiery furnace of slavery and escaped to the
North, where a nominal or partial freedom reigns;.
They have taught us in infancy to remember those
in bonds as being bound with them; and from our
churches, our firesides and our closets have gone,
up the petition: "Oh Lord, remember those that
are bound down under hard task masters, our
brethren in affliction! Break every yoke, snap in.
sunder every chain, and let the oppressed go free!"
God has heard; Glory to His name! Answered
the prayers of'His people, and so to speak, has
Fifiy Years in the Gospel Ministry 45
come down to deliver them. The yoke is cast off,
the chains are broken and we come in search of
our brethren, the Freedmen.
3. We come to seek those who are our brethren
by adoption—those who have drunk the worm¬
wood and the gall of conviction of sin, and who
have at last heard the welcome words of Jesus
saying unto them, '"'Thy sins beforgiven thee.
Arise, shine for thy light has come and the glory
of the Lord is risen upon thee." Those who have
passed from death unto life and know that their
Redeemer lives; who can appeal to high heaven
to witness their acceptance with God; who can
say, "My witness is in heaven; my record is on
high." All who can say "Abba—Father—the Holy
Ghost," bearing witness with their conscience that
they are the adopted and heaven-born sons of the
Most High, We are seeking them.
4. Lastly, we seek those that love our church
government best. I mean Methodists. Not that
we would be supposed to have the least taint of
prejudice to any evangelical denomination or
church—God forbid! But as there are Baptist,
Presbyterian, and other missionaries here on the
ground to look after those who are accustomed
to their respective modes of worship and church
government, we feel our mission with regard to
Christians, to be directed to those who are or
have been Methodists. We come as- brother Meth-
46 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
odists to seek our brother Methodists.
II. How do we seek them.
1. I think from reading this story of Joseph seek¬
ing his brethren and also from experience in coun¬
try manners and customs that Joseph, when he did
not find his brethren where he expected to, looked
anxiously for some track or traces of the flock
that he might learn the direction they had taken;
and this "seeking" in all probability gave rise to
the question, "Whom seekest thou?" We look first
for the track of man, for his house, his fields, his
churches, that we may find our brethren. We de¬
sire to find men of whatever class they may be;
if they are of European, African or Asiatic mothers,
we do not care; they are our Father's children.
2. We look for the traces of that afflicted people,
the people who were as the Apostle says, "Killed
all the day long;" we look for the cotton fields
which they cultivated; the rice swamps they
watered and watched; the little huts wherein they
■dwelt; the blood-hounds that chased them; the
swamps in which they, terrified and exhausted,
took refuge. We find all these; but still we seek
our brethren. At last the welcome sight is ob¬
tained. From every direction I see them coming.
Thank God! The nation, scattered and peeled, is
coming stretching out its hands unto God. They
are our brethren!—hair, skin and eyes say so.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 47
3. But how do we seek these our brethren in
Christ? We look for the marks; we see great
church edifices and are told they are often built
almost entirely by the African or colored children,
or sons of God by adoption. We see their mark
as among the multitude we listen to their songs
of praise and their fervent prayers to Almighty
God, and we know they are here somewhere. Yes:
Brethren of that Spiritual Family, we feel you
are here, some in this congregation, who know
Christ after the spirit and who have tasted the
good word of life and the powers of the world to
come. Another method: The Gospel of peace and
reconciliation is opened, Aye! The fountain for
the support of Christians, whose waters like those
of Marah, are bitter to any except the brethren in
the Lord—I mean the sacrament of the Lord's
supper. I see them come to the feast with joy
and humble thanksgiving, and I believe I have
found my brethren in Christ. And as brethren may
we journey together to the land of promise where
none are sick or oppressed, where drivers, hounds,
whips and thumbscrews are no more known, for¬
ever.
4. As to the method of seeking those of our
faith, viz., Methodists, from among others we only
intend to declare this an A. M; E. Church, and re¬
ceive all who make application to join with a desire
to flee the wrath to come.
48
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
III. Wherefore do I seek my Brethren?
1. It was the design of Joseph in seeking his
"brethren to learn if it was well with them and
with their flocks that he might, when he should
return to his father, cheer his spirit with news
from his sons who were first in his heart and first
in his command to Joseph; and also with news
from his flocks. But somewhat more comprehen¬
sive is our design. Not only do we wish to learn
the spiritual and temporal condition of all men
we chance to meet, but we desire to do them good;
to preach to them Jesus crucified, dead and buried
Saviour, and a risen, living Redeemer.
2. To tell to our brethren in affliction that de¬
liverance has come through the wisdom and works
of the Most High Yes, my brethren, I have sought
you to rejoice with you in your newly gained
freedom; to shout with those that shout; to unite
heart and voice with you in singing to the Lord
who hath triumphed gloriously in overthrowing
that horse and his white rider that used with whip
in hand ride so lordly over these cotton planta¬
tions. I have come to say with you, "The Lord is
a man of war, and the Lord God is His name. His
right arm doeth marvelous works. Let the re¬
deemed of the Lord bless His holy name." For
this have I come, and may God give us a spirit of
-union, harmony and brotherly love.
3. I seek my brethren in Christ to hear if it is
Pifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 49
well or ill with them, that I may present their
case to Our Father who dwells in the high and
holy places, and also to assist them as much as
God shall place it in my power so to do in work¬
ing out their souls' salvation by fearing and serv¬
ing the Lord with a willing mind and a perfect
heart. But, above all, to tell of Jesus who
lives on high forever to make intercession for all
that come to God by Him. And my Christian
brother, there is none able to pluck you out of
Mis hand. If you ever fall it must be by your
own will. The devil is not able with all his angelic
strength and skill to pluck you from the hand of
God. Unless you first consent and say, "I will
go." He cannot make us lie, steal, drink rum or
swear gainst our will while God is our refuge
and strength.
4. I seek Methodists to organize them into
churches or societies in accordance with the Meth¬
odist Discipline, and under the banner of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church of the United
States for the sole purpose that they may do more
good in the world than possibly could be done by
the same number if not properly united together.
I come to form you into classes, to give you leaders
to reprove or exhort you as the case may require;
to instruct you in all the doctrines and rules of
government of our church, that God may be glori¬
fied in and by us. I come to administer the sacra-
50 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ments of the church to you that you may eat
angelic, aye, heavenly food, the precious body and
Hood of Jesus Christ the Son of God—not really,
temporally, but -spiritually, by faith.
Lastly, to all peaceably, yet earnestly do I seek
you to tell of Jesus who was born in Bethlehem
of Judea, lived a life of misery and discomfort,
taken by wicked hands, crucified on Calvary's top
to purchase for all men, redemption from the con¬
sequences of sin; deliverance from the power
thereof; a right to the joys of heaven, and actual
indwelling peace with God while living in this
world. Will you • receive me as such a person ?
Or, will you, like Joseph's brethren, sell me to the
Tshmaelites? *Will you stand by me as brethren,
or will you flee from me and say, "We desire no
knowledge of your ways." I am at your mercy.
You can support me or you can starve me. But
I trust you, I believe you will not leave nor for¬
sake me while I shall be able to present to you an
upright character.
May the God that was with Joseph, be with us
in every good effort. And to Him be all honor and
praise forever. Amen.
*At this time I was altogether unacquainted with the people, and
sought the plainest speech I knew. Not knowing anything of their
habits or their thoughts, my effort was to make myself understood.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
51
ROBERT SMALLS
January 12, 1898—'Committed to the Committee of the
Whole House and ordered to be printed.
Mr. Otjen, from the Committee on War Claims, sub ¬
mitted the following report (to accompany H. 'R. 1333).
The Committee on War Claims, to whom was referred
the bill (H. R. 1333) for the relief of Robert Smalls, sub¬
mit the following report:
The facts out of which this bill for relief arises will be
found stated in a report from the Committee on War
Claims of the Fifty-fourth Congress, a copy of which is
hereto attached and made a part of this report.
Your committee recommend the passage of the bill.
(House Report No. 3595, 49th Congress, 2nd Session)
The Committee on War claims, to whom was referred
the bill (H. R. 1866) authorizing a reappraisement of the
steam transport boat Planter, captured by Robert Smalls,
and for a distribution of proceeds thereof, submit the fol¬
lowing report:
The facts out of which this claim for relief arises will
be found stated in House report of the Committee on War
Claims, No. 3595, second session Forty-ninth Congress, on
file with the papers in the case.
The examination of the claim by your committee leads
them substantial^ to the same conclusions as those reach¬
ed by the committee of the Forty-ninth Congress. It is
therefore deemed unnecessary to recapitulate the facts
set forth in that report, a copy of which is hereto attached
for information.
Your committee recommend the passage of the bill.
52 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
(House Report No. 688, 54th Congress, 1st Session)
The Committee on War Claims, to whom was referred
the bill (H. R. 10323) for relief of the pilot and crew of
the steamer Planter, beg leave to report as follows:
The facts on which this claim is based were investigated
by the Committee on Naval Affairs of the Forty-seventh
Congress, and were as follows, as embodied in the report
of that committee (No. 1887, second session of Forty-
seventh Congress):
This claim is rested upon the very valuable services ren¬
dered by Robert Smalls to the country during the late
war. The record of these has been very carefully inves¬
tigated, and portions of it are appended as exhibits to this
report. They show a degree of courage, well directed by
intelligence and) patriotism, of which the nation may well
be proud, but which for twenty years has been wholly un¬
recognized by it. The following is a succinct statement
and outline of them:
On May 13, 1862, the Confederate steamboat Planter,
the special dispatch boat of General Ripley, the Confed¬
erate post commander at Charleston, S. C., was taken by
Robert Smalls under the following circumstances from the
wharf at which she was lying, carried safely out of Char¬
leston Harbor, and delivered to one of the vessels of the
Federal fleet then blockading that port:
On the previous day, May 12, the Planter, which had for
two weeks been engaged in removing guns from Coles
Island to James Island, returned to Charleston. That
night all the officers went ashore and slept in the city,
leaving on board a crew of eight men, all colored. Among
them was Robert Smalls, who was virtually the pilot of
the boat, although he was only called a wheelman, because
at that time no colored man could have, in fact, been
made a pilot. For some time previous he had been watch¬
ing for an opportunity to carry into execution a plan he
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 53
had conceived to take the Planter to the Federal fleet.
This, he saw, was about as good a chance as he would
ever have to do so, and therefore he determined not to
lose it. Consulting with the balance of the crew, Smalls
found that they were willing to co-operate with him, al¬
though two of them afterwards concluded to remain be¬
hind. The design was hazardous in the extreme. The
boat would have to pass beneath the guns of the forts
in the harbor. Failure and detection would have been
certain death. Fearful was the venture, but it was made..
The daring resolution had been formed, and under com¬
mand of Robert Smalls wood was taken aboard, steam
was put on, and with her valuable cargo of guns and
ammunition, intended for Fort Ripley, a new fortification,
just constructed in the harbor, about 2 o'clock in thet
morning the Planter silently moved off from her dock,,
steamed up to North Atlantic Wharf, where Smalls' wife-
and two children, together with four other women and
one other child, and also three men. were waiting to em¬
bark. All these were taken on board, and then, at 3:25
A. M., May 13, the Planter started on her perilous adven¬
ture, carrying nine men, five women, and three children.
Passing Fort Johnson, the Planter's steam whistle blew
the usual salute and she proceeded down the bay. Ap¬
proaching Fort Sumter, Smalls stood in the pilot house
leaning out of the window, with his arms folded across
his breast, after the manner of Captain Relay, the com¬
mander of the boat, and his head covered with the huge
straw hat which Captain Relay commonly wore on such
occasion.
The signal required to be given by all steamers passing
out was blown as coolly as if General Ripley was on board,
going out on a tour of inspection. Sumter answered by
signal, "All right," and the Planter headed toward Morris
Island, then occupied by Hatch's light artillery, and passed
54 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
beyond the range of Sumter's guns before anybody sus¬
pected anvthmg was wrong. When at last the Planter
was obviously going toward the Federal fleet off the bar,
Sumter signaled toward Morris Island to stop her. But
it was too late. As the Planter approached the Federal
fleet, a white flag was displayed, but this was not at first
discovered, and the Federal steamers, supposing the Con¬
federate rams were coming to attack them, stood out to
deep water. But the ship Onward, Captain Nichols, which
was not a steamer, remained, opened her ports, and was
about to fire on the Planter, when she noticed the flag of
truce. As soon as the vessels came within hailing distance
of each other, the Planter's errand was explained. Captain
Nichols then boarded her, and Smalls delivered the Planter
to him. From the Planter Smalls was transferred to the
Augusta, the flag ship off the bar, under the command of
Captain Parrott, by whom the Planter, with Smalls and
her crew, were sent to Port Royal to Rear-Admiral Du
Pont, then in commond of the Southern squadron.
Captain Parrot's official letter to Flag Officer Du Pont
and Admiral Du Pont's letter to the Secretary of the Navy
are appended hereto.
Captain Smalls was soon afterwards ordered to Edisto
to join the gunboat Crusader, Captain Rhind. He then
proceeded in the Crusader, piloting her and followed by
the Planter, to Simmon's Bluff, on Wadmalaw Sound,
where a sharp battle was fought between these boats and
.a Confederate light battery and some infantry. The Con¬
federates were driven out of their works, and the troops
on the Planter landed and captured all the tents and pro¬
visions of the enemy. This occurred some time in Tune
1862.
Captain Smalls continued to act as pilot on board the
Planter and the Crusader, and as blockading pilot between
Charleston and Beaufort. He made repeated trips up and
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
55
along the rivers near the coast, pointing out and removing
the torpedoes which he himself had assisted in sinking and
putting in position. During these trips he was present in
several fights at Adam's Run, on the Dawho River, where
the Planter was hotly and severely fired upon; also at
Rockville, John's Island, and other places. Afterwards he
was ordered back to Port Royal, whence he piloted the
fleet up Broad River to Pocotaligo, where a very severe
battle ensued. Captain Smalls was the pilot on the monitor
Keokuk, Captain Ryan, in the memorable attack on Fort
Sumter, on the afternoon of the 7th of April, 1863. In this
attack the Keokuk was struck ninety-six times, nineteea
shots passing through her. She retired from the engage¬
ment only to sink on the next morning, near Light-House
Inlet. Captain Smalls left her just before she went down,,
and was taken with the remainder of the crew on board,
of the Ironsides. The next day the fleet returned t&
Hilton Plead.
When General Gillmore took command Smalls became-
pilot in the quartermaster's department in the expedition
on Morris Island. He was then stationed as pilot of the-
Stono, where he remained until the United States troops
took possession of the south end of Morris Island; when
he was put in charge of Light-House Inlet as pilot.
Upon one occasion, in December, 1863, while the Planter-
then under Captain Nickerson, was sailing through Folly
Island Creek( the Confederate batteries at Secessionville
opened a very hot fire upon her. Captain Nickerson be¬
came demoralized and left the pilot house and secured
himself in the coal bunker. Smalls was on the deck, and
finding out that the captain had deserted his post, entered
the pilot house, took command of the boat, and carried
her safely out of the reach of the guns. For this conduct
he was promoted by order of General Gillmore, command¬
ing the Department of the South, to the rank of captain,
56
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
and was ordered to act as captain of the Planter, which
was used as a supply boat along the coast until the end of
the war. In September, 1866, he carried his boat to Balti¬
more, where she was put out of commission and sold.
Besides the daring enterprise of Captain Smalls in bring¬
ing out the Planter, his gallant conduct in rescuing her a
second time, for which he was made captain of her, and
his invaluable services to the Army and Navy as a pilot
in waters where he perfectly knew not only every bank
and bar, but also where every torpedo was situated, there
are still other elements to be considered in estimating the
value of Captain Smalls' service to the country. The
Planter on the 13th of May, 1862, was a most useful and
important vessel to the enemy. The loss of her was a
severe blow to the enemy's service in carrying supplies
and troops to different points of the harbor and river
fortifications. At the very time of the seizure she had on
board the armament for Fort Ripley. The Planter was
taken by the Government at a valuation of $9,000, one-half
of which was paid to the captain and crew, the captain
receiving one-third of one-half, or $1,500. Upon what
principle the Government claimed one-half of this capture
can not be divined, nor yet how this disposition could
have been made of her without any judicial proceeding.
That $9,000 was an absurdly low valuation for the Planter
is abundantly shown by facts stated in the affidavits of
Charles H. Campbell and E. M. Baldwin, which are ap¬
pended. In addition thereto their sworn average valuation
of the Planter was $67,500. The report of Montgomery
Sicard, commander and inspector of ordinance, to Com¬
modore Patterson, navy-yard commandant, shows that the
cargo of the Planter, as raw material, was worth $3,043.05;
that at antebellum prices it was worth $7,163.35, and at
war prices $10,290.60. For this cargo the Government has
never paid one dollar. It is a severe comment on the
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 57
justice as well as the boasted generosity of the Govern¬
ment that, while it had received $60,000 to $70,000 worth
of property at the hands of Captain Smalls, it has paid him
the trifling amount of $1,500, and for twenty years his
gallant, daring, and distinguished and valuable services
which he has rendered to the country have been wholly
unrecognized.
Report of Flag Officer Du Pont
Flagship Wabash,
Port Royal Harbor, S, C., May 14, 1862.
Sir: I inclose a copy of a report from Commander E. G.
Parrott, brought here last night by the late rebel steam
tug Planter, in charge of an officer and crew from the
engineer department at Charleston, under Brigadier-Gen¬
eral Ripley, whose barge, short time since, was brought
out to the blockading fleet by several contrabands.
The bringing out of this steamer, under all the circum¬
stances, would have done credit to anyone. At 4 o'clock
in the morning in the absence of the captain, who was on
shore, she left her wharf close to the Government office
and headquarters, "with Palmetto and Confederate flags
flying passed the successive forts, saluting as usual by
blowing her steam whistle. After getting beyond the
range of the last gun she quickly hauled down the rebel
flags and hoisted a white one.
The Onward was the inside ship of the blockading fleet
in the channel, and was preparing to fire when her com¬
mander made out the white flag. The armament of the
steamer is a 32-pounder, or pivot, and a fine 24-pounder
howitzer. She has, besides, on her deck four other guns,
one 7-inch rifled, which were to have been taken the
morning of the escape to the new fort on the middle
ground. One of the four belonged to Fort Sumter, and
had been struck in the rebel attack on the fort on the
58 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
muzzle. Robert, the intelligent slave and pilot of the boat,
who performed this bold feat so skillfully, informed me
of this fact, presuming it would be a matter of interest to
us to have possession of this gun. This man, Robert
Smalls, is superior to any who have come to our lines,
intelligent as many of them have been. His information
has been most interesting and portions of the utmost im¬
portance.
The steamer is quite an acquisition to the squadron by
her good machinery and very light draft. The officer in
charge brought her through St. Helena Sound and by the
inland passage down Beaufort River, arriving here at 10
o'clock last night.
On board the steamer when she left Charleston were
8 men, 5 women, and 3 children.
I shall continue to employ Robert as a pilot on board
the Planter for the inland waters, with which he appears
to be very familiar. I do not know whether, in the views
of the government, the vessel will be considered a prize;
but, if so, I respectfully submit to the Department the
claims of this man Robert and his associates.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. F. DU PONT,
Flag Officer, Commanding, etc.
HON. GIDEON WELLES,
Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C.
United States Steamship Augusta,
Off Charleston, May 13, 1862.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the rebel armed
steamer Planter was brought out to us this morning from
Charleston by eight contrabands, and delivered up to the
squadron. Five colored women and three children are
also on board. She carried one 32-pounder and one 24-
pounder howitzer, and has also on board four large guns,
which she was engaged in transporting.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
59
I send her to Port Royal at once, in order to take ad¬
vantage of the present good weather. I send Charleston
papers of the 12th, and the very intelligent contraband
who was in charge will give you the information he has
brought off.
I have the honor to request that you will send back, as
soon as convenient, the officer and crew sent on board.
I am, respectfully, etc., your obedient servant,
E. G. BARROTT,
Flag Officer S. F. DU PONT,
Commanding South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
War Dept., Quartermaster-General's Office,
Washington, D. C., January 3, 1883.
Sir: Yoiir communication of the 26th, ultimo, in relation
to your services on the steamer Planter during the rebel¬
lion, and requesting copies of any letters from General
Gillmore and other officers on the subject, has been re¬
ceived.
The records of this office show that the name of Robert
Smalls is reported by Lieut. Col. J. J. Elwell, Hilton Head,
S. C., as a pilot, at $50 per month, from March 1, 1863, to
September 30, 1863; and from October 1, 1863, to Novem¬
ber 20, 1863, at $75 per month.
He was then transferred to Capt. J. L. Kelly, assistant
quartermaster, November 20, 1863, by whom he was re¬
ported as pilot from November 21 to November 30, 1863.
He is reported by that officer in same capacity from
December 1, 1863, until February 29, 1864, at $150 per
month.
The name of Robert Smalls is then reported by Captain
Kelly as captain of the steamer Planter, at $150 per month,
from March 1, 1864, until May 15, 1864, when transferred
to the quartermaster in Philadelphia.
He is reported by Caps. C. D. Schmidt, G. R. Orme,
60 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
\V. W. Van Ness, and John R. Jennings, assistant quarter¬
masters, at Philadelphia, as captain of the Planter, at
$150 per month from June 20, 1864, to December 16, 1864,
when transferred to Capt. J. L. Kelly, assistant quarter¬
master, Hilton Head, S. C., by whom he is reported to
January 31, 1865.
From February 1, 1865, he is reported as a "contractor."
victualing and manning the steamer Planter.
I respectfully inclose herewith a copy of z letter, dated
September 10, 1862, from Capt. J. J. Ellwell, chief quarter¬
master, Department of the South, in relation to the cap¬
ture of the steamer Planter, which is the only one found
on file in this office on the subject.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
ALEX. J. PERRY,
Deputy Quartermaster General, U. S. A.,
Acting Quartermaster-General.
HON. ROBT. SMALLS,
Member of Congress, Washington, D. C.
Upon inquiry as to the outcome of this bill, I
received the following letter from the son of Rob¬
ert Smalls.
December 15, 1920.
Chaplain T. G. Steward,
Wilberforce, Ohio.
Dear Sir:
I have before me Bill H. R. 1333, Report No. 120 on
same, which I am enclosing for your benefit. As to the
final outcome of the report, I cannot at this time state,
but if I remember correctly, I do not think that this bill
was ever passed, as I feel sure that my father never re¬
ceived any of the money provided for in this report and
recommended by committee.
Yours very truly,
W. ROBT. SMALLS.
CHAPTER II.
SECOND TRIP SOUTH:
Captain Walls; Miss Jennie Lynch; Experience with a discharged
soldier—Georgetown; Rev. A. T. Carr; Summerville, Mrs. Parker;
Col. Thos. K. Beecher—Courtship and marriage. Experiences in
Marion, S. C. A fight between an ex-slaveholder and a freed-
man; New England Provost Marshal—Organize a Church; crim|
inal in jail calls me; Haunted house; Illiteracy; Second Con¬
ference in Savannah; Native preachers; Rev. W. J. Gaines;
Andrew Brown. Revs. H. M. Turner and R. H. Cajn. Extract
trom sermon and address at Marion, S. C., 1866.
We began our work in South Carolina at the
wrong time of the year, and the results which fol¬
lowed might have been foreseen. By the latter
part of July I was very sick, and embarked on the
28th of that month for New York on the steamer
"Empire City." Although the passage occupied
but three days, there were two deaths on the trip,
and when I reached my home in New Jersey on
August 1st, I was greatly emaciated and shaking
with chills. I was confined to my bed fifteen
days, and on the first of September was barely
able to travel. However, I made my way to Wash¬
ington, D. C., and secured an order from the War
Department granting me permission to return and
furnishing me transportation from New York to
Charleston. Revs. A. L. Stanford and James A.
Handy had also come North, and we all met in
Washington and preached in the churches there.
It was October when I sailed South on my sec-
62 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ond trip on the same steamer which had brought
me North, the "Empire City." For traveling com¬
panions I had Miss Jennie Lynch and a Miss Alex¬
ander, teachers; and Mrs. Wall, wife of Captain
O. S. B. Wall. The passage was pleasant, although
we experienced some bad weather. On this trip
while between Beaufort and Charleston a dis¬
charged soldier and his wife who had no money
were on the small steamer to which we had been
transferred, and the captain was preparing to send
them ashore. I tried to raise their fare among the
passengers, but met with no response. I then
paid their fare under promises on their part to
reimburse me after their arrival in Charleston. I
WAR DEPARTMENT
Bureau of Refuges, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands,
Washington, D. C., Sept. 20, 1855.
SPECIAL ORDERS, NO 71
QUARTER MASTER'S OFFICE,
New York, City, Oct. 23, 1865.
Transportation furnished
To Hilton Head, S. C.
October 6th.
In accordance with the provisions of Sec. 2, G. O. No. 138, Cur¬
rent series, A. G. O. the following named person, laboring volun¬
tarily in behalf of Refugees and Freedmen, will be furnished free
transportation on Govt, transports and U. S. Military Railroads,
from Washington City to such points in the South as "are set op¬
posite their names respectively. XX XX
Rev. Theophjlus Steward to Beaufort, S. C.
By order of
Major General O. O. Howard, Commissioner,by
Asst. Adj. Gen'l
Rev Theophilus Steward.
fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 63
liave never seen either the man or his wife since.
My intention was good; his might have been also.
It was Saturday, the 13th of November, 1865,
when I arrived in Charleston the second time. I
was given a pleasant welcome by Brother R. H.
Cain and his amiable wife. He was then pastor
in charge of our church in Charleston, and super¬
intendent of all our missions in South Carolina.
I held an appointment from Bishop Payne direct¬
ing me to labor either in Columbia, S. C., or in
Georgetown, S. C., as the superintendent should
think best. The latter decided that I should try
Georgetown; and so, after a few days of prepara¬
tion, I sailed to that point, making a smooth pas¬
sage of about twelve hours. Enroute I noted Cape
Roinain and Winyaw Bay. As I had read the inter¬
esting life of Francis Marion in my boyhood days,
I was stirred not a little to find myself in his
birthplace, Georgetown; but what stirred me more
was to find Rev. Augustus T. Carr on the ground
with an appointment to the same work to which
I had been commissioned, well established, and be¬
loved by the people. He was well-known, long a
resident of the place, and deservedly respected and
honored. A mistake had been made, and there
was nothing for me to do but to return to Chales-
ton, with as good grace as possible, Avhich I did,
after having been admirably treated by Brother
Carr.
64
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Shortly after this I was despatched to Summer-
ville, about twenty miles from Charleston on the
South Carolina Railroad. Here I found Col. Thos.
K. Beecher's colored regiment, and quite a number
ol freedmen; but I had no means of support, and
the people were but one day's rations ahead of
starvation. A Mrs. Parker from Charleston Avas
there engaged in teaching, and she was the only
one who could offer me asylum. I could not en¬
dure to live at her expense, and I had not money
enough to get awa}'. I went to the only business
place I could find, and offered my watch as col¬
lateral for a small sum of money, obtaining which
I left the place and my watch, and never returned.
It was now December, 1865, and I had neither
work nor money, and was nearing my twenty-third
birthday. As I had been brought up with the idea
that early marriage was best, I was thinking in
that direction. Passing over much that is of in¬
tense personal interest, but of no public impor¬
tance, I will invite my readers to a brief rehearsal
of what may be regarded as the exoteric parts of
the drama of my courtship and marriage. On a
Saturday evening I entered a grocery store which
was managed by a company of colored men on a
semi-co-operative plan. J saw, acting as cashier,
a young lady, whose self-possession, frankness of
manner, and dignity of bearing impressed me very
much. Every movement proclaimed her a full-
ELIZABETH GADSDEN-
STEWARD
T. G. STEWARD
Embarking To Charleston
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 65
orbed woman. Her neatness of dress, reposeful
countenance and ease of manners gave assurance
at once of genuine womanhood. I soon found that
she was the idol of devoted brothers, and the
cherished daughter of a most thoroughgoing Chris¬
tian, Methodist mother. After a brief courtship
we were married. Her name was Elizabeth Gads¬
den, daughter of Charles Gadsden, lost at sea, and
Martha Gadsden, a lady well-known in Methodist
circles in Charleston a half century ago. Pure
ab the driven snow, lovely as an angel of light,
of a worth far above rubies! If my mission to
South Carolina in 1865 brought me nothing more
than this companion of my earlier manhood and
this amply endowed mother of my sons, I have
been well repaid. Her heart and mind have given
to the sons who bear my name elements of char¬
acter which will cause us all to remember her with
gratitude to our dying day.
Directly after my marriage I went to Marion,
S. C. Through the kindness of Rev. B. F. Whitte-
more, then chaplain in the United States Army,
and serving as superintendent of education among
the freedmen, representing especially the New
England Branch of the Freedmen's Aid Society,
and through aid from Mr. Arthur Sumner of New
England. I was furnished v/ith fair support. Soon
after arriving there a great meeting was held, at
which Rev. R. H. Cain and Chaplain Whittemore
66 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
spoke, and from that start both the church and
school were organized. Here, in the gallery of the
Methodist Church, South, after having listened to
a very good sermon by the pastor, a certain Dr.
Boyd, I made my first little address to the freed-
men of that vicinity. The white people had all
been dismissed and Dr. Boyd spoke to the colored
people as to the burdens of freedom which had
now fallen upon them, and then called upon me
to say a word. I countered as to what the doctor
Lad said, by referring to freedom as a crown of
glory and a diadem of beauty, using the prophet's
language. In the afternoon, with the consent of
"the pastor I administered communion to the col¬
ored members of his congregation, which I grant
was rather impudent when I was preparing to
lead them all away from his care. The progress
of our organization here will be shown in the ex¬
tracts from an address delivered within two months
from the time I arrived on the ground.
Here in Marion I witnessed the first physical
•encounter between a freedman and ex-slave-holder
which took place in that section. A man named
Isaac Baker was bringing me a load of wood; he
was accused by a preacher of the Southern per¬
suasion of having stolen his rails. Baker replied
that he was not a thief. This was too much im¬
pudence for the ex-lord to stand, and he struck
Baker; but no man can measure his astonishment
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
67
when Baker's fist flew out with such effect that
his lordship gave his measure to earth. Spring¬
ing up at once he rushed his man, just in time
to meet the second return of the black battering
ram, and again he went down, but not for the
count, but to call for his gun. Baker, seeing this
turn, fled and reported the case to the Provost Mar¬
shal, one Lieutenant Redlon, of good New England
stock. Redlon asked of Baker, "Did you hit him
hard?" to which Baker replied, "I struck him as
hard as I could," and the provost marshal, to the
honor of his character and calling as a soldier,
rejoined, "That was right;" and nothing came of
the affair.
The white planters of this neighborhood were
generally wealthy and kind. One Major Gibson
donated land for our church; another, Colonel
Durant, I think, gave timber for the frame; and.
many contributed in money and material in aid of
the building. There were of course, some who
were not pleased with the new conditions and who
tried to impede my work. An old building was
granted us for use as church and school house
but we had not occupied it long before it was
CERTIFICATE OF COMMISSION.
AMERICAN FREEDMEN'S AID COMMISSION,
EASTERN DEPARTMENT.
New York City, April 2, 1866.
THIS IS TO CERTIFY That The American Freedmen's Aid Com¬
mission has appointed Theophilus G. Steward a
TEACHER of Freedmen for the term of from
the date hereof, and accordingly commends ..him..to the confidence
68 Fifty Years hi the Gospel Ministry
burned down, those opposing us determining not
to have near them the nuisance of a colored church
and colored school.*
Passing the jail one day a very distressed look¬
ing white man called to me from behind the barred
window, asking if I would not please come in and
s-ee him. Getting permission I went; and such a
place of confinement I had never seen before. The
poor man was condemned to death as a. murderer,
and was awaiting execution. And the condition
under which he was passing his days was such as
to make the ordinary individual welcome almost
any form of death as a release. Fifth, discomfort,
wretchedness concentrated and condensed, filled to
the full the little barbaric cell he occupied. I read
and prayed with him, and continued to do so until
his execution, but I did not attend the hanging, or
make any note of it in my diary.
A white lady in this vicinity, her sister, and
sister-in-law, came to me stating that their house
was troubled by spirits and they could not sleep in
it at night—a man had recently died in it as a
result of a gunshot wound. They desired me to
come and hold prayers in the room which seemed
to be troubled most. I did so; reading the Bible
and assistance of all persons to whom these presents may come.
Attest:
W. Simpson, President.
„ J. R. Shepherd, Associate Sec'y.
Countersigned, W. M. Kim
. . Secretary of the Eastern Department.
(My wife had a similar commission but I am unable to find it.)
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 69
<and praying. These people believed in me; and
the ghosts never returned so far as I was kept
informed. Another white lady lamented to me
her ignorance in the following language, which I
believe is exact: "I'd be so glad if I jest knowed
•enough to be able to read the Bible." The little
learning I possessed, being able at that time to
converse quite easily in German, seemed to them
—the poor whites—'almost marvelous.
When I assembled nearly one hundred children
of school age, I found only two who knew the
alphabet; these had been servants of Major Gib¬
son, I think, and went by the name of McQueen,
a girl and a boy. A few years ago I met the "boy,"
then a minister in one of the South Carolina Con¬
ferences, and who is probably living at the present
time. At the close of the school in June, prac¬
tically all of the one hundred school children could
read and many could write. If these pages should
fall under the eye of any one who was a member
■of my school in Marion in 1866, I would be very
.grateful to receive a letter from any such person.
Early in the month of May, 1866, the South
Carolina Conference held its second session in
Savannah, Ga. On my way from Marion to Char¬
leston I was fortunate to fall in company with
Bishop Payne, Brothers James A. Handy, G. W.
Brodie, James F. A. Sission, and others. This lat¬
ter named, Rev. James F. A. Sisson, was a white
70 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
man from New England, a pharmacist by profes¬
sion, who chose our church because of its univer¬
sality, or cosmopoltanism in practice. Despite that
part of its name which seemed to indicate a race-
church, it was according to Brother Sisson's ob¬
servation, the only church he could find in the land
where no race was barred and where all shared,
alike in its privileges. It was the African Church;
but it was open to all, of whatever race or clime.
Bishop Payne contended it is less objectionable to*
have the odious name without the odious things
than to have the odious thing without the odious
name. He was anxious, as many others were at that
time, to see some way open through which the pre¬
fix African might give place to a broader term. Alas!
Such a day has not come as yet, nor does it appear
likely to do so soon. Christianity and Methodism
are still dominated by a clan idea, enthroned above
the wearer of the Royal Diadem.
On Monday morning, May 14, 1866, the confer¬
ence opened, presided over by Bishop Payne. It
continued in session nine days, the longest annual
conference I have ever attended. North Carolina,.
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama were
iepresented in the gathering. George W. Brodie
and myself were chosen secretaries. Chaplain H.
M. Turner, who was not present at the first con¬
ference, brought a host of new preachers from,
middle and upper Georgia. Several representatives
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 71
were there from Alabama, including especially one
-I\ev. Harry Stubbs. The Baptists of Savannah who
iiad at that time two colored churches, well estab¬
lished, were very cordial in their treatment of us,
:and the large body of ministers who composed
the conference were entertained during this long
-session without charge.
The membership of the church had gone up to
•over twenty thousand and the preachers of all
classes ran into the hundreds. I shall never forget
the scene which presented itself at the ordination
-of this great host of new men to the Christian min¬
istry, as Bishop Payne with streaming eyes and
"tremulous voice pronounced the solemn words of
the service. The number of appointments had
been increased in geometrical progression; instead
of twelve, there were now over one hundred.
Among those admitted at this conference must
T?.e mentioned Andrew Brown, Wesley J. Gaines,
afterward Bishop Gaines; Joseph A. Wood and
-Henry Strickland. Many others whom I learned
to honor and respect ought to be named. Several
of these were examined by me as to their fitness
to enter the work; especially do I remember ex¬
amining Wesley J. Gaines. Andrew Brown I re¬
member as a man of originality and strong char¬
acter, and a preacher of marked force. In a ser¬
mon on the camp ground I once heard him make
.a most effective climax while reciting the story of
72
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Joshua and the standing still of the sun. He was
recounting the victories of prayer and was in a
happy mood and had his audience in full sympathy
with his delineation. Describing the results of
Joshua's sublime appeal, he suddenly flashed out
the sentence, "God Almighty blowed 'Down brakes'
on the sun!" The people were familiar with the
railroad term and the effect was prodigious. After
this sermon Brown was known by many as "Down
Brakes Brown." Joseph Wood was a very suc¬
cessful minister, especially strong in winning
young people; Henry Strickland was a modest but
thoughtful and earnest preacher; Robert Anderson
was out of the ordinary in many ways—a strictly
temperance man, a constant user of peppermint,
and at the time of the session of the Conference
in Savannah was selling a remed}*" for small-pox.
His remedy consisted chiefly of epsom salts and
coffee; the former given in large doses, to be fol¬
lowed by the coffee made strong.
Up to the close of the Civil War we had no pre¬
siding elders in the church; but within this new
work certain men were appointed as superinten¬
dents, with almost unlimited ecclesiastical power
m the districts they were supposed to oversee. In
Georgia, Chaplain Turner was the unorda'ined
Bishop with headquarters at Macon; Stanford in
a lesser degree held the work in and around Sav¬
annah ; and Drayton at Augusta. In South Caro-
Fifty Years iy the Gospel Ministry 73
■lina, R. H. Cain was supreme. The two men, Tur¬
ner and Cain, were by far the most influential in
1his new field. Both were very able speakers, the
former a strong- preacher, while Cain was a ver¬
satile orator, well skilled in all the arts of popular
-elocution, blest with a clear and penetrating- voice
and having at hand a good stock of captivating
words. He was witty and at times eloquent; al¬
ways interesting and shrewd. Of course my read¬
ers are already aware that both these men by
necessary sequence became Bishops in the church.
Conference adjourned and I was appointed to a
church partially organized in Charleston called
the Morris Brown Church. The name seemed to
fit in well with its surroundings and history, as
the building was situated on Morris Street, and
as Bishop Morris Brown had been born in that
•city. My appointment had been arranged by R. H.
Cain. I had been doing well at Marion and really
did not want to leave. My wife and myself had
both been employed by the New England Freed-
men's Aid Society as missionary teachers and we
both liked the work. I had opened a second school
and had brought into the service a young man
from Charleston by the name of Hayne, who after¬
wards figured in South Carolina politics. Acting
-on Brother Cain's advice, I did not immediately
74 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
go to my work in Charleston, hu* with tny South
Carolina bride, took a trip North.
In reviewing my work in Marion I shall present
my readers with an extract from a sermon deliv¬
ered there in March, 1866, on the "Mischief of the
Lack of Confidence." The text was Numbers 14:2„
"And all the children of Israel murmured against
Moses and against Aaron and the whole congrega¬
tion said unto them, would God that we had died
in Egypt or would God that we had died in the
wilderness." The extract shows the cure brought,
out to overcome the tendency to give way to de¬
spondency, and complain of one's surroundings.
Extract from Sermon Delivered in Marion, S. C.,
March, 1866
I am glad to know that this spirit is possessed,
but by few of our people in this section of the
country, but that we are favored with a large-
share of that go-aheaditiveness among us; and,
trusting in God, we will pursue the course on which*
we have started. But yet, I find a few both among
us and around us, who are troubled with the pain¬
ful rheumatics of doubt. They don't make them¬
selves believe that a church will be erected, and
completed, all by, and for colored people; that we
shall be able to worship under our own vine and
fig tree, and according to the dictates of our own.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 75
^consciences. They can see in ourselves only weak¬
ness and poverty. They say our number is small
*and our means are limited. Their eyes are closed
"to the spirit and they see only the arm of flesh.
They forget that God can make one chase a
thousand, and that the earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof—the1 silver and gold belong to.
Him—and that the work is the Lord's. And as
we work on, and for it, He will repay in bless¬
ings. God gives us all we possess. Paul may plant
and Apollos may water, but if there comes any
increase God must bestow it. I say, and I know
.many of my brethren will say as Caleb did, "We
"be fully able to accomplish the work." I think
the safest way of judging the future is by the
past; and by estimating what we can do by con¬
sidering what we have done. Let us therefore
briefly reconsider the progress we have already
made towards the completion of the work in the
•one short month we have been engaged as an
-organized body.
On the 21st of last January, twenty days after
the birthday of freedom to the colored race in this
• and other parts of the sunny South, in the woods,
we first established and opened the doors of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church here, and one
hundred and twenty rallied around its standard.
On February 11th the doors were again opened
-.and forty more came over on her side. February
76 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
18th, the banner was unfurled at Springfield and
twenty-eight added their names; February 25th,
her case was again presented and six more came
to the rescue and still they come. From the
North, the South, the East and the West, until'
now in this vicinity, in a little over one month
from the commencement of work our army has
increased to nearly two hundred active, zealous
and faithful soldiers. Is there no strength in thi?
number united and engaged in a work that will-
bring blessings upon their children's children?
Their strength is increasing; the Ark of the Cov¬
enant is moving, and soon in our own temple, dedi¬
cated to the Most High shall be heard the glad¬
some song of praise, as fathers, mothers, brothers
and children tread its courts. Lord God Almighty,,
hasten the day.
Now, let us review our work. As soon as we
had withdrawn from the old church and become
our own master, we determined to have a home..
Oh, how ready and willing- were our hearts to en¬
ter upon the work. We desired to add an¬
other temple to the number of God's earthly dwell¬
ing houses, to provide a place where we might
worship as loud, long, and often as we pleased.
In God's name, and trusting in Him for help we
began the work. God worked for us, and in an¬
swer to our prayers put it in the heart of a benev¬
olent gentleman to give us the land. Next came-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 77
the frame. God helped us and we got that at a
trifling cost. Then the hewing is all being done
by our own men, very well, at a low price, only a
cent a foot; the hauling so far we have been
able to pay for; and now behold what you never
saw before; nearly 3000 feet of excellent lumber
ready, paid for, and on our own ground for the
purpose of building our own church. Can't we do
something for ourselves if through the assistance
of God we have been able to go thus far in one
short month? Can we not, by the help of the
same God, go on to the end? It is only this lack
of faith in the Eternal God, that makes us appear
so weak and our means and money so limited and
scarce.
We are strong while we are in the right God
and good men help those who strive to help them¬
selves.
The address presented now was delivered per-
liaps a few weeks later than the sermon, but cer¬
tainly in March or April of the same year. The
reader will remember that at this tinsc: I was not
twenty-four years old and consequently knew very
little of life by experience; yet much of the advice
I then gave I would consider good today
78 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
"How to Get and Save Money"—Delivered to the
Freedmen of Marion, S. C., March, 1866
I suppose the most interesting subject that can
"be presented to us at this time is How to Get and
Save Money; all of us being both in want and need
of more things to make us comfortable ^nd per¬
haps nearer satisfied. For although we are away
"behind in the race of social life, yet we are ad¬
vancing. We are not content to remain in
•one condition forever and a day. We wish to
improve and advance from the condition and
position of slaves, to the condition and position of
worthy freemen.
Now, it is the mistaken opinion and notion of
many that to make us as happy as it is possible
for us to be, and to lift us to the position of re¬
spectability, we need only money to buy lands and
Louses, coats and silk dresses. To get up, Ave must
climb up and stand on, what we can buy. This
.appears to be the ruling belief; the object of life,
therefore, among many of our people is to get
money, or get land, by hook or by crook—work,
all, man, wife, Tom, Bill, Sancho. and Hagar—
make money—get a start. A kind of lottery is
opened—gold watches and two-cent jewelry tempt
—throw in the 25 cents—get the certificate—get
the prize. Money and lands. Anything for money.
Well, now, let us see what this great pleasure and
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 79
good is, that you are running yourselves to death
after. Let us see whether it is a butterfly or a
real bird.
A little gold, a little silver, and a great deal of
greenbacks, make up that which among us is call¬
ed money. Gold money; silver money; paper
money. The money is worth nothing to us only
as it represents what we can buy with it. It can¬
not be eaten, or drunk, or worn; but you know it
will buy corn, whiskey, or homespun. It makes
one man also the director of a dozen others; or
he may join many trades underneath his manage¬
ment. He may have the carpenter, the mason, the
farmer, the blacksmith, the writer, the publisher,,
under his control—hence his money is strength;
and which-ever way the man who has it turns, his
track is seen.
Again, money is in good repute; it is respected
and courted; and he who possesses it will have
more knocks at his door than the man who has
fair daughters. At home, abroad, in quietness or
in business, the man with the bag of gold or basket
of greenbacks, or possessor of a thousand acres
of land or a fifty thousand dollar mansion will be
more cared for by merchants, lawyers, politicians,
beggars and thieves than the man who is known
to have his last corn in the oven. Money is a
great power. It can be used when possessed by us
in such a way as to make us more useful and hap-
80 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
py, or abused in such way as to make us more
worthless and miserable. Such in brief, is money
<io we generally understand it; and such are a part
of the blessings the possession of it insure. It is
an accumulation, and may be either to our good,
or evil, according to the use we make of it.
I come now to the main question: How to get
money. How is it to be obtained? I do not in¬
tend, in discussing this part of the subject to go
back to first principles; to show the origin of
money; nor to trace the history of wealth; but to
examine as closely as possible the present stage
and state of society, and explain the most com¬
mon methods of getting rich in these days. You
know many men have received large possessions
from their parents who died and left it to them;
and, consequently, though born into the world with
nothing as every person is, they from their rich
parents were soon supplied with all necessary
comforts and luxuries. Their money is obtained
very easily. Others from friends, or distant rela¬
tives dying, often receive the right and title to
their estates and valuables. Others again lurk
around some large banking house or rich store,
and when opportunity offers break in, seize money
and make haste away. The have the money; they
knew where it was, and how to get it. Morning
comes, advertisements are out, officers are on
the track by night, perhaps; without a cent the
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 81
robber is secure beneath a double boit. That may
be a way to get money; but surely it is a poor
way to keep it. I don't think any of my friends
here wish to try that way. Others pursue a dif¬
ferent course. Instead of grabbing all at once,
they pick and steal a little at a time, a ten cents
now, a five cents then. Others borrow and never
pay; others buy and forget to settle—all for the
sake of g-etting or saving money. Others hire, and
then, if they do not perform honest labor, think
they will 15e acquiring money, will be gaining more.
To get money honestly is to give something for
it of acknowledged equal value; unless it be be¬
queathed to the receiver.
This is almost as much as saying, to get money
you must have money or something worth money
to give for it. What I mean is money is to be bought.
The man who sells his cotton, his corn, his rice,
his meat for money, that he may exchange this for
other articles. Well, now, we have all something
to sell that is our labor : it is much in demand and
is really acknowledged valuable. 'Tis getting
money honestly to give labor—work—for it. That
is the meaning of the contract in which you agree
to give a certain kind, and a certain amount of
labor for a certain share in, or portion of, what the
labor with the assistance of land produces. A great
deal of uncertainty hangs about the result. The
crop may be good; or it may be poor; the prices
82 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
may be high, or they may be low; yet there is m
the system a great deal of fairness, for if one suf¬
fers loss, all must; and if one reaps gain, all must.
The profits or the losses will be shared among or
borne by all—employer, hands, and no doubt in
many cases, creditors.
A fair system, you say? But can I make and
save enough ever to buy a home of my own? That
depends on j^our sagacity, industry and economy.
First, your sagacity. If you go to work one Jan¬
uary without knowing how much you are to get,
and work till fall without a contract, it is very
likely you will not get a great deal for your work.
Always complete your contract before you begin
your work; and this will be one step toward secur¬
ing something and bettering your condition.
Next, if after the bargain is completed, you are
lazy and slothful, and negligent, it is very likely
before the year is out that you may lose your
place and a great part of your wages; and next
year you will stand a poor chance to get a good
place or good wages; and second, be a good man
in the place and give good labor. The third thing
is, be economical ; live according to your condition.
Don't try to spend like rich people when you are
only getting in money like poor people. Don't
take in at the spigot to let out by the bung. Have
your houses as clean as possible and as comfort¬
able as you can afford. Keep your table supplied
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 83
with good, wholesome, plain victuals: but don't
make a god of your belly. Dress as neatly and as
tidily as you can, but also as cheap as you can.
Buy no high priced coats or hats; and above
everything else, buy no rings, piris, gew-gaws and
foolish trinkets, for which you have no manner
for need or use.
One thing more, stay at home. Don't be run¬
ning forty, eighty, or a hundred miles every week
or two. Keep close to your home and save the
expense of traveling.
Burial at Sea
The two deaths mentioned in the foregoing
chapter were of soldiers being shipped north in
the hope that they might meet their relatives and
probably recover under a change of scenery, con¬
ditions and climate. It was a sad occasion when
the relatives of these men met the incoming ship
and were told that the loved ones they were ex¬
pecting had died on the short passage and that
their bodies had been cast into the sea. Being
quite sick myself during the passage, I made no
notes and can recall but few of the incidents that
occurred: but I remember very distinctly that one
of the men who died occupied a cot beside mine
as we lay on the deck under the awning spread
to protect us from the sun. The ship was very
84 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
much crowded and a large number of passengers
were without comfortable sleeping accommoda¬
tions. The poor man who lay beside me was very
weak and was frequently engaged in prayer. Ulti¬
mately his whispering prayers ceased altogether,
his lips continued to move. He seemed to sink
away calmly into the eternal sleep. Soon after
this cessation he was pronounced dead and his
body was removed.
I cannot say how soon thereafter it was when
the body enclosed in a canvas bag, properly
weighted, was placed upon a plank and brought
to the side of the ship. It was covered with the
American flag. The engines of the ship ceased
their throbbing; order and silence prevailed; some
one designated read the appropriate service; the
plank was extended beyond the ship's rail and
the body was consigend to the deep.
"There was a plunge. The risen sea complained!
Death from his briny bosom took her own.
The awful fountains of the deep did lift
Their subterranean portals, and he went
Down to the floor of Ocean, mid the beds
Of brave and beautiful ones. Yet to my soul
In all their funeral pomp, the guise of woe,
The monumental grandeur, with which earth
Indulgeth her dead sons was naught so sad,
Sublime, or sorrowful, as the mute sea
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 85
Opening her mouth to whelm that sailor youth.."
So wrote an unknown author a hundred years
ago, and so I read in my school book seventy
years ago. And from an almost adjoining page
I had heard Frank (Bishop) Lee's rich voice de¬
claiming Napoleon's dying request (a request
which was not granted) :
"Yes, bury me deep in the infinite sea,
Let my heart have a limitless grave;
For my spirit in life was as fierce and free
As the course of the tempest-wave."
(Emerson's First Class Reader, p. 151-53.)
In those days the wide sea was the world's bury¬
ing ground for those who did business in the great
waters. Transports and the great passenger
steamers were not required to carry embalmers-
or persons whose duty it was to care for the bodies
of the dead. Those who died on ship board were
buried in the deep. A kinder civilization now de¬
mands that the bodies of the dead shall be restored
to their relatives whenever possible, and this ap¬
plies to those who die in battle or on the sea.
CHAPTER III.
WORK IN CHARLESTON, S. C.:
Journey to Macon, Ga. Conference in that citv. Return to
Charleston—Trip by sea to Savannah, Robert Smalls—Fourth of
July in Macon, Ga.—Trip to Lumpkin, Ga.—Work there—Con¬
ference again in Macon—Appointment to the church in Macon.
In the fall of 1866, I began my ministerial labors
in Charleston as pastor of the congregation that
met in the Morris Brown Church. I take pains to
put it this way, because at that time the Morris
Brown Church as a separate organization did not
exist. In my congregation I had some very val¬
uable assistants, prominent among whom were
Moses B. Salters who afterwards became a Bishop,,
snd William Thomas who developed into a very
-useful pastor and presiding elder. I also taught
a private school, and had several private pupils
who met at my residence.
While the people were very kind to me, the re¬
lations which I was forced to sustain toward the
superintendent, who was in fact the pastor of my
church, made it impossible for me to develop per-
nally, or as a leader of a congregation. Yet I had
made up my mind to labor and to wait. But when
the conference met in Wilmington, N. C., I found
myself again changed through the revolving of
the relentless itinerant wheel. Having had a little
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 87
experience in newspaper work, I was appointed
editor of a paper which did not exist, and which
had no possibility of birth.
Again I was on the world with no means of sup¬
port, but in these circumstances, although I had
a wife to whom I had pledged a living, I did not
think it proper to call on any one for help. In this
situation attending a service I heard a minister
from the North, preaching, as he supposed to freed-
men who were thrown into extremity, from the
text, "Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou
dwell in the land; and verily thou shalt be fed."
I say, he thought he was preaching to bewildered
ex-slaves; but in fact he was bringing the mes¬
sage of the Lord directly to me and my wife, who
were seated in the congregation with neither
bread, money nor home.
With this encouragement, I domiciled my wife
temporarily in Charleston and in a few days set
out for Macon, Ga. On my trip, I stopped at
Aiken, S. C., where Rev. Moses B. Salters, whom
I had taken to the conference in Wilmington, was
beginning his work, and naturally he aided me in
my traveling expenses. Arriving at Augusta, I
met there the Rev. Charles L. Bradwell, previous¬
ly mentioned; who took pleasure in giving me fur¬
ther assistance; and thus aided, on May 30th I
arrived in Macon, then, as now, one of the prettiest
cities in the South.
88 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
In the conference which met in Wilmington, re¬
ports showed the work in Georgia to be so ex¬
tensive and travel so inconvenient that it was
thought best to organize a special mission confer¬
ence for that state. This conference was now
assembling in Macon in the old Methodist Church
which had been occupied formerly by the slaves
arid the few free colored people of the city. This
conference I came to attend. It was presided over
by Bishop Wayman. Rev. W. J. Gaines and I were
elected secretaries. The people of Macon were
hospitable, and were so situated that they could
entertain the conference very pleasantly. Macon,
as a city, had suffered very little from the war.
I saw only one house that had been struck by
shot or shell. The session of the conference there
was interesting and enjoyable. From this confer¬
ence I was appointed to Lumpkin, the county seat
of Stewart County, in the typical corn and cotton
section of Southwestern Georgia.
Returning to Charleston I packed up my few
belongings and oa June 27, 1867, my wife and I
went on board the little steamer, "Fannie," to take'
passage for Savannah. A few of our good Char¬
leston friends accompanied us to the wharf to say
good-bye and to wish us a good voyage. We were
soon at sea; the wind was blowing gently, the sea
was moderate; but our boat was what sailors call
"cranky," and she was soon rolling as gaily as the
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 89
lightest heart might wish. As for me, and for my
■wife also, that old demon sea sickness returned,
and despite our sturdy nursing of lemons we were
delivered from our predicament by the usual route.
On the boat, as passenger, was Captain Robert
Smalls who had been to Charleston to purchase
goods for his store in Beaufort. With the gen¬
erosity of the man of the sea, he extended all
courtesy and kindness to us during our discom¬
fort. We arrived in Savannah at 10 o'clock, and
were entertained by a Mr. Deas of the firm of
Deas & Johnson, and made to feel at 'home. We
rested here a few days, during which we enjoyed
the company of Rev. James Hill, whom the reader
will recollect as a member of our first conference,
and of Rev. R. P. Gibbs who had come down from
New York to fill the place vacated by Rev. A. L.
Stanford. On the 3rd of July we left for Macon,
arriving early in the evening, passing the "Glorious
Fourth" in that city and taking part in the cele¬
bration. The colored school children numbering
several hundred, with bands about which the less
said the better, paraded the streets in the early
part of the day. At 11 A. M. all met in a large
grove where speeches were made and a bountiful
table of refreshments spread. There was no lack
of food or clothing in Macon at that time. The
celebration was interesting and moderately en-
90 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
thusiastic.: but only the colored citizens and their
families took any part in it whatsoever.
On Friday, July 5, 1867, we left Macon on the
Southwestern Railroad for Cuthbert, Ga., without
money enough to pay our fare. Cuthbert was the
nearest point to our station which we could reach
by rail. As railroad conditions were quite con¬
fused at that time, I gave the conductor all the
money I had, which included some silver not then
current and he allowed us to remain on the train
until our destination was reached. Arriving at
Cuthbert about four o'clock in the afternoon, we
were met by Christopher Jordan with a mule and
a little spring wagon. Transferring ourselves and
baggage to this wagon we started out from Cuth¬
bert about five o'clock with a journey of twenty-two
miles before us to Lumpkin. Our rate of progress
was very slow, and at about ten o'clock at night
we halted and rested in a cabin by the wayside,
situated upon a large plantation belonging to a
planter known to our driver. Early the next
morning we resumed our journey and by ten
o'clock we reached Lumpkin. During the journey
my wife had a fall, receiving some bruises more
or less serious, but she as well as myself arrived
in Lumpkin in good spirits. I now realized what
it was to be a traveling preacher. In three years
[ had filled the following appointments: Pastor
uf a church in Camden, N. J.; charge of a mission
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 91
in Beaufort, S. C.; commissioned to a mission in
Georgetown, S. C.; to Summerville, S. C.: to Ma ¬
rion, S. C.; in charge of an embryo church in Char¬
leston ; editor of an unbegotten paper; and now
missionary pastor to Lumpkin. In the meantime.
I had taught school in Marion and in Charleston.
None of the shifting except the last one had been
of my own seeking. Up to that time I had been
clay in the hands of the potter or "potterer" as it
might be.
Lumpkin, I found to be a cozy little well-shaded
village in the centre of a fine agricultural region,
having within it the typical country academy of
the old South, the court-house and square. Nearly
every house -among the whites possessed a piano
and an energetic pianist; but the same people would
have no instrumental music in their church. The
Methodist Sunday school through the influence of
its progressive superintendent, one Dr. Barnum,
had just before my arrival, introduced an organ
into the church services, and its music was at¬
tracting the young people. The organ seemed to
be filling a real need, but the conservatives arose
in their strength and the instrument had to go.
The}7- would none of it. All classes of the inhabit¬
ants, white and black, helped to make up the com¬
munity; and every one knew the outside and in¬
side history of all the others; gossip flourished,
92 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
multiplied, and grew until the air was laden with
it.
Here, on July 7th, I began my labors, not with¬
out opposition of a most peculiar kind. The church
had been organized, a lot bargained for, but
nothing paid on it. The people had also bar¬
gained for the church building which they
had formerly used while in connection with the
I\lethodist Church, South,—an old building which
had been given up by the whites after they had
erected for themselves a new building. The build¬
ing was sold to the colored people for one hundred
and fifty dollars, providing they moved it off the
ground within a definite time. When I arrived
the time for removal was nearly expired; they had
paid nothing on the house; were making no prep¬
aration to remove the building; but on the con¬
trary were sitting down apparently helpless and
hopeless. The work had been carried on thus far
by a native minister, very poorly equipped for his
task, by the name of Crayton. As might be ex¬
pected, he was not at all pleased at being supplant¬
ed by me. Not having been trained in the itinerant
system, his opposition was quite bitter and fierce;
but being untutored he was able to accomplish no
more in the way of obstructing than he had previ¬
ously done in the way of advancing the work.
Later this same man became a member of my
church in Wilmington, Del., and died in its com-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 93
munion. I attended him and gave him consolation
during his last illness, happy to know that he had
become more than fully reconciled to me.
On the 15th of the month of July, nine days
after arriving on the ground, I opened school and
had appointed the first day of August as the day
we would move the church building. On the 22nd
1 organized a society of women to furnish the
house with new windows, which were to be put
in after the house should be removed; on the 29th
i organized a society of children to get the nails
necessary to put on a new roof. On the 10th I
got together a number of young men who agreed
to furnish the shingles for the roof. With this
preparation we began on the day appointed, August
1, 1867, to move the church, a work which was
done entirely by hand-power under the direction of
two ex-slave carpenters. The building was cut
into sections and carried by men from its old site
to the new one, and there re-erected. By the 12th
of September the building was moved, re-erected,
a new roof put on it, new windows put in, and
*1 have prepared the following names of men who helped to
move the church, August 1, 1857.
Adam Harden, Gilford Anderson, Howard Jordan, James Ander¬
son, William Siani, H^nrv Brown, Benjamin Shirland, Mosos ,
Edom Prince, James Becham, Isaac Burns, Jacob Robinson, Caesor
Scott, P. C. Green, Samuei Scott, Francis Marion, Henry Porter,
Chris. Jordan, Lewis Jones, Wesley Randall, Ransom Henderson,
William Bird, George Grimes, Tip Becham, Lee Brown, Robert
Clayton, Adolphus Jordan, Richard Battle, Hampton Warren, La¬
fayette Wilson.
On august 7, 1921, I visited Macedonia Church, the Rev. R. B.
94 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
the ground paid for*—just two months and five
days after my arrival in Lumpkin. During that
month I gave the first concert and exhibition ever
given by our people in that part of the state.
I had secured from the Freedmen' Bureau a
stipend of twenty-five dollars per month, and we
were now entering upon a great political cam¬
paign. The Reconstruction Act had conferred
suffrage upon the ex-slaves and the question to
be voted on was the calling of a state convention.
Upon this question each voter was to cast his bal¬
lot for or against; and at the same time, on the
same ballot he could vote his choice of delegates
for the convention. This convention was to frame
n constitution for the state and thus reorganize
the state government. The district including Lump¬
kin was composed of three counties : Stewart, Web-
5ter and Quitman. I served as one of the judges
of the election, or rather manager of election in
Stewart County. In that whole county only four
white men voted. The colored voters brought the
state back to the Union so far as Southwestern
Georgia was concerned. Two colored men were
elected to the convention, one of them being Rev.
Thomas Crayton, my predecessor; one white man,
a Dr. Blount, was also elected. While this cam-
Smith being pastor at that time and there met Mrs. Mary Laws,
a hale , happy looking, elderly lady, who informed me that she
joined the church under me in 1864, being at that time twelve years
of age. He name at that time was Mary Painter. She had been
a member 57 years.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 95
paign was on, a prominent man of the town solicit¬
ed me to run for the convention; he claiming to
represent the majority of the white voters. I
readily saw the purport of this move, but took
good care not to allow them to see that I suspected
sinister designs. Of course I found good reasons
for not accepting.
In order to present my readers with my activities
during the two months just described, I shall quote
a few entries from my diary:
Tuesday, July 30—Received a letter from E. F.
Kirksey, security for the purchase money of the
church building, stating that the house must not
be moved. (I was preparing to move on August
1st. Of course, that had to be smoothed over. I
found a way out.)
August 1, 1867—Commenced to move the church
today with about thirty hands, all working gratu¬
itously ; got the roof, gable ends, benches, windows
and upper joists moved; and three new sills fram¬
ed for the building; and the blocks on the ground.
August 2nd—Work stopped on account of stormy
weather. Bargained with Ben Shirland for 4,500
shingles at five dollars per thousand.
August 3rd—Weather fine; commenced working
on the church again with about thirty-five hands;
96 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
got all moved except the back end. Set apart the
17th of the month to raise the church.
August 4th, Sunday—Weather fine in the morn¬
ing; had Sunday school under shelter; at sunset
preached on the church ground from Ezek. 37:21.
August 5th—Bought 45 pounds of nails at J as.
K. Barnum's with the children's money. Met the
ladies' society; received $2.65. Mrs. Wilson be¬
haved rudely, called Rev. Stubbs "bull-frog," and
gave an insult to me by saying the "yellow wom¬
en" were my sisters, but "the blacks were not."
August 6th—Reopened school under a tempor¬
ary shelter. At night met the young men who
had subscribed for the roof of the church and re¬
ceived from them $4.75.
August 9th—Got the court-house to hold meet¬
ing in on Sunday afternoon. People opposed to
our work trying every way to break us up. They
are too late.
August 17th—Raised our church today; a great
disappointment to many whites who thought we
would not be able to do it.
August 25th—Held our first meetings in our
new church.
September 12th—Completed roofing the church
today.
The above extracts will enable the reader to
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 97
follow our steps as we went through this great
zvork to these humble people.
In reviewing this record I take great delight in
the fact that I had so early learned how to work
with a people who were so entirely new to me.
Truly I had learned much during the two years
that I had passed in the disorganized South.
My work in Lumpkin occupied most of my time,
although this point was only a part of my circuit.
The other points were Box Ankle, Hard Money,
Giles and Adams, mere settlements more con¬
spicuous for their names than for anything else,
beyond what might be described as general de¬
bility. I kept preaching services in Lumpkin reg¬
ularly and superintended the Sunday school. On
Sunday, August 11, 1867, as a specimen of my
Sunday services my journal relates that I went
out to Box Ankle and gave the sacrament to the
people there, and returning preached in the court
house in Lumpkin at 4:30 P. M. to a good con¬
gregation. I was a curiosity, of course, to the
whites of this region. To exhibit my learning to
some of his associates a young man by the name
of Tucker called on me while I was passing on the
street, to define logic. My reply justified his previ¬
ous affirmations as to my scholarship. Should he
be permitted to see my note book in reference to
the occasion he would read this description of the
•98 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
occurrence: "Was asked by a certain 'Green 'un'
named C. Tucker to define logic."
Beside carrying on church and Sunday school,
my wife and I conducted a day school, which we
called Union School. During the month of
August, 1867, we enrolled 53 girl students and 30
males. We made a charge of 50 cents a month
for each pupil, but kept none out for lack of pay¬
ment ; consequently we collected but a small pro¬
portion of the money earned. During the month
of August, 1867, although our enrollment was 83,
we collected only $13.00, and of this we paid $8.00
for printing and $3.00 for books, leaving just $2.00
apiece for our salaries.
Many years after leaving Georgia a man in
Stewart County took up the question of the value
of my work toward the poor of that county under
the Poor School laws which were then in existence,
laAvs which had been enacted for the benefit of
the poor whites of the state, and obtaining from
me a statement of my account, collected from the
county or state the money due me under those
laws for teaching poor colored children, who some¬
how, were at that particular juncture legally en¬
titled to the benefit. Fortunately I had kept my
account and had the original book in my posses¬
sion. My account was also in such condition that
the attorney had no difficulty in making out my
case; and the money came to me at a time when
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 99
I was greatly in need of it—just when I was pas-
toring a little church of most willing people who
were unable to give support.
The following March our conference met in Ma¬
con which was indeed the first regular session of
the Georgia Annual Conference, and I was again
elected secretary. The conference met on the 12th
and adjourned on the 17th, Bishop Wayman pre¬
siding. Before going to the conference, I had
made a visit to Albany, Ga., and had been tendered
a clerkship in the Freedmen's Bureau through the
kindness of the military officers in Southwestern
Georgia. The appointment reached me shortly
after the conference adjourned in Macon, but my
circumstances then were such as to make it im¬
possible for me to accept it, and- it was conse¬
quently declined. At the adjournment of the con¬
ference on March 17, 1868, I was appointed pastor
of the church in Macon, and also given the over¬
sight of a large district of missions.
I quote from my notes the general summing up
of my experience during my first quadrennium:
I had traveled over 8,000 miles; taught four dif¬
ferent schools; attended as member, six sessions
of conference: published at my own expense five
thousand copies of conference minutes; had re¬
ceived hundreds of members in the church; had
expelled none up to that time; had lived three years
iu the South; and not one month in a house that
100 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
did not leak, nor six months altogether in plas¬
tered houses; had contended with fleas, mosquitoes,
bed-bugs, and "grey-backs," all at the same time;
had lived through the four years, and was $77.00
worse off than when I started out.
THE CENTRE OF POWER IN THE WORK OF
SOCIAL REFORM
At this juncture, while so many theories are being pre¬
sented as model plans for the reformation of society with
regard to our race, it really becomes necessary to inquire
minutely into the present position we occupy; the reasons
why we inhabit this and not another; and into the position
we desire to occupy; our fitness for it, and the obstacles in
the way of our attaining it.
As in the great work of nature there seems to be a
regular gradation from the lowest form of unorganized
matter to the tallest archangel of uncreated light, based
upon "essential differences," so in society will there ever
remain the high and the low, the small and the
great—to which arrangement we have no objection. All
we require is, that it be not based upon accidents, such
as color, race, previous condition, but that manhood—moral
and intellectual worth—be the basis of classification; and
that without constraint, the mind be allowed to seek its
own level and the man his associates.
In this free country where the will of the people is the
law, and where there is less of class legislation, and where
the child of the senator sits in the school at the same desk
with the child of the blacksmith, and where equal rights
are extended to so large a majority of its citizens, there
still exists social grades—a top and a bottom of society.
We are too apt to think that there is only a gulf drawn
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 101
Tjetween ourselves and the whites, and that on both sides
of that gulf disinctions cease. Though all white men who
have not forfeited that privilege are permitted to enjoy
• the emoluments of citizenship, and all black men in some
■ states are deprived of that right, still there exists on both
.sides, among blacks and among whites, upper and lower
• classes.
Aside from the clans formed by the various occupa¬
tions, trades and professions followed, there is another
• basis of order in society which leaps over accidental dif¬
ferences, which brings the brick-maker and the professor,
•the lawj'er and the farmer, the black man and the white
itnan on the same platform, gathering its individuals from
every relation in life, with as much precision as the botan¬
ist arranges his flowers, or the shepherd divides his sheep
from the goats. As birds of a feather flock together, sc
•do men of equal and similar culture gravitate to each
other. Opinions, professions, purposes and even interests
fail to reduce differences and to make men equal in the
same sense that equality in intelligence and sameness in
•character do.
But there are higher and lower classes, wealthy, and
poor—doomed to eke out a miserable existence by hard
toil, deprived of everything that could make life com¬
fortable, while others revel in luxury surrounded with
•everything that can please the sense. Perhaps the most
outcast, proscribed and despised class now treading Amer¬
ican soil are the descendants of neglected Africa, denied
"the commonest rights, shut out from the commonest priv¬
ileges, pronounced incapable of thinking and acting as
men! By What Law? The same law that prevails among
^he inhabitants of the ocean, and makes big fish eat little
ones rules in society. The law that governs the citizens oi
the wood, and that makes the lion the king, governs so-
102 Fifty Years in the Gospel :Ministry
ciety. The strong continually oppress the weak—kick
them from their path. There is always a bully and, always
a "butt," among boys; one who is never attacked, and one
v/ho is always receiving cuffs.
So, here it is might that makes right; power that rules.
Not an imaginary; but a real authority. Now if this
view be correct, What Can Elevate Us? A great revolu¬
tion has just passed over us which threatened to invert the
former order of society, to make it stand on its head. The
smoke has blown awaj', and things have settled down, but
the white man is still on top, and firm in his seat. Public
sentiment and laws have come forth to protect us; still
we are easily defrauded, robbed and outraged. A Freed-
men's Bureau was instituted; still the Negro fared but.
little better : all tended to assign him to the lowest position.
So far no great change for the better has taken place
in our condition since the breaking up of slavery.
The elective franchise is now claimed as that which will
protect and elevate us to an equality with other men.
That it will work wonders I have no doubt; but it will not
make a Lo Presto! change. Should Congress put the ballot
in the hand of every colored man in South Carolina, the
white man would still be on top, controlling the state
government and proscribing the black man. He, the black
man, would still be the bottom of society, if nothing else
were done. Laws cannot protect; external circumstances,
rarely elevate. All that is done for us will not raise us
one step higher in the order of society, nor do away with
prejudice. Place and position will not change our lot.
For let this be maintained as a truth : That it is by devel¬
oped strength, by conquest, that a people rises from a
lower to a higher condition. Individual examples in sup-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 103
-port of this might be gathered from the wrestler's ring,
*0 the latest discovery in science.
The obstacles that lie in our way are prejudices and the
institutions and laws growing out of it. This prejudice
springs from a kind of contempt which the strong are
inclined to feel toward the weak. No matter how ex¬
cellent the reasons ma}' be which are in the hands of the
weak to assign for his condition, he will be despised and
wronged until he gets in possession of power to defend
his rights. Justice is not obeyed half so readily as force.
Let claims be backed by power and they will soon receive
attention.
To elevate the blacks and place them beyond the reach
of foul wrong, power, force, must be put into their hands.
Yes; says one. "The power of the ballot!" Give them
"the elective franchise and nothing else, and you put saddles
on their backs for white politicians to ride upon, and well
will they use them. Another says: "Give them wealth;
place capital in their hands; give them lands and put
them on the open road to prosperity and respectability."
With nothing else given the colored man: How long would
lie be able to hold his wealth or make it contribute to his
.good? It is not fencing-in by law nor bracing up by favors
that will elevate. No; every grant and favor detracts so
sniuch from the honor of final success. The strength must
be infused in the man. He must be made strong. This
will come only from labor, study and thought. The only
Avay to elevate is to increase the intrinsic worth.
Knowledge must be acquired; knowledge of words and
things. Every fact acquired arouses new thoughts; the
mind expands; the faculties are strengthened and the
progress is onward to manhood. "Wisdom is strength"
says Solomon; "Knowledge is power" says Bacon; "A wise
servant shall rule over a son"; and all through the course
104 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
of human history striking exhibitions of the ability of in¬
telligence to rule ignorance follow after each other in quick
succession j and in keeping with this principle it has always
been the policy of the oppressors to keep in ignorance
the minds of the oppressed. Barbarous peoples have been
civilized, the waste country made the home of a mighty
nation, the oppressed elevated, by infusing into them the
power of education. England grew to its present stage of
wealth and power through the diffusion of education among,
its population. America sprang up to its prodigious wealth
and greatness by the use of the school house. And edu¬
cation diffused among our people in this state and others,
is the thing needed to change their condition.
I would have every one that hears me to-night transfer
a part of that care for wealth, and apply it to personal im¬
provement. To get that key which will unlock the door to
every privilege, and that will furnish happiness in every
circumstance. Exercise the mind; let it grow strong and
what can resist its powers?
CHAPTER IV
GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1868:
Delegates from the South—Revs. J. M. Brown, J. A. Shorter and
T. M. D. Ward elected bishops. The union question of 1864.
Beginning my work in Macon—Fine spirjt in the church sur¬
prise—W. B. Campbell attempts revole. Legal proceedings
Church burned—Wanderings of the congregation—New church
built. Selling cotton; Freedman's Bank. Opening new church—
W. J. Gaines succeeds me; Mrs. M. E. F. Smith—Transfer
north.
On receiving my appointment as pastor of the
important church in Macon on Mardi 17th, 1868,
and assuming at the same time the oversight of a
large missionary district, my ministerial career
opened at once upon a much broader plane. I was
young indeed counted only by years, for I was then
twenty-five, but my experience as the reader has
perhaps already observed, had been sufficiently var¬
ied to give me a fair knowledge of men and affairs.
If not premature, I certainly had reached a stage
of maturity which enabled me to take the work
assigned me. In Southwestern Georgia I had pass¬
ed through the first election, had seen the newly
enfranchised cast their first ballot, had met some
of the tricks of the politicians, and had witnessed
some of the disturbances consequent upon the
changed relations of the people. I was not a novice
106 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
to be lifted up with pride and thus "to fall into the
condemnation of the devil."
The General Conference was to meet in Wash¬
ington, D. C., the first Monday in May following our
session, and under the law as it then read, there
were but two members of our body entitled to seats
in that body, to wit: Chaplain Turner and Rev. J. B.
Hamilton. As the situation was entirely new, Bish¬
op Wayman, presiding over the Georgia Confer¬
ence, had advised the brethren to elect a reasonable
number of suitable delegates and trust the matter
of their reception to the generosity of the General
Conference. Acting upon this advice, ten breth¬
ren were elected principals and two alternates. I
was elected among the prinicpals and on April 13th
left Macon for Philadelphia in order to visit my
parents before the assembling of the Conference.
The journey from Macon to Philadelphia occupied
four days of discomfort and fatigue. There were
no Pullman cars then, and the heat, dust, smoke
and cinders, with such food as we could "snatch'*
along.the way, caused one to long for the journey's
end. Arriving at my home in Gouldtown, I was
compelled to lie in bed a couple of days to recover
from the wear and tear of the trip.
Going on to Washington and attending* the Gen¬
eral Conference which was holding its sessions in
Israel Church, I soon became an earnest listener to*
the one debate which was engaging all the mem-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 107
bers—respecting the status of the delegates from
the South. There were those who could not see
■any way by which they might be admitted to seats
because there was no law under which they had
been elected; and the law defining the composition
of the General Conference provided no place for
them in that body; hence there was no legal ground
upon which membership for them could be claimed.
This argument was both sound and clear. Up to
that time the General Conference as to the itin¬
erant members especially, had been composed of
men who had travelled as elders four full years;
it was, in fact, a mass conference, all being eligible
who had completed the allotted time. But against
this argument was the tremendous fact that here
wrere perhaps a hundred thousand members who had
recently joined the church; here a score or more
>of able representatives of these new members, and
what was of great importance in one point of view,
there were candidates for positions in the church
to whom these new votes would be a delight. No
^active canvassing was going on, but it was known
that nearly all of these new men were favorable to
a certain very popular candidate for the office of
"bishop.
A motion was made that all of these delegates
"be admitted to seats within the body as honorary
members and be entitled to all the courtesies of
:the floor, including the privilege of participating in
103 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
the discussions, but should not have the right to-
vote. This position was strongly supported by the
conservative members, but before it could be
brought to a vote, the Rev. William Moore of the
Philadelphia Conference, a very impressive speak¬
er and strong debater, obtained the floor and after
a short but very persuasive speech, offered as a
substitute that these delegates be admitted as full
members with all rights, and that the Discipline
be so amended. It was a very radical motion, but
the times demanded it. The motion was put and
carried, and thus the organic law of the church was
changed in fact before it was changed in form.
The speaker responsible for the motion recited the
wonderful work done in the south, and praised the
heroic service rendered by these delegates who'
represented their constituency. The motion was-
not written at the time it was offered, and as the
minutes of the session of 1868 were never publish¬
ed, it is difficult' to get the exact form. In sub¬
stance as I recollect it, it went something like this:
"That these brethren elected as delegates by the
new mission conferences be admittetd as full mem¬
bers of the General Conference with all the rights
and privileges of the same, and that the Discipline
be so amended." My note book in which the mat¬
ter was recorded at the time contains this remark
onbr on live final disposition of it. "After much
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 109
wrangling, they were admitted to all the rights of
membership."
A number of candidates for the bishopric ap¬
peared, but there was no active canvasssing; the
progressive age had not been reached by our church
at that time. I had espoused the cause of Rev.
Elisha Weaver particularly, because of previous
acquaintance and of former deeds of kindness
which he had shown me; but I found but little sup¬
port despite the fact that he had brought to life
and placed on a self-supporting basis our only
church organ, The Christian Recorder. James A.
Shorter, John M. Brown, W. R. Revels and John
Turner were most talked of before the election
took place; while Rev. T. M. D. Ward with his
striking figure, rugged in its every outline, with
his wonderful voice, and a delivery oscillating be¬
tween the ripple of the tiniest mountain stream and
the roar of Niagara, bewildered and bewitched his
hearers giving him a place most prominent among
his brethren which, coupled with his labors in Cal¬
ifornia made it certain that the mantle of the bish¬
opric would descend to his shoulders. The elec¬
tion came, and J. M. Brown, J. A. Shorter and T..
lYl. D. Ward were chosen. The first of these es¬
pecially owed his election in a very important de¬
gree to the new voters who had come in from the
south. All were heartily supported by the "dele¬
gates." I do not believe, however, that any con-
110 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
siderations of the issue of the election influenced
the Rev. William Moore in offering the resolution
admitting the southern delegates to full member¬
ship in the Conference. I have reason to believe
from my intimate knowledge of the man, that he
was actuated solely by his views of what was
right, just, and for the good of the church.
During the session, being personally unacquaint¬
ed with the members of the Conference I made
many private notes in my book of memoranda, a
few of which may be recited here. I wrote: "The
leading men of the Conference appear to be W. R.
Revels, J. A. Shorter and H. J. Young. The best
of these in point of intelligence, clearness of ex¬
pression and affability of manners is Dr. Revels;
the most tedious and dry, Brother Shorter." My
description of Rev. J. P. B. Eddy must not be print¬
ed: I can quote however this remark which I en¬
tered concerning him: "Never gets his proposi¬
tions through."
The subject of union with the African M. E. Zion
connection came up quite abruptly and in an impos¬
ing manner. A committee from that church ap¬
peared, and being properly announced and pre¬
sented, read a formal, and formidable communica¬
tion from their body assembled in General Con¬
ference at the same time. The communication
stated that the conditions proposed in 1864 by the
joint convention had been complied with by their
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 111
church and that they were ready to enter into the
proposed union. To say our leaders were embar¬
rassed by this sudden movement, and this important
pronouncement is simply telling the truth. It was
well known that our church had not completed the
canvass prescribed by the meeting of '64; we had
had too many other things to do; nor was it sup¬
posed that our sister church, which had also been
busy with the problems of organizing the ex-slaves,,
had been any more successful in this work than
we had been. The Conference after considerable
discussion agreed to invite the General Confer¬
ence of the Sister Church to a joint session on Mon¬
day, May 18th, 1868. This action was taken on
Saturday, May 16th. On Sunday the 17th, Bishop-
Payne preached in Bethel Church, 15th Street above
M Street, on the unity of the church, taking for
the text John 17: 21—"That they all may be one;
as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they
also may be one in us; that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me." My description of the
sermon at that time was that it was "full of truth,
learning and logic, and that it doubtless had much
effect upon the question then before the minds of
the members of the Conference." I need not relate
here the finale of this movement; it is sufficient to
say that the whole subject was postponed to sub¬
sequent generations.
Returning from the General Conference, I at
112 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
once resumed my work in Macon determining to
meet the expectations of those whose kind judg¬
ment had assigned me to so important an under¬
taking. The first meeting with the people after
my return was a class meeting held on Wednes¬
day evening, May 27th, 1868. Referring to nay
diary I read that the number of members out was
at least 150. Little '.spiritual isongs were sung,
such as "Come along, the angels say, got nothing
for to do, but to ring them charming bells," "Room
enough," "Don't stay away," etc. After the lead¬
ers were through with their examinations, I gave
a short lecture to the classes on the necessity of
love and union among themselves and closed with
singing "Jesus, Lord, we look to Thee," etc. This
description is sufficient to give to the reader a con¬
ception of our weekly meetings.
Some interesting conversions were often told in
these meetings. On Friday night, November 13th,
1868, while attending a love feast in Americus, Ga.,
an old man named Ben Holmes arose and spoke in
substance about !as follows:
"I am sixty-nine years old and have been a slave
all my life until just the other day; but thank God
for many years I have been a free man in Christ;
1 can't read a word, but years ago I saw a book
called 'The Heart of Man.' It had pictures in it,
and in it I saw my heart full of darkness and sin,
and all manner of evil beasts; and then I saw in it
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 113
the Christian's heart and I wanted that kind of
heart and I prayed for the Lord to take away the
sin heart and give me the new heart; and the
Lord answered my prayer. He took away the evil
heart and gave me the new heart. Praise the
Lord!"
Of course I do not give his broken language, but
1 give the substance of what he said as I wrote it
down on the occasion. I headed the note I made
at the time: "A man saved by pictures."
To show something of my week-day labors I
shall transcribe literally from my journal the
events of the Monday following this first class
meeting, June 1st, 1868:
Arose at 7 this morning; weather clear and
warm. Read for lesson first chapter of Phillipians,
Green Saltmarsh called complaining because the
stewards did not give to a woman some money
collected for me. He said that if Turner had been
here it would have been done. After him, came
Jacob Collins for me to sign tickets for his class;
next came a soap peddler, disposed of him pretty
shortly; attempted to go on reading; I am reading
now the Old Testament privately and have arrived
at Numbers 18th; I am also reading the New Tes¬
tament for family instruction and have got in it to
Phillippians) ; had read about five minutes when a
young man came for me to go see a sick lady.
Brother Noble and Sister Mary Smith called at
114 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
three o'clock; went out to see the sick lady in
company with Mrs. Woodliffe and Mrs. Pope and
found her quite low with consumption. She had
experienced a change of heart and desired to be
received into the church; prayed with her and re¬
ceived her into the church. Afterward went to see
Brother Jack Rylander, an old brother who had been
sick a long time. I found him very weak but pa¬
tient and even cheerful; prayed with him and bade
good evening: about 8 in the evening received in¬
telligence of his death. To-night heard the cases
of Brother Pace vs. Brother Johnson; charge,
drunkenness, of which Brother Johnson was found
guilty; Brother Fickland, charge, dishonesty, ac¬
quitted. The committee also on Brother H. Blunt's
case reported that he had confessed his guilt of
drunkenness. These brethren were penitent and
promised to mend their ways." They were borne
with and ended their days in the church.
My first communion service in this church was
held June 1, 1868, at which time 235 persons com¬
muned and four persons joined. About three hun¬
dred children were in the Sunday School on that
morning, and Mrs. M. E. F. Smith, a lady teacher
from New London Connection, led the singing. The
weather by that time had set in very hot and dry,
the mercury rising to 95 and even to 103 degrees on
one day. The "Yankee Teachers," according to
their custom, were leaving for the North. I had
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 115
ceased to dread a southern summer, in fact rather
preferred it to the winter in that section. In the
summer one could seek the shade, carry an um¬
brella without criticism, and the nights were usual¬
ly bearable; while in the winter it was frequently
cold and rainy, the houses illy adapted to the sea¬
son, and often one could not find comfort either in¬
door or out.
An amusing- incident occurred about this time
which I must relate for the benefit of any young
preachers who may happen to read these pages. A
young minister, stranger to me personally, was
passing through the city, properly recommended,
and was to spend the Sabbath with me. He sug¬
gested that he would be pleased to preach, if it
would be agreeable to me. I readily consented and
in the morning he delivered very acceptably one of
Spurgeon's sermons. He was so well satisfied with
his success that he proposed to preach again in
the evening, to which I also assented. I do not
remember whether I recognized the sermons, but
my wife, who was very fond of reading Spurgeon,
did. I had several volumes of his discourses in my
library. She recognized the sermons but said
nothing. When she arranged his room for the
night, she placed the volume of Spurgeon's ser¬
mons, containing those that he had preached, on
the table and turned down the leaves so as to mark
the sermons. The next morning the brother de-
116 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
parted early, bidding us a very quiet good-bye.
The spirit of revival was abroad in the church
and there were many conversions and additions.
Naturally I enjoyed the work. The membership
and congregation were growing and harmony seem¬
ed to prevail in all respects. Such was my feeling.
How great, then was my surprise and mortification
to find, July 6th, evidences that a conspiracy was
forming to draw off members from my church and
set up a rival congregation!
The circumstances were somewhat as follows:
The church buildings which we were occupying had
formerly beea one of those erected principally for
the slaves to worship in, and there listen to the
word of God as preached to them by the ministry
of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. It was
currently told, at the time of which I am now
writing, that in the sermons to which the colored
folks listened, the story of run-away Hagar was
related with tiresome frequency. The colored peo¬
ple had built the church but as they were not
owners of themselves at the time, they could not
own anything else, of course. The whole congre¬
gation formerly worshipping in the building had
come over to our church and were still filling their
accustomed seats. Soon after taking charge, I
called upon the representatives of the M. E. Church
South to obtain information respecting the status
of the property. The statement I received was to
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 117
the effect that the property was bought by and for
the colored members of the M. E. Church South
and that these had gone over in a body to our
church and still held possession of the property. It
was "thought at present we could not obtain title;
there was no general law in their church authoriz¬
ing the transfer; and that there were no trustees
at the present time who could give the deed. We
had possession and the church belonged to the
colored people and no court would turn us out."
(My diary.) This answer was given to me on May
28, 1868, and on this 1 rested, until the discoveries
of July 6.
The dissension grew and soon it was manifest
that one William B. Campbell was the leader in
the revolt. He was a man about fifty years of age,
of good mind, and generally good character. He
had been ordained elder in the emergency-minis¬
try which we had created, but had not been given,
a charge. He was superintendent of the Sunday
school, and had great influence with both the teach¬
ers and children. On Friday jevening, July 31,
Campbell felt himself strong enough to come out
into the open. He did this by a method well staged,
and which was evidently intended to be spectacular
and impressive, but which I succeeded in render¬
ing absolutely without point. At an opportune
time in the Quarterly Conference which was then
iu session, he arose and demanded if >anv of the
118 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
brethren could .say that he had ever labored to
split the church or had at any time done anything
to oppose the A. M. E. Church. The brethren re¬
ceived sufficient impression from me not to make
any reply. This disconcerted him and he went on
to repeat a number of slanders which he said had
been circulated concerning himself, and as no ex¬
pressions of sympathy were forthcoming he wound
up by declaring that he now withdrew from the
church; that he had always been opposed to it;
and that he would hold the Sunday school. No
reply was made and the Conference proceeded with
its business, ignoring the incident altogether. I
fully comprehended the import of his action and in
my journal wrote: "I have resolved to organize a
new Sunday school, as Campbell declares he will
hold the Sunday school already organized. He is
welcome to all he can get." The Sunday morning
following I went to the Sunday school, saw
Campbell there with 239 children; did not interfere
with him in any way, but at a proper time in the
service announced that I would organize an A. M.
K. Sunday School. This I did that very day at 2
o'clock, with about 200 children and a corps of about
twenty teachers. The next Sunday morning I had
the church opened for the Campbell Sunday School;
he came, but the school did not. Before the close
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 119
of the month the school was absolutely extinct, as
I had expected it to be.
The failure of the Sunday School, however, did
not terminate the efforts of Campbell and his fol¬
lowers to disrupt the church. A few members
desired to follow Brother Campbell, and they were
allowed to go without certificates, and so recorded.
On the 28th of August, 1868, I received a letter
from the trustees of fthe M. E. Church South
requesting me to surrender the church building we
were occupying to Rev. William B. Campbell who
had been appointed by Bishop Pierce, pastor of the
congregation accustomed to meet there. I declined
to do this, and on the next day, Peter Solomon, one
of the trustees of the M. E. Church South, who
seemed to be special patrician for the newly or¬
ganized colored body composed of seceders from
our congregation, called on me desiring to meet our
trustees. He demanded of them the delivery of
the insurance policy on the church, offering to re¬
fund the money they had paid in premiums. The
trustees, instructed by me, modestly declined to
comply with this demand.
We continued to worship in the church and to
exercise all the rights of ownership, I taking pains
not to allow the congregation to be disturbed by
the turn things were taking. On September 25th
Mr. Solomon requested me to go with him to a
lawyer in order that I might learn the law in our
120 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
case. We went to one Lawyer Jackson, and, of
jourse, I was informed that we had no legal claim
to the property and the general opinion of those
who seemed to be informed was "that we had better
abandon further effort to hold it." My only re¬
mark at the time was "We have not decided to do
so yet," but I began to look for ground upon which
to build a church.
The times were not so quiet, nor was our lot
always free from peril. Returning from Hawkins-
ville, where I had preached on Sunday, on Monday
morning, June 15, 1868, a white fellow got in
the car where I was, with a big pistol in a belt
with which he was girded, came up to me and asked
me where I lived, and with many oaths called on
me to enter a game with him. He had been drink¬
ing and was anxious to pick a quarrel. I said but
little, and he soon gave up his efforts. Such is
the record of my diary, but there is much more
behind that. How was it that I was not killed?
How was it that the "wild beast of Ephesus" gave
up his evil course so soon? I was entirely help¬
less, had no means of defense or of escape, and he
could have slain me with impunity and even boast¬
ed of it afterward. This was an opportunity for
God to verify His promise and He did it: "The angel
of the Lord encampeth about them that fear Him
and delivereth them."
On the 30th of October the trustees and I were
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 121
served with a summons to appear before the Su¬
perior Court of Bibb County on the third Monday
of November to answer to a bill of ejectment filed
against the African M. E. Church by the M. E.
Church South. By this time we were employing
counsel, and were governed by legal advice. Dur¬
ing this time the M. E. Church South had held a
colored conference at Augusta, Ga., presided over
by Bishop Pierce. From this conference John
Zoan was appointed pastor over the church in Ma¬
con, and William B. Campbell presiding elder over
the district. The conference adjourned to meet
next year in my church. Up to this time I had not
decided to vacate.
Our case did not come up in the Superior court
at the time scheduled, and not long afterward Gen¬
eral B. F. Butler, who was then the Republican
leader in the House, introduced in Congress his
church bill. This bill declared that all churches
in the late rebellious states, occupied by colored
people and bought or built for their use, and here¬
tofore held by white trustees were the property of
the colored congregations, and made it the duty of
the congregations to elect deacons or trustees to
take the care over the property before the first of
May next. Whether the discussion of this bill had
anything to do with our case it is not possible now
to say, but no further move was made until the
next February. On the 17th of that month things
122 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
had progressed so far that the sheriff came and
under a warrant from Judge Cole demanded the
keys of the church and immediate vacation. I do
not now remember just how this demand was par¬
ried, but I know on that night I held a meeting in
the church. Our Conference had held its session
in Columbus, Ga., and I had just reached home the
night before. In this meeting, held on the evening
of the day the sheriff demanded the keys, my notes
record nothing as said to the people on the local
subject. The only remark is that I "gave the
people a brief account of the proceedings of the
Conference." The next morning, Friday, the first
thing that greeted me on awaking was the an¬
nouncement that the church "had been burned to
the ground during the night. The trustees, who
failed to get our insurance policy proceeded at
once to take out a policy on their own account, and
we allowed our policy to expire at noon on the day
preceding the fire. The knot was not cut by the
sword of Alexander, but it was burned away by
some one who knew just when and how to apply
the torch. The next day after the fire, I went
before the clerk of the Superior Court and filed an
affidavit setting forth that the building destroyed
was our property. This at that time was my firm
belief; and up to the present I have not changed
my opinion. I believe the Butler bill had an irre¬
futable foundation in sound morals.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 123
The insurance falling into the hands of our foes,
there was nothing left over which to dispute but
the lot and the ashes; the meat on the bone of
contention was about gone, and the bone itself
was involved in court charges. In this state of
the case a representative of the M. E. Church,
South, came to me on March 30, 1869, and inform¬
ed me that his church desired to effect a com¬
promise in the controversy respecting the church
lot. I assured him that we were willing. I called
a meeting of the officials and submitted the ques¬
tion to them. Their sentiment expressed was:
"We are willing to settle upon terms consistent
with right and justice and the interests of our
congregation." This answer did not meet with
favor and proceedings went on in which we took
no part. The lot was finally sold, but the sale was
very unsatisfactory to the white trustees. Col¬
lusion was thought to have existed between those
who conducted the sale and the buyer. As a final
result, we got nothing, and had no costs to pay;
the other party perhaps got the satisfaction of
winning a legal victory, but in a financial way it
is doubtful if they fared any better than we. What
there was of value left after the fire, went into
the coffers of the courts and the pockets of the
lawyers, except the insurance,, which may have
been saved.
The wandering of our congregation from Feb-
124 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ruary, 1869, to January, 1870, would furnish, if
graphically related, a story abounding in interest.
The next Sunday after the fire I tried to get the
City Hall to preach in, but as this building was
used both as a court-house for the county, and a
hall for the city, I was refused at that time on the
ground that the court was in session. I obtained
for that day a hall known as Temperance Hall.
As I find in my notes that on March 27th we paid
$50.00 for 30 new benches, I infer that we must
have added seats to this building at our own ex¬
pense. We continued to worship in this hall reg¬
ularly, although it was too small to accommodate
our congregation; and on some occasions I ob-
*We occasionally held meetings in the woods near the city. I
never shall forget a scene which occurred at one of these meetings.
The night was dark, our camp was poorly lighted, but the weather
was fine and the people deeply interested. There came a lull in
the services, and a tall black woman arose in an obscure part of
the camp and began moving toward the stand singing with a voice
that cut right through everything material and like the word
"piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of
the joints and marrow,'' she sang:
"Dark clouds a risin,
Thunder bolts a bustin,
Master Jesus comes a ridin by
With a rainbow on His shoulder."
Then came the refrain:
Oh, sinner, ain't you tired of sinin,
Yes, my Lord, goin to jine the band
with the angels.
I had never heard the song before, nor do I think she had. I
think the song and tune were born right then. The woman was
simply singing the emotions of her own soul. The effect was won¬
derful. Sinners with streaming eyes flocked to the altar for prayers
in answer to the refrain: "Yes, my Lord, goin to jine the band
with the angels."
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 125
tained the use of the City Hall. In the City Hall
and in fine rooms in the Hollingsworth Block my
people were allowed to hold first-class entertain¬
ments without any cost for the use of the build¬
ings. An account of one of these meetings held
on March 12, 1869, reads as follows: "Last night
we had a supper in Powell's Hall which was lit¬
erally jammed. An excitement was created and
during it I lost my shawl, an article which I
esteemed almost sacred. I can't tell yet how much
was made; but suppose about $200.00." The reader
may be pleased to know that a little later I added
to this report the following". "The church moves
on finely. Got my shawl again. The supper made
$209.00." These suppers were bountiful and quite
elegant. On Sunday, April 4, 1869, we held serv¬
ice in a large grove within the city limits at which
Bishop Brown preached. It was on this day that
my first born son, James, born in Macon, was
baptized by Bishop Brown in this grove. The baby
boy, was then about nine months old. After this
meeting we soon secured the use of an old armory
situated upon Cotton Avenue about two blocks
above where the church is now located. This be¬
came our home until we moved into the church.
Sentiment had greatly changed in our favor.
The merchants and business men had become de¬
cidedly friendly, one going on my bond as I ac¬
cepted the place of cashier of the Freedman's
126 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Savings Bank. I was encouraged to undertake the
sale of cotton on commission. Associating with
me one N. D. Sneed, a former U. S. soldier, I handl¬
ed a large amount of cotton, selling to buyers and
meeting the best of treatment. Had I followed
the advice of the experienced and conservative
men with whom I came in contact I wrould have
saved myself from the embarrassment wrhich fol¬
lowed my venture. Mr. Hollingsworth told me
not to buy any cotton, but to content myself with
selling on commission. Others cautioned me about
advancing money upon the growing crops. These
were all southern men, and I fully believed in
their honor: but my youth and the golden visions
which it painted, bewitched me, and I bought cot¬
ton, and advanced my last dollar and all my credit
upon the cotton crop of 1870. *When the fall
came, the political excitement and other causes,
completely upset the social fabric which had up
to that time gained so little in the way of stability,
and my money that had gone into the cotton fields
did not come back. I found myself bankrupt, and
was convinced anew that business was not my call¬
ing. My chief backers were members of a firm
conducting a large warehouse in the city of Ma-
Rev. T. G. Steward,
Wilmington, Del.
Dear Sir:
Yours with proposition for settlement of the olr1 matters of
Sneed & Steward is before us, and we accept your offer of $ by
or before Oct. 1. To this end we enclose full statement of their
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 127
con, known as Campbell & Jones. By them I was
treated magnanimously, and have their most favor¬
able testimonial. My thanks were due to them,
then, and this tribute is due to their memories
now.
Meanwhile we were passing through the extra¬
ordinary period of Reconstruction. The Conven¬
tion had met and formed a constitution which em¬
bodied homestead provisions, thus giving relief to
the debtor class. Public education was provided
for, and other popular measures inserted.
The only memento I have of my business days
—this draft—was cashed by the firm to whom it
was addressed, from funds we had with them as
cotton brokers.
account which you can return to Mr. B when you remit,
and we will receipt in full, on payment of the suggested com¬
promise $— .
Appreciating you desire to be relieved of this old burden, as
well as the high sense of honor shown in the matter, we propose
to meet you with corresponding liberality and are
Yours respectfully,
(Signed) CAMPBELL & JONES.
Meanwhile we were passing through the extraordinary period of
Reconstruction. The Convention had met and formed a constitu¬
tion which embodied homestead provisions giving relief to the
debtor class. Public education was provided for, and other popular
measures inserted.
No.
Macon, Ga., November 15, 1870.
At Sight pay to the order of Campbell & Jones, Nine Hundred
and fify-one Dollars and ninety-seven cents, for value received,
and charge to account of
STEWARD & CO.
To W. L. Ellis & Bro.
Macon, Ga.
$951.97.
128 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
The constitution was ratified and a legislature
formed in which were several colored members.
The Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, and
Georgia was ready for formal admission into the
Union. In July, 1868, a mass convention was held
in Macon at which the Republican Party of the
State was organized. I wrote the platform, and
in November of that year I cast my first ballot for
President. I wrote in my journal: "Election Day,
November 3rd, 1868. For the first time in my life
I cast my vote, and I did so for Grant and Colfax,
the Republican nominees. I have been proscribed
from the exercise of this right for five years, but
have obtained it at last." Georgia went Demo¬
cratic, for by that time the enemies of reconstruc¬
tion had adopted an active policy.
The Republican Party of Georgia attempted a
conciliatory program with a view of holding what
were called the "wool hat" boys, the non-slave-hold-
ing whites of north Georgia, and "Joe" Brown was
elected governor. The compromise ended as might
have been easily forecast. The colored members
were expelled from the legislature, and ku-klux-
ism became a terror and a power. Floggings and
assassinations were frequent; leaders in politics
were served with notices to leave the State. Al¬
though by no means prominent as a political leader,
I had attracted sufficient attention to be favored
with one of these missives.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 129
Honorable Jefferson F. Long was elected to Con¬
gress to fill an unexpired term of a former member
from the State. He was a native of Macon; a
member of my church, active as a trustee, and
carried on the business of merchant tailor. He
himself was a master of the trade and had much
of the fine custom of the city. His stand in poli¬
tics ruined his business with the whites who had
been his patrons chiefly. His goods were of a su¬
perior class such as the freedmen at that time were
not buying. Long was a good speaker, a good
citizen, and a man of fine qualities. His career in
Congress was brief but honorable in all respects.
After the election of General Grant as President
and soon after his inauguration, as disorders were
so frequent in Georgia, I stood at my desk in the
bank and wrote just as I felt, putting my thoughts
in a note book. The editor of the only genuine
Republican newspaper in the State came into my
office and looking over what I had writtten asked
if he might use it. He took the book and marking
it for the printer set the article up on his editorial
page, returning the book which I still have with
the editors marking upon it. The article read
thus:
"GEORGIA: THE SITUATION.
"To any one at all acquainted with the history
of nations, the present aspect of our country is
anything but encouraging. Emerging from a ter-
130 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
rible physical conflict we find ourselves now in the
midst of a war of ideas. What was settled by the
arbitrament of the sword is again made the great
question of the times, and the measures and men
defeated on the field are daily winning signal vic¬
tories on the less dangerous field of bloodless strife.
"The fact is not to be disputed that treason in¬
stead of being made odious is becoming honorable;
and the wickedest and vilest rebellion is now con¬
sidered as the great war, participated in by gallant
and noble men on both sides. What are the causes
of this deadly revolution in sentiment? Why are
rebels treated as gallant soldiers and allowed to go
scott free and to boast of their achievements on
the domain of their conquerors? Why are rebel
papers allowed to curse the air of nearly one-half
of our beloved country and abuse not only every
officer of the Government but the Government it¬
self? Has the love of liberty fled the land? Are
all the patriots in their graves? Are the men of
this generation blind? Or do they regard the in¬
sidious and combined efforts as unworthy of at¬
tention ?
"The union of States and of people, the free, in¬
dependent and glorious republic left by our fathers
as a precious legacy to the present generation and
baptized by the rich blood of thousands of free
men, brave men, who offered their lives for its pre¬
servation, is again menaced, nay is in imminent
frifty years in the ~Gospel Ministry 131
peril. Are coming generations to lose this great
boon through the apathj^ of the men of to-day?
Shall the world be robbed of liberty and the hope
of struggling free men allowed to perish? Oh,
that the Nation may awake and that the spirit of
'64 may revive! Eternal vigilance is the price of
liberty, and that price must be paid.
"What must be done? The question can be an¬
swered in short. Enemies must be treated as ene-
nemies and friends as friends. Those who fought
against the Government and were conquered and
captured must be made to feel that in so doing they
have forfeited all rights to its patronage and that
they live merely at the sufferance of an injured
but magnanimous government. Those who have
labored and fought for the Government should be
made to feel that the Government recognizes their
services and relies upon their patriotism. In this
alone is safety.
"The Government and the country belong to the
loyal defenders of the flag and it is a burning shame,
an outrage upon civilization, a disgusting spectacle
before the forld, that the great Government allows
its veteran defenders to be murdered with impu¬
nity by bands of disguised enemies upon its own
soil.
"If the flag cannot protect its defenders, let it
be taken down! If men are killed in the United
States for devotion to it and there is no arm to
132 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
save, let the old flag be buried! If in Georgia
union men are forcibly proscribed and murdered
for their sentiments and the Government is power¬
less to protect or avenge them, let that Government
give Georgia up to the heroes of the Lost Caust
and inform the world that Georgia is an independent
government in open hostility to the United States,
and the friends of the United States within her
borders will seek a more congenial clime. The
power of the Nation must be held over this State,
and the strong arm of the military insure the reign
of law and order. We are precipitated to a crisis.
Let us have real peace or open war! Let union
men be protected or let them know that they are
abandoned!
"Call out and arm a volunteer force sufficient to
make Georgia healthy, or send a good supply of
'regulars' here; regulars in numbers sufficient to
meet the hordes of regulators that infest the forests
and swamps of the State.
"Will the President carry out his purpose of
peace? Will he with an iron hand crush out law¬
lessness and ku-kluxism? Are the forces wanting?
Let it be known—and ten thousand loyal Georgians
are ready, aye fifty thousand if necessary, to accept
a gun and 'carpet bag.' Anything is preferable to
this awful suspense and the continued 'perishing by
the wayside' of good men.
"O, General Grant! We have confided in you;
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 133
"we rested our all on your declaration of peace; we
-supported you because in so doing- we thought we
were giving our votes for law, order and liberty.
Can you not save the lives of your friends? We
•call on you to suppress this deadly rebellion grow¬
ing up in this State. If you would prevent a
civil war in this State, one which will be a real
AVest India affair, a war in the dark with torch
-and knife and utter disregard to all civilized rules
of combat, the power of the Government must in¬
tervene. You, General Grant, must say to the
-angry elements of Georgia, say it with a firm voice,
say it at the head of the army and navy of the
United States: 'Peace, Be Still.'"
Turned out of doors suddenly by the fire of Feb¬
ruary 18th; as I have shown, we lost no time by
bemoaning our condition but immediately set about
providing for our future as a church. That very
evening we held a prayer meeting at the house of
one of our members and the next day I called on a
man named Wilson to consult about a lot which
he had for sale. He wanted $2,000 for the lot; I
offered him $1,800. Ultimately he declined to sell
us the lot at all. Another lot, beautifully located
was in the market for $2,500; I went to see it;
parties would not sell to us. Another at $1,700 was
found and the owner was desirous to sell, but when
he found that we wanted it for the church, he
refused to sell. After several trials I discovered
134 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
that we were pretty generally black-listed so far
as buying a lot for our church was concerned. We
were to be exterminated by a negative policy. I
did not complain but continued my search for a.
site and with the assistance of the wide-awake
members of the church finally found a very suitable
lot on Cotton Avenue. This appeared to be about
our last chance and I determined not to lose it
through any negligence in precautionary approach.
Information of this available lot had been fur¬
nished by Alexander Day and Bailey Clark, the
latter a barber doing business on Cotton Avenue,
hence he could play the part successfully of a pri¬
vate purchaser. The price of the lot was $1,000,
$500 to be paid in cash, and the remaining $500 with¬
in a specified time. Arrangements were made for
Clark to meet the seller in his office at night, bring¬
ing the money, and concluding the purchase. Con¬
fiding in Clark and handing him the money, at the
same time impressing upon him the necessity of
having a prpperly-worded receipt describing the
lot and reciting the terms, I waited on the outside,
at a considerable distance away from the building,
until he should go in and pay over the money. As
we began work on the lot almost immediately, the
seller discovered that he had not only sold the lot
but that he himselfl had been sold. He was a
bluff old timer, with a genuine heart in him. He
stood grandly upon the honor of his word, remark-
Fifty Years in the: Gospel Ministry 135
ing: "Well, you beat me. I would not have sold
the lot to your church; but now that you have
bought it, send your trustees to me and I will make
the deed directly to them." He did so and gave a
subscription of ten dollars to our work. The pur¬
chase was made on March 6th, less than one month
after we were burned out, greatly to the surprise
of many who were fast accepting the conclusion
that we could not buy a lot in the city.
We immediately began putting lime, lumber and
brick upon the ground and commenced preparatory
work. Although I had not the plans complete, I
had enough data on hand to enable me to contract
for 300,000 bricks seven days after the purchase,
of the lot, to be delivered right along until all were
received. The plans were very plain and simple,
and were drawn by local architects. The work
was pushed ahead rapidly by day laborers, as there
was no one in the church prepared to take the con¬
tract. I superintended the work, paying the men
weekly, and paying for material as rapidly as we
could. I had relieved the church from my own
support beyond seven dollars a week, and even
this amount I did not always receive. On the 5th
of April we laid the corner stone in the presence
of about 2,000 people; and on January 16th, 1870,
we went into our new church with shoutings of
praise to God. Our first meeting was held in the
main room, but after that we worshipped regularly
136 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
in the basement to allow the upper part of the
church to be finished.
Our removal from the old armory where we had
worshipped during our pilgrimage to the new build¬
ing was accomplished with appropriate ceremonies.
We met early on the morning of January 16th, in
the old armory and formed a procession consisting
of our whole congregation and Sunday school, prob¬
ably about eighteen hundred persons in all, placing
the older members of the congregation in front in
order that they might be first to tread the floors
of the new building. In the front rank was one
"Sister Hannah," an old lady of great courage and
zeal and full of the Holy Ghost. She was known
as a consistent occupant of the "Amen corner" in
the church and no one doubted the genuineness of
her piety. All looked upon her as sincere, and ac¬
corded her full liberty of expression. She might
shout as long, as loud and as often as the spirit
moved her to do so, and no one said to her, nay.
When she stepped upon the floor of the new church,
just inside the door her voice rang out with one
rich, ringing "Hallelujah!" and soon there was
general singing and rejoicing. Thirty-two per¬
sons joined the church on that day, among them
Alexander Day who had been serviceable in the
securing of the lot. Several babies were also bap-
STEWARD A. M. E. CHURCH, MACON, GA.
Erected by T. G. Steward, 1869. Tower added later by-
Rev. L. H. Smith.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 137
tized on that day, the first being Lewis Williams,
who served many years as organist of the church,
and who was employed as teacher in the public
schools of the city, and later as superintendent of
the blind asylum.
Reviewing my Macon ministry, I am almost
startled at the multiplicity of sphere which I under¬
took to fill. While superintending the construction
of this important churc'h, I was also serving as
cashier of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Com¬
pany ; commission merchant as above described;
publisher of a Sunday-school paper: and contribu¬
tor to weekly papers.
The Annual Conference of 1869 was held in Co¬
lumbus and was well attended. The preaching was
especially evangelical. On the evening of Febru¬
ary 9th, Rev. Andrew J. McDow preached from
the text: "What shall we say to these things, if
God be for us who can be against us?"—Rom. 8: 31.
About one hundred persons came forward for pray¬
ers. On the 11th, the conference sitting with closed
doors signed a memorial asking for the passage of
the Butler Church Bill. Twenty-eight preachers
were admitted into full connection and nineteen
itinerants were received on probation. At the close
of the session Rev. C. L. Bradwell, our oldest
native itinerant preacher, was appointed pastor of
the church in Columbus and was received with
hearty expressions of satisfaction.
138 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
The Conference of 1870 met in Americus and was
enthusiastic. The Baptist church of the city gave
us a contribution of $27, and on my motion it was
unuanimously resolved that we accept with grati¬
tude the donation of $27 from the Bethesda Bap¬
tist Church, and tender to Rev. J. C. Bryant, pastor,
and to the congregation generally, our sincere
thanks. (Minutes of the Georgia Conference of
1870). The eloquent Mrs. F. E. W. Harper ad¬
dressed the conference. Conference adjourned to
meet in Atlanta.
The conference in Atlanta in 1871 was my last
in the State. It met in the new church which had
been built under the direction of Rev. W. J. Gaines.
As I could remain no longer in Macon under our
rules which then limited the pastorate in any one
place to three years, and as my heart was deeply
concerned for the welfare of the church and people,
of that city I earnestly besought Bishop Brown to
send the Rev. W. J. Gaines to succeed me. At
first he was not disposed to do so, but finally yield¬
ed on my insistance. Brother Gaines began his
work grandly before I left the city.
Mrs. Smith, of whom I have already spoken, was
helpingn me in my Sunday school, and I commended
her heartily to my successor. Naturally there
would be some in the church who would object to
the prominent part she was holding, she being-
leader of our music, both in singing and also.
M. E. F. SMITH
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 139
playing the organ. Aside from this she was en¬
dowed with remarkable popular talents, being a fine,
ready and sympathetic conversationalist, and a very
willling helper in every good work. Brother Gaines
was somewhat affected by the assaults made by
some who may have been a little jealous and was
slow to recognize her usefulness until I assured
Ihim that his success in the Sunday school and to
some extent in his church work would be greatly
aided if he carried with him her co-operation. I
prophesied that she would bring his Sunday school
up to five hundred. He accepted her labors finally
with good heart, and later wrote me that my pro¬
phesy had been fulfilled.
During my whole ministerial life I never intro¬
duced the comic element into my sermons but once;
and that was while the church controversy in Ma-
^on was in its earlier stages. People were indulg-
nig in much unprofitable talk which appeared to
*This Mrs. Smith belonged to that class of excellent women who
went South during the closing days of the war to engage in the
work of tf-iching the adults and children who had just been re¬
leased from slavery. She was, in 1865, a young widow of pensive
and interesting countenance, engaging manners, sympathetic dis¬
position, and earnest Christian spirit Fifty-five years after this
time, writing to rne when I had sustained a great affliction, she
said: "What a 'home going' there has been among our loved ones
in the r^-"t years. Let us think often of the glorious future in the
Heavenlies into which our lo'ved one has passed, and pray God to
"h;lp us to say truthfully (underscoring 'truthfully'), "Not my will,
but Thine be done." Speaking of Macon as late as August, 192%
she ssid: "Dear Oid Macon, the best loved city to ir.c, of all the
seven where it was my privilege to teach."
Only a few days ago shs passed unto her rest with her life s
work well done, and leaving a memory stimulant to sacrifice and
Helpful work.
14-0 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
increase the ardour of the strife and add to the
number of persons involved in it. I preached on
The Talebearer; and during the discourse genuine
laughter in which my wife heartily joined was call¬
ed forth. The effect may not have been bad, but
I never tried that style again.
The General Conference of 1868 adopted the
presiding eldership in principle, but left it optional,
with the several annual conferences whether it
should be established within their bounds. The
conference by vote could say whether they would
have the office, and in case they should so decide,,
could say how many districts there should be, but
could not elect the presiding elders. As a result
of this perogative the presiding eldership was at
once established in all the new, or southern con¬
ferences, while those of the north clung to their
old form of administration. The Georgia confer¬
ence as I left it, was divided into six presiding
eldler districts, each presided over by a progres¬
sive and zealous minister.
When I re-entered the Philadelphia Conference
after an absence of seven years, it was pretty much,
as I had left it in 1864. There were the conserva¬
tive elders who firmly believed that age and exper¬
ience were identical; deacons who were patiently
abiding their time and traveling licentiates who had
learned to "labor and to wait."
CHAPTER V.
MEETING OF THE PHILADELPHIA CONFERENCE:
Trial of Rev. J. H. Turpin—Arthur's connection with it. First
election of delegates to General Conference—Important measures
introduced in General Conference of 1872. Appointment to Wil¬
mington, Del. Condition of education in Delaware. Mission to-
Haiti—Return to Delaware—Assignment to Brooklyn—Criticism
of Professor Huxley's lectures. Transferred to Philadelphia.
Note:—Brother Murry and Fleet Street Church.
The conference tnet in Union Church, Philadel¬
phia, of which Rev. Joseph H. Smith had been
pastor that year and who was succeeded at that
conference by Rev. Theodore Gould. The whole
number of appointments was only 42; wliile in the-
conference that I had helped to build, the ap¬
pointments numbered "more than twice that many.
I was placed at the head of the committee on
charges and complaints, a position that the breth¬
ren generally shunned. There came before this
committee Rev. J. H. Turpin, a young minister of
my acquaintance, talented and promising, who was
callled to answer to numerous complaints coming
from the only charge I had ever held in the con¬
ference. The accusers were my acquaintances and
friends; and the minister a member of my class in
the itinerancy. Unfortunately the people making
the accusations had depended upon the weight of
142 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
their own personal characters, and the vehemence
of their assertions, or had been mis-led by their
feelings, and consequently they had failed to provide
the necessary evidence to support their charges.
Turpin was found guilty of improper public re¬
marks about a woman member of his church; but
as there had been so much of unprofitable gossip,
the committee recommended leniency in his case.
As chairman of the committee I presented and de¬
fended the report, and thus came in for a good
round of scolding from some of the older members
of the church that I had at one time served.
In this conference the first election of delegates
to the General Conference took place. This was
the annual conference next preceding the meeting
of the General Conference which was to assemble
in Nashville the first Monday in May, 1872. There
was no lobbying, no announcement of candidates,
110 soliciting. Only one ballot was cast, and im¬
mediately after the result was announced, a motion
was put and carried making the election unani¬
mous. The delegates chosen were Joshua Wood-
'lin, James Morris Williams, Robert F. Wayman,
George E. Bover, Joseph H. Smith, Thomas A. Cuff,
James Hollon and Tkeophilus G. Steward. James
Hollon and Joseph H. Smith later declined and H.
H. Lewis and Jeremiah Young were elected to fill
the vacancies.
In the General Conference of 1872, although it
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 143
was the first I ever attended as a full member from
its opening, I introduced and carried through the
measures to establish the presiding eldership (see
Conference Minutes, page 20) to improve certifi¬
cates of transfer of ministers (see pages 54, 106)
to locate Church Extension Society in Washngton,
D. C. (see page 107).
On the adjournment of the conference I found
myself appointed to Wilmington, Delaware. The
Rev. Theodore Gould had spoken to me about go¬
ing to Brooklyn to take the Fleet Street Church,,
but as I knew nothing of choosing my own ap¬
pointment, I gave him an answer which he under¬
stood as equivalent to a refusal to consider the
proposition. This was very far from the fact, as
I simply did not feel free to express a choice, for
up to that time I was an itinerant after the old
school, going where sent without thought other
than to do the work.
The church at Wilmington was not such as to
awaken within me pleasant feelings, as I entered
it. The building was without architectural beauty,
of one story, ceiling low, windows small, wretched¬
ly lighted by day and worse at night by its unsight¬
ly and inadequate gas fixtures. The interior was
in dark colors, and was dirty withal. On the floor
were spittoons, saw-dust filled, and around the
walls were the head marks of the more than seven
sleepers. It had a small loft in front occupied by
144 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
a choir, led by one Peter Blake, a barber of not the
highest reputation, a good musician, however, and
faithful in his services. He was assisted by Levi
J. Coppin, who ultimately became the leader in
chief. The congregation appeared quite in keep¬
ing with the surroundings in that the women were
almost uniformly robed in dark garments. Com¬
ing as I did, from middle Georgia, where the peo¬
ple were dressed in very light garb, where windows
and doors were open and sunlight abundant, this
dark abode with little ventilation, was depressing
enough.
To counteract the depressing effect on the mater¬
ial side I soon found that I had in my congregation
the true and the tried—the Hamiltons, the Ster¬
lings, the Jones, Hills, Clarks, Mercers, and scores
of other good men and women who would do
bonor to any community. But a visit from Rev.
Henry J. Young and Chaplain W. H. Hunter was
the event which aroused me to get to work in earn¬
est. Chaplain Hunter 'had served in the U. S.
Army during the Civil War, and possessed the mili¬
tary spirit in an eminent degree; he could both
command and inspire. In this connection I must
also mention two great singers, Sallie Masten and
Usther Armstrong. These, by their matchless
voices and spirit, did much to awaken within me the
resolution to get the church out of its material
darkness. Miss Armstrong later became the chor-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 145
ister of the church and literally died at her post,
lapsing into unconsciousness in the choir during'
service. Her voice was singularly stately and de¬
votional, and her beautiful life added to the effect
of song. Of Levi Jenkins Coppin I need not speak
at length, the world now knows him as Bishop
Coppin, traveler, missionary and author. He came
to be leader of my church choir, and leader of the
entire body of young people of the church at a time
when his services were indispensable. He had a
voice decidedly individual in quality, readily dis-
tingushed, easily followed. Of his singing it can
be said, He always hit the notes squarely on the
head, no slurring up or down to get the pitch, his
ear was exact, his time perfect, and he never for¬
sook the key.
The congregation of my church steadily grew,
especially at the morning services. The factories
in Wilmington employed a large number of men,
and the church was decidedly a men's church. We
bad a very encouraging revival and among those
who were soundly converted was a Mr. John
Raikes, a man ever afterward noted for his thor¬
ough-going religious zeal and his uprightness of
character. I enjoyed preaching to this Sunday
morning congregation to the very highest possible
degree, because of the deep interest manifested by
my hearers, because they listened understandingly,
and because they appropriated so rapidly the truths
146 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
presented. I felt my own growth, and rejoiced in
the brotherhood around me.
The condition of education in Delaware was very
bad at this time. Rural schools for white children
were mere excuses, while for colored children no
provision was made by the State. The idea upon
which school legislation iwas based, 'w'hat little
there was in operation, was, that the taxes paid
by whites for education should be applied to the
support of schools for white children, and colored
people should be taxed to suppport schools for their
own children. Against this principle, I protested
at once. There was an association known as the
Delaware Association for the Moral and Mental
Improvement of Colored People, which carried on
about all of the work done in education on behalf
of the colored people in the State outside of the
city of Wilmington. It was an excellent organi¬
zation, managed chiefly by the Friends. In Jan¬
uary, 1873, a convention of colored citizens to con¬
sider the subject of schools and other matters was
held in Dover.
In this convention resolutions were adopted
pledging the people ito continue agitation until
school rights were obtained, and declaring that the
Delaware Association was not able to furnish suf¬
ficient schools for all the people, and that it was
the duty of the State to provide schools. The need
of schools they said was glaring and imperative.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
147
Summing up on the subject they said, "We spec¬
ially ask now that equal school rights be afforded
us. This we do not ask merely as an act of right,
but as a crying necessity without which the future
of our race appears almost utterly hopeless. This
appeal is addressed not only to the sense of jus¬
tice, but also to the higher sentiments of gener¬
osity and Christian philanthropy. It is well known,
that as a people we are not able to sustain schools
among ourselves sufficient to well educate our
children. To impose upon us this burden is as un¬
fair as it is unwise." The convention further said:
"We are as willing and ready to pay our school tax
as any other tax. Let it be levied and collected,
and we will find no fault. We will share in com¬
mon with all citizens, all the burdens of tivil
government, and ask only an equal share in its
benefits." These sentiments were put in form by
myself and unanimously adopted by the conven¬
tion. I also offered the following resolution which
was adopted: "That we hereby utter our abhor¬
rence of the present penal code so far as it inflicts
corporal punishment upon citizens convicted of
crime, and regard the whipping post and pillory as
blots upon our civilization and a standing reproach
to our State."
The opportuneness of this convention will appear
when we recall that the State would be represented
in Congress by a Republican member, and that the
148 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Legislature of the State would also have within it
Republican representatives who owed their election
very largely to the colored voters who had stood
by the party to a man. I had served in the cam¬
paign as a member of the State Central Committee,
had written political documents for circulation, and
had stumped the entire State in the interest of
Grant and Wilson. It was entirely appropriate
that such a convention should be held and that
Daniel P. Hamilton, J. W. Layton, from Wilming¬
ton, and others, as well as myself should be found
taking part in it.
I made some use of the time in Wilmington in
studying the French language under a professor
from Paris. His system of teaching was most
thorough, taking me just as he would have taken
a French child, teaching me the alphabet, spelling
and simple reading, until I mastered the mechani¬
cal elements of the language quite to his satisfac¬
tion. My wife also took music lessons from a Ger¬
man teacher. This study of the French language
may have caused me to be specially impressible to
an appeal which reached our church about this time
from the people of San Domingo. From the fact that
my grandmother had emigrated to that island in 1824
was also known to me, and floating fancy concern¬
ing her abode there, made me often think of visit¬
ing the place. From the above causes and perhaps,
from others, in the spring of 1873, after two years
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 149
of delightful service in Wilmington, I parted from
the good people there to try missionary work in
Haiti. In 1873 our conference met in Pleading,
Pa., and soon after its adjournment I prepared to
start on my mission to Haiti. I held a commission
as corresponding secretary of our Home and For¬
eign Missionary Society, and I was to explore the
field and settle myself in the work there ultimate¬
ly. I removed my family to New Jersey and sail¬
ed from New York for Port-au-Prince on June 5,
1873, on the English ship, Ariel, landing at my des¬
tination on the 13th. The day before landing, when
nearing the shore I wrote in my journal: "Going
to sea as passenger is enough to kill anybody. I
cannot refrain from adding: Bless the Lord, Oh,,
my soul, and forget not all His benefits!" A seven-
day sea voyage appeared to me then as an ordeal:
of important magnitude, since then I have spent;
six times that many days on shipboard on one trip;
still sea life has its wearisomeness.
I found in Port-au-Prince many interesting Chris¬
tians, descendants of the emigrants of 1824. A
short experience was sufficient to convince me that
I had embarked upon a work with insufficient prep¬
aration and equipment; I did not know enough of
the language; my health was not what it should
have been for such a task; I was not provided with
sufficient funds to establish myself in this strange
land. The country was solidly Catholic, the lan-
150 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
guage French and Creole, the people far away in
manner of thinking and in modes of life. My form¬
er experience among the freedmen of the South
was of no value to me here. These people were
not freedmen, but citizens of an independent coun¬
try. My health giving down under the sudden
change, and finding myself unprepared to cope with
the unexpected conditions, I decided to return.
My mission did little more than call attention to
the difficulties and suggest the things necessary to
be placed in the hands of the missionary going
there. Bishop Shorter took the matter up in a
thoroughly business-like way, and not long there¬
after the Rev. Charles W. Mossell and his wife *vere
properly outfitted and despatched to that field.
Rev. Mossell and his wife labored there for several
years. He was a man of heroic cast, accompanied
by a talented and devoted wife. Both won high
esteem among the Haitians, and both deserve a
brilliant page in our missionary annals. The Hon¬
orable John Mercer Langston, our very able min¬
ister to that republic, in a memorable address paid
a proper tribute to both these missionaries, but
especially to Mrs. Mossell.
Returning from Haiti. I was given an appoint¬
ment in Sussex County, Delaware. This was done
at the urgent request of the Republican leaders of
the State. My circuit included Milford, Milton,
Slaughter Neck, Georgetown and Lewes. It was
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 151
a most interesting field in many respects. The
shipbuilding industry was carried on in Milford
and Milton, while Lewes was the home of sailors
and wreckers. Many of the members of my
churches were ship carpenters. The forests £>f
Delaware abounded in good, white-oak timber, and
labor was cheap. The ox was still harnassed to
wagon and plow. Illiteracy prevailed to an as¬
tounding extent among both white and colored
people. It was reported that there was not a map
nor a blackboard in a rural school in the whole
county. Farming was primitive, and society in
the feudal form. On Sundays, especially during the
months of July and August, the colored people wan¬
dered from place to place to attend camp-meetings,,
usuallly going by stage loads, at a dollar each, irt
some poor white man's team. These meetings
usually ran from Saturday night through Sunday
night and were principally occasions for weird
singing with the accompaniment of hand clapping.
The preaching was of minor importance, the regu¬
lar services were gone through with, but the "after-
singing" was the feature. I remember one dark
Sunday night when the rain was falling rapidly and
the crude tents and shacks were flooded, the be¬
draggled men and women who were practically
without shelter made the dismal woods ring with
the monotonous song: "Oh, I'd rather be at home,
Oh, my Lord."
152 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
The song was truthful and spontaneous, and as
the sonorous voices rang out in thorough adcord,
it spoke a philosophy which was doing its best witeh
a bad condition. For myself the song expressed my
feelings and I joined heartily in the sentiment if
I did not in the utterances.
It was on this circuit that I added to my stock
of phrases two that were very valuable locally.
They were, respectively, "Sawed him off" and
"Taint in the wood." When a particular piece was
wanted in the construction of the vessel the car¬
penter would take his pattern and lay it down on
the pieces of timber offered. If the piece did not
answer his purpose he would remark in vernacular,
"Taint in the wood." This expression was fre¬
quently employed when speaking of individuals
who failed to come up to expectations. A man in
giving his opinion of one whom he might think
unfit to fill a certain position, or perform a certain
work, would with a shake of the head and a doleful
sigh drawlingly say: "Taint in the wood." It was
a phrase both convenient and expressive. The
other "Sawed him off, there" came from the last
act performed by the carpenters in launching the
vessel. When all was ready, two carpenters began
the solemn work of cutting away with the saw the
last hold-back of the vessel. As soon as this was
finished the ship began her journey down the
"ways" to the water. This loosing the vessel was
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 153
called "Sawing her off." This phrase too was trans-
cerred to current discourses and when any one
terminated an unpleasant discussion by a remark
indicating he was done with it, in relating the affair
he would say, "I sawed him off there." This, too,
was a great labor saving device in conversation, as
most pet sayings are.
Two of my sons were born in Delaware during
my term of duty there at this timie. Later I
served another period in the State, during which
a third Delaware birth took place in our family.
The two sons born during this period were Frank
Rudolph, born in Wilmington in 1872; and Stephen
Hunter, born in Milford in 1874. The former re¬
ceived his name Frank from the mother of Bishop
Lee,his great aunt, who was nurse at the time
of his birth. Her son, Bishop Lee, was named
Benjamin Franklin, but was always called Frank;
and it was to preserve this name that my son was
given his name, Frank. Mrs. Lee endeared herself
to our whole household by her remarkable efficiency
and by her winsome manners, and it was a de¬
light to us to accord her the honor of naming the
baby; Stephen Hunter was named for my brother
Stephen and for my sincere and esteemed friend,
Chaplain W. H. Hunter, a man no less esteemed and
revered by my wife than by myself. Stephen was
a bright, sweet spirit, but he did not long stay with
us; he was the first of our family to pierce the
154 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
veil leaving only a tiny trail of light as he swept
to the other side. Doubtless he is full grown now
with that sweet soul unfolded to its fulness un¬
stained with sin. More will be related of this
later on in my narrative. Frank Rudolph is now
a well-known lawyer with a career expanding
daily.
In the fall of 1874 Bishop Shorter came to visit
me in Milford, and with me went partly over the
circuit getting a full conception of the field. While
on the journey I noted that he expressed no opin¬
ions and made very few remarks. Coming home
in the evening after a day of observation, he was
seated in our dining-room-kitchen, while my wife
was preparing supper. She was cooking oysters,
freshly caught, of which the Bishop was very fond.
I was out temporarily, and a call from the baby in¬
terrupted her work. While away but for a mo¬
ment, the Bishop guarded the pan, lest the supper
should be spoiled. As she came back to the stove
I was coining in, just in time to hear the Bishop
remark: "This is all foolishness." My wife, some¬
what startled, replied: "What, Bishop?" "Sending
Steward down here." The conversation went no
further in this direction. Supper was prepared
and passed off very pleasantly. The next morning
the Bishop left still adding no further word on the
subject he had so abruptly introduced the night
before. I had been sent to Milford not by any
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 155
expressed wish of the people, but because the Re¬
publican leaders of the State desired my aid, and
the Bishop had been able to see, through his visit,
the proposition iti the concrete, and gave his honest
opinion of a transaction in which he himself had
been the executive. He said of his own act, liter¬
ally : "This is all foolishness."
It was but a few days after this visit that I
received a short letter, with no explanations, to
come at once to Brooklyn and take charge of
Bridge Street Church. Trained in the old school of
itinerancy, I knew nothing but compliance; and it
was the work of a short time to transfer myself
and family from lower Delaware to Brooklyn. I
was in fact transferred to the New York Confer¬
ence, was to succeed Rev. James Morris Williams,
famous as an able administrator, and a preacher
of extraordinary power. The death of Henry J.
Young had made it necessary to place Williams in
New York and thus the vacancy in Bridge Street
Church, which I was called to fill.
My reception by the church was cordial, but
finding a home for my family was a different mat¬
ter. The church had no parsonage, and houses to
rent in Brooklyn were not for colored people, and
not for people who had children. I was an objec¬
tionable tenant in both these respects. I was col¬
ored, I had children, and boy children at that, and
these were just of the right age to make their
156 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
mark in the house-world. Refused once by a lady
landlord, I remarked that I hoped she would never
hear herself addressed as mother. My shaft was
well-aimed and pointed enough, but it struck noth¬
ing. Where its point was supposed to lodge there
was naught but vacuum. At length I secured very
inadequate apartments in the home of one of my
members whose kindness made up as far as pos¬
sible for the lack of conveniences. Cubans were
coming to New York in numbers now and were
well received. The real estate agents contrived
to get many a colored family into a desirable house
by the aid of the Cuban ruse. White tenants rather
felt themselves honored to have Cubans near them,
and these pseudo Cubans were usually of the upper
castes, who did not make acquaintances among
their neighbors. They were exclusive and seclu-
sive, and were spoken of in subdued tones. They
were Cuban.s.
My pastorate of three years in Brooklyn con¬
tributed an entirely distinct chapter in my minis¬
terial experience. My congregation consisted of
two very widely separated elements. On the one
hand I had a number of old citizens of Long Island
with more or less of Indian heritage of blood and
disposition, conservative and resolute in manner
and method; on the other were the late arrivals
from the South, principally from North Carolina,
aggressive and progressive, but quite easily in-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 157
fiuenced toward the right. Fortunately the rela¬
tions between these eelments during my ministry
were harmonious and cordial. Beginning my work,
then, in December, 1874, I continued it until cut
off by the statute of limitations; the three years'
term allowed by the constitution as it then ex¬
isted. My literary work while here included a
series of articles upon Colored Society as I had
observed it. They were not written on the ques-
tionaire plan but were the jottings of my own ob¬
servations made in the homes of the people. They
were not called "studies," nor did they claim to be
scientific; nor did I use the |,word '"sociology."
Indeed in the seventies this word was but little
used, yet so far as I have noted these articles were
the first broad theological papers written with
respect to the colored people of this country. They
were quoted to some extent, and I was asked to
have them published in book form. I also wrote
and published several sermons, especially some
upon the distinguished women of the Bible which
I shall mention later. It was at this time that
Professor Huxley came to this country and de¬
livered his famous lectures on evolution. I re¬
viewed his lectures in a Sunday-evening address
before a very large congregation. I said in part:
"Science is bold, daring and aggressive." Before
it there is nothing sacred. Its business is to deal,
not with sentiments and opinions, but with facts
158 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
and reasons. Its questions, eternally repeated, are
How? Why? And yet man is a being of feeling
and sentiment. He loves applause, friends and
fame, and appears to do so almost without knowl¬
edge, and without intention."
A great American writer upon the human mind
has laid down as a necessity that a man must con¬
ceive a theory before he will go hard to work to
investigate. He sets up his theory, or constructs
an imaginary plan, and investigates with enthusiasm
because he is devoted to it. If this is true, all
investigation must be more or less partial, and sub¬
ject to criticism and review. But before we assent
to this view, let us inquire if the remark that the
ideal must first be conceived before investigation
is true. Columbus became a great navigator from
an ideal of the world's surface which he had form¬
ed. How far the actual verified his ideal, perhaps
we will never know. Newton by the boldest gen¬
eralization imagined one universal law of gravi¬
tation, and proceeded to investigate. Imagination
precedes investigation, and hence we are constant¬
ly learning. The man of science goes out with
lamp and pick in his hand, and with his pet theory
in his heart.
The slaveholder read slavery in his Bible; the
Christian hero regards the Bible as the safe-guard
of true freedom. The blatant infidel declares it
a book of fiction tinged with gross immorality. Mr
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 159
Paine went so far as to say that he blushed for
the honor of the Creator when he heard a book like
the Bible called after His name. The pious Chris¬
tian mother, as she sends her son out amid the
corrupting influences of the world gives to him the
Bible, and says: "My son, let this Book be the
man of your counsel. Let your life be as pure as
its teachings, and it will be as glorious as my high¬
est hope and most fervent prayer can picture it."
I once heard Margaret Campbell say that one could
find in the Bible whatever he looked for, and illus¬
trated by comparing it to a rich clover field in
which grew a few thistles. The sheep entered and
found an abundance of pasture, while another ani¬
mal having long ears, came and sought, and found
only the thistles.
In a word, this appears to be a tendency in man:
To predict according to his wishes and to investi¬
gate with enthusiasm over a pet theory, a theory
in which he delights, and upon which he is ever
ready to argue. When Shakespeare wrote the oft-
repeated phrase—"The wish is father to the
thought," he announced an almost universal prin¬
ciple of human nature. But with all this, scientific
men are sometimes cowards. Science is bold, but
scientists are not always so. I am led to this re¬
mark by the course pursued by the great Professor
Huxley in his recent very able scientific lectures
delivered in this land.
160 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
First, I remark that in attemping to review
Professor Huxley, bear in mind two things. His
great learning, the result of years of patient in¬
vestigation ; and the careful consultation of the
views of others who have searched over this vast
field of science. I say, I bear these in mind and
approach his work with a feeling of the very high¬
est respect, and would shrink from it altogether, if
I did not consider another writing in the same con¬
nection. Professor Huxley, notwithstanding his
great learning and great reputation, is a man—and
only a man. And what is man? Let us have the
Professor's own definition. He says: "A man is
little more than a mathematical point in duration—
but a fleeting shadow" and then, quoting a Scrip¬
tural phrase, he says man "is a reed shaken by the
wind" of forms. Of course the Professor is no
exception. He may be a tall reed, but is neverthe¬
less a reed. He may make a great shadow, but it
is a shadow nevertheless. With this encourag-
ment, I proceed to review Professor Huxley's re¬
marks so far as they relate to religion.
In the first lecture the Professor stated the sub¬
ject and formally put out of court the theory that
the world is eternal upon circumstantial evidence,
and then proceeded to put out in the same way and
upon the same evidence, the idea that the world
was created in six days, which he was pleased to
call the Miltonic hypothesis. The Professor turn-
MRS. MARGARET STERLING
l-'ifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 161
ed the shafts of his keen logic against John Milton,
the great poet of his own land, apparently, but in
fact, they were directed against Moses. There is
a little similarity between their systems of creation.
But the Professor thinks Milton has fewer friends
than Moses, and proposes to assail the weaker of
the two. This may be scientific, and among gen¬
tlemen of the Professor's plane may be perfectly
allowable, but to ordinary people who are doomed
to chew their own food, it lacks a littleof boldness.
And here the question may be put: Did the Pro¬
fessor really assault Moses ? Did he not confine
himself in fact to the Miltonic theory quoting the
poem and reviewing it? I answer, he did quote
the account of creation from the poem, and not
from Genesis, but he took occasion to rule out the
Bible because of its indefiniteness, and because
opinions differ as to its teachings. He ridicules the
idea that the term translated "day" can mean any¬
thing else than twenty-four hours and so rules out
Genesis in disgust, declaring it too flexible, and
returns to Milton: And this ruling out of the Bible
was greeted with applause. The people who say,
"Keep the Bible in the public schools," applaud its
exclusion from the court of science. It is put out
of court, and Milton, the more respectable Milton,
is made defendant. The Bible is pronounced an
unintelligible and characterless witness, and goes
from court disgraced amid the cheer of the prose-
-j^2 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
cution. Upon what evidence is this done? An¬
swer: Circumstantial evidence. The Professor
lays great stress upon circumstantial evidence, say¬
ing, in many cases, it is as good as, and in many
cases even better than, testimonial evidence. I
prefer to regard circumstantial evidence as cor¬
roborative. It clinches testimony, but is dangerous
by itself.
Huxley illustrates the value of circumstantial
evidence by supposing a man found dying with just
such a wound in his head as an axe would make.
He says with due precaution you may conclude
with the utmost certainty that the man has been
murdered with an axe, and that it is impossible to
believe otherwise than that the man has met his
death by a blow from an axe. I make bold to
say that it might turn out that the man was not
murdered at all, but was killed by accident, and
was not struck by an axe, but by some other in¬
strument; but How do circumstances attest the
orig-in of things ? Here is a peach tree. I know it
by its leaves, its bark, its general appearance, and
its fruit. How came it here ? It grew from a
peach seed. I know, because I have planted peach
seeds and have seen peach trees g'row from them.
It was planted say, five years ago as I judge by the
size of its trunk, and is of a given variety.
This is circumstantial evidence, this is the answer
of science. But here comes the nursery-man. Let
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 163
us consult him: Did you plant" a peach seed here
five years age? No; I planted an apricot seed
here six years ago. And this one remark of Revela¬
tion throws down the whole theory respecting that
peach tree. Appearances are sometimes deceptive,
no matter whether they are outside or inside. To
us there are no other kind than outside. If we get
beyond the outside it must be by reasoning, or by
revelation. In the case before us, reasoning brings
us to a peach seed; revelation brings us to an apri¬
cot seed, and no man would hesitate a moment to
throw away his reasoning, and accept the state¬
ment. In a word the circumstantial evidence would
vanish like a dissolving picture before the convinc¬
ing light of testimonial evidence.
But before we go into the subject proper, we
must remove another point of the Professor's ar¬
gument. He says, "We men of science get an awk¬
ward habit—"No," says he, "I won't call it that,
for it is a most valuable habit—of refusing to say
that we believe anything unless there is evidence
for it, and we have a way of looking upon belief
which is not based upon evidence not only as il¬
logical, but as immoral." And this sentiment was
applauded. Well now let us see where "We men
of science" get to, by saying this. According to
the Professor, evidence of circumstannes may be
related: if it consists of testimony, this may be
repeated. In every case, evidence is something
161 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
that can be presented. Evidence is laid down as
the foundation, and belief is built upon it. This
is what "we men of science" would have us be¬
lieve, but in experience the opposite is too often the
case. We believe first, and look for evidence after¬
ward, and believe some things from choice without
evidence, and would scorn to look for evidence, il¬
lustrated by husband's belief in the honor of his
wife. Upon examination we find all our beliefs
more or less affected by our feelings. Man is not
a mere Fairbanks scales. He loves and hates, re¬
spects and despises, and although trying to follow
evidence is nevertheless unable to present the
operation of these feelings. "I have no prejudices,"
says the Professor, "but follow evidence." Yet he
is enthusiastically wedded to his theory of evolu¬
tion.
Now we have reached the Professor's central
point—the theory of evolution, or Creation, a grad¬
ual work, a growth. A grand and magnificent theory,
and shadowing forth much truth. Geology is a
new science and its conclusions are subject to re¬
vision. The Bible says plants were first created;
geology shows no record, but asserts that the next
stage after the deposition of strata was the lifting
up of continents and islands by a slow upheaval,
and plant life would naturally follow. But geol¬
ogy shows us shell fish, crab and star fish, and as
animal life depends upon vegetable life, we may
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 165
infer that grass, herbs and trees grew even before
•this lowest type of animal life apeared. 2. The
Bible says next, The waters brought forth moving
creatures having life and birds flying in the air.
The age of fish and fowl, followed that of mollusks.
Geology brings us relics of great fishes and mar¬
velous reptiles. Professor Huxley says that in the
-carboniferous age, the age of fish and fowl, there
is abundance of evidence of the existence of ter¬
restrial animal remains. He further says that
marine animals exist in all strata, and represent
the earliest form of life. Further, he says, that
no traces of birds appear at the time of the great
fishes. He says again, that "Not one solitary
species of fish which now exists is found in this
period," and declares it utterly hopeless to attempt
to harmonize the two records. Professor Mitchell
says, "The most that can be derived from geologic
•discoveries is that animal and vegetable life were
introduced at the same time. No vegetable life
is found earlier than animal. Geology does show
us, however, in the upper or latest strata the re¬
mains of animals that are now extinct and of
animals that are still living."
I proceeded to show the purpose of the Bible,
and to maintain that existence of discrepancies
might be merely the result of omissions, and that
where there appeared to be contradictions, it was
not yet proven that the records furnished by nature
166 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
had been read with infallibility. No one doubted
the truthfulness of nature, but the readers of nature
did not, and do not claim inspiration, and we are
not bound to grant to them the dogma of infalli¬
bility.
Although my pastoral labors were not light, I
continued my studies in French under a professor
who had taught in Berlin, and also took some les¬
sons in the Berlitz School, determined to acquire
the ability to converse in the language. I also,
studied Hebrew under Professor W. L. Roy, author
of a Hebrew and English Dictionary; and Greek
under the Rev. Rufus L. Perry, an excellent teach¬
er of that language, continuing also my study of
Latin. Beside these special studies I carried on
a course of general reading. My notes for May 2,
1876, say, "Finished reading Humes' History of
England, containing about 3,000 pages, and have
commenced D'Aubigne's History of the Reforma¬
tion." I was also to give a lecture on the Centen¬
nial, and on the 9th I record: "Got out bills, cir¬
culars and tickets for my lecture."
Now came to us our first, real, deep sorrow, the
loss of our baby before mentioned. We had re¬
joiced more than once at the coming of a new
member from the Heaven of Love to our households
but we were now to witness the departure of one,.
Stephen Hunter, whom we had brought with us
from Delaware, took the whooping cough with
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 167
•other members of the family. Neither I nor my
wife had any adequate idea of the terrible charac¬
ter of the malady until we saw our children passing
through the life and death struggle which it brought
on. All had it in a severe form; and all except
the baby recovered. On him it lingered and was
followed by tuberculosis. As none of my family
had ever had this disease, I could not accept the
fact of his serious illness, and both myself and wife
"were constantly looking for his recovery. At
length the cough ceased, and the child looked up
into our eyes so lovingly, and seemed to fix his
pretty little mouth into a sweet smile, while a
supernatural brightness beamed from his eyes.
His mother and I were bending over him. With
that smile still moulding his face into his death-
mask, his gentle spirit passed onward to nearer
kinship with the tender Heavenly Shepherd. We
mingled our tears. Later we carried his little form
to be buried in the old ancestral burial ground, first
permitting my mother to look upon his face, who,
ori seeing that smile resting there still, said: "I am
so thankful you have allowed me to see him." I
•cannot say "He sleeps," for I do not believe it: I
will say he lives. My notes fritten a few days
after record simply on the 25th: "We lost our little
baby, aged fifteen months."
We were now in the midst of a revival and my
-notes read: "We have taken in over a dozen mem-
168 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
bers. To-day I have seen two back-sliders re¬
claimed, and have talked to two sinners about sav¬
ing their souls. I have visited to-day * * *
(names five families). I feel to be engaged in the.
Master's work. At night went to church; five per¬
sons came forward for prayers: had one conver¬
sion." A few days later my record contains: "At
night had a Love Feast, at which about one hun¬
dred persons spoke of Jesus and every one seemed
very happy. My wife became very much filled,
with the Holy Ghost while we were singing a.
chorus, "Help me, my Lord; Help me, my Lord;
When I'm in trouble."
On several Sunday mornings I preached on dis¬
tinguished women of the Bible including Eve, Re-
bekah, Deborah, Hannah and Esther.
As Moody and Sankey were then opening their
great work in this country, after their very success¬
ful tour in Scotland, I attended their meeting in
Brooklyn and was deeply impressed with their earn¬
estness and faith. Summing up my views on re¬
vivals I said, "But what is a revival?" It is when
the church puts on strength and comes up to its
duty; when the members walk closely with God,
watch and pray, and labor with the ungodly in pub¬
lic and in private, and in response to these special
efforts, sinners are converted to God. This is a
revival, but this is the normal condition of the
church, and the idea maintained, that this is the-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 16')
revival standard, allows for a great falling' off in
ordinary times. I concluded my discourse on this
subject as follows: "Revivals and revivalists aside,
1 say, let each man attend to his own. Let each
man cultivate his own field, and when they say,
Lo, here, or Lq, there, go not after them. Do
your work and fill up the measure of your day in
the work whereunto you are called. I see no signs
>of revivals in the New Testament church, nor do
I beileve that revivalists are any better prepared
than the regular ministry. The revival needed in
the church is one of earnest and solid Christianity,
-clothing votaries with truth, honesty and purity.
-Making them Christ-like in heart and life, and pre¬
paring them to enjoy Christ's sosiety forever. No
spasmodic raptures can take the place of this need¬
ed heroic reform."
On Saturday, March 25, 1876, I write: *'A fearful
storm, all day. I had a funeral, of course, and
;got wet and took cold." Any pastor who has lived
in Brooklyn will readily appreciate that entry, es¬
pecially if he lived there fifty years ago. It means
a long, cold ride, a wading through mud, and stand¬
ing in the cold rain, a gloomy return to some
point and then perhaps a walk home in the rain
from the place where the carriage dropped you.
Cramped and chilled you reach your own fireside,
at length, but you do not throw off completely the
• effect of your exposure. My notes for the Sunday
170 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
following this funeral read: "Preached in the morn¬
ing on Esther, and at night on the Transfigura¬
tion, but was very hoarse." The reader may note
the phrase "of course," and find the cause in my
record of the funeral on the rainy day. This was
so common an occurrence, that long funerals and
severe storms seemed to complement each other."
Another interesting note occurs: "Went to church
this morning accompanied by my whole family."
This was my special pleasure, as during the baby's
illness my wife, who occupied the place of the most
sympathetic helper, had been unable to attend.
One time when she was thus not able to go, she
asked the boys who had preached. The little five-
year-old answered: "Papa preached, and Mr. Bold-
en gave the answers." This Mr. Bolden was a.
very useful local elder who kept up the practice
of frequently sanctioning what the preacher said,
and Charlie thought he was answering for the
whole church, as in Sunday-school class.
Among the most interesting conversions in Bridge
Street I might instance that of a young and very
intelligent lady by the name of Thomasinia Hamil¬
ton. She was the daughter of Thomas Hamilton^
the publisher of the Anglo-African during the 50's.
Her father had given her a fine education, but had
left her but little else save his name. Her own.
account of her conversion given to me at the time
was as follows: "I fasted and prayed and read, and
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 171
finally, I concluded, if believing is all, I will just
believe I am saved and go on about my work. As
soon as I reached this conclusion, I was over¬
whelmed by the power of God and found myself
crying out: I am saved!" Speaking in a meeting
of Sunday-school teachers on the evening of May
16th, 1877, she said: "I thank God for my conver¬
sion. It was brought about by a sermon preached
by thfc pastor from the text: "There remaineth
therefore a rest for the people of God." She after¬
ward married Rev. Jeter, a Baptist minister, and
became the mother of a large family, nearly all of
whom were fine musicians. For a long time they
lived in Newport, R. I. The conversion of James
Tappan and his wife was also remarkable. At the
morning service, the Lord poured out His Spirit
abundantly and these two people came forward
•accepting Christ, the husband soon afterward en¬
tering the ministry. In one of our very spiritual
meetings a young white man became so overpower¬
ed and impressed that he regarded his experience
as a call to devote his life thereafter to evangelis¬
tic work and became a traveling colporteur and
preacher, distributing Bibles all over this country
and Canada. His name was Schiverari.
Our fifth son was born while we were in Brook¬
lyn. My grandmother, then nearing her end, and
"hearing of the event, sent word to me that the boy
should be named Benjamin or Levi. I did not an-
172 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
swer immediately and soon another message came
inquiring if I had named the baby as requested.
Leaving the matter to my wife, she at once direct¬
ed that we send word that the boy was named
Benjamin, and the message reached my grand¬
mother before she left us. This was the name of
her husband, my grandfather. My grandmother
died at advanced age and had been for a long time
an invalid, patient and saintly, so that her going
occasioned no real sorrow, but within a few weck&
my own mother followed her. She died June 5„
1877, aged only 57 years. Her last audible words
were: "The Lord is my Shepherd." I have never
been able to speak of my mother in public, on ac¬
count of emotions which arise and close off utter¬
ance, but of her I can write: She was among the
most intelligent and most holy of women. She
was a teacher of the neighborhood Bible class, and
a teacher in Sunday school, a fine story teller, and
a reader of good books. Her death brought my
second deep sorrow, but it came as a cloud with
great streams of light breaking through. The de¬
parture of our babe had left a tiny trail of light
into and through the cloud, the departure of my
mother made such rifts that streams of golden,
glory came through to convert falling tears into
the rainbow of hope.
Our conference in 1877 met in Oswego, New
York, and on its adjournment I was transferred-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 173
back to my old conference and appointed to a little
church in South Philadelphia known as Zion Mis¬
sion. My three years' tour in New York had been
very agreeable and profitable. When I had been
there only a few months the brethren expressed a
desire that I should go as delegate to the General
Conference but I declined. There were no can¬
didates in those days in the New York or Philadel¬
phia Conferences. There was not a brother in the
ministry in those two conferences who could have
been induced to print his picture on a circular and
send it around among his brother ministers plead¬
ing for votes. Perhaps our men were not small
of stature at that time and did not have to resort
to Zachean methods, or they had not learned the
climbing process. At any rate I can testify that
during all my labors in those two conferences there
was not a single case of a brother climbing a tree
in order that his brethren might see him. I grant
that this is hardly fair use to be made of the case
of Zacheus, for his climbing was that he might
see Jesus, but our brethren climb that their good
works and dazzling proportions may be seen of
their brethren. The whole program may be sum¬
med up in one sentence upon the part of nine out
of every ten of those who are bidding for the votes
of their brethren, and that sentence is one among
those earliest formed in childhood days: "I want
to go."
174 fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
During my pastorate in Brooklyn my nearest
associate was Rev. Jeremiah Beulah Murray, a
most devout and earnest minister, abounding in
zeal, labor and sacrifice. He was in charge of
what was known as Fleet Street Church, a church
originally composed of members who had left
Bridge Street Church under the leadership of R. H.
Cain in 1863. Many of the members of this new
organization were from South Carolina and the
church had progressed rapidly under the pastoral
care of Messrs. Cain, Woodlin, Gould, R. F. Way
man and now Murray.
Murray was of a very fervent temperament and
the revival spirit ran high in his church. Unfor¬
tunately for himself and for the church he quite
early fell into an error regarding a bungling piece
of church legislation and thus unwittingly became
involved in a fiery controversy with his board of
trustees. The General Conference of 1872 on mo¬
tion of Rev. H. J. Young had adopted an amend¬
ment to the Discipline within the new section de¬
fining the duties and powers of the Official Board
reading as follows: "The Official Board shall have
a treasury in which the class money, collections for
the poor, and all other collections except special
collections for the trustees shall ,be deposited."
This legislation, although worded very awkwardly,
was very clear to me in one way, and very clear
to Brother Murray in another way. As the trus-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 175
tees were not members of the Official Board, and
as they were custodians of the church property,
and were responsible for the financial obligations
of the church, and had always had a treasury into
which all money collected by them was paid, and
from earliest times had been accustomed to make
general collections, I could not think this legislation
meant to overturn the established financial policy
of the church by requiring the trustees to deposit
their money into a treasury over which they had
no control. They were responsible to the people
as to the use of money: and in my mind it could not
relieve them merely to say that they had paid it
over to another treasury. It was clearly stated
that the trustees were no part of the Official Board.
The Official Board had no control of money collected
within its own jurisdiction and the amendment in¬
tended to emphasize that only, but not to extend its.
scope so as to take in any collections beyond the
fundamental plan; certainly not those made by the
trustees. It should have read, "except the collec¬
tions made by the trustees." That was its mean¬
ing as subsequent legislation has proven. The sec¬
tion now reads: "The treasurer shall hold all moneys
obtained under the auspices of the stewards and dis¬
burse the same on order of the Board." Brother
Murray knew that trustees' collections were divided
into "regular collections" and "special collections";
the regular collections occurring at every service;
176
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
while the special collections came as occasion might
demand. These regular collections he included un¬
der the phrase of "all other collections" and direct¬
ed that they be deposited in the treasury of the
Official Board to be administered by the Stewards.
I tried to reason with him on this measure but
found him invincible. This misinterpretation of
the law was fatal to both the church and the min¬
ister.
Wrangling, lawsuits, actual fights, heart-aches
and heart-burnings followed. The church split,
friendships were broken, religion scandalized and
an earnest, pious minister with a character pure as
light and a heart abounding normally with love and
good-will went to an early grave, wrecked by an
error of the head and believing himself to be a
martyr for principle. To detail the circumstances
of the dismal struggle would be neither profitable
nor interesting. All available methods were re¬
sorted to by the trustees, to oust the pastor, who,
sustained by a party devoted to him took up his
abode in the church living there day and night for
weeks. The trustees had no authority to lock him
in the church, and could get no opportunity to
lock him out. Finally an order from the court was
obtained enjoining him from living in the church
and as soon as he had cleared the doors the trus¬
tees posted notices that the church would be closed
for repairs and that due notice would be given as to
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 177
its opening. Murray and his folowers were thus
effectually on the outside and were compelled to
seek a new place of worship.
Out of this storm and stress developed eventually
St. John's A. M. E. Church, of Brooklyn. This was
the ultimate harvest. But at what cost! Fleet
Street Church was lost to the connection and the
strain upon Rev. J. B. Murray, robust, whole¬
hearted and enthusiastic as he was, had been too
great and a life of great promise was brought to a
sudden close. Although restless and energetic, he
died in great peace and in full and blissful hope,
free from all malice, strife or envy. A soldier for
righteousness as he saw it, and a humble and devout
■follower of Jesus Christ.
CHAPTER VI.
WORK AT ZION MISSION CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA:
Rev. John H. Inskip and Mrs. Inskip; The Protestant Episcopal
Divinity School—Experiences there—Duplicated by Rev. L. J..
Coppin. Delegate to General Conference of 1888. Case of Rev.
R. .H Cain. Resolution against separate schools in Philadelphia*
Second pastorate in Wilmington, Del. Dedication—Bishop Brown's
"Episcopacy." The mixed school question. Appointed to Union
Church, Philadelphia.
In the Spring of 1877 I was transferred to the
Philadelphia Conference and appointed to a little
church known as Zion Mission, situated on Seventh
Street just below Dickerson Street, Philadelphia*
The church, bearing the name of mission, was never¬
theless a station, responsible for the support of its
pastor. The membership was less than a hundred;
the people not wealthy, and the building very incon¬
venient. The congregation was made up largely of
people who had moved into the city from the lower
part of Delaware, who were sober and industrious*
and who had large families; consequently there
was good opportunity for Sunday-school work.
I took charge of the church formally on the first
Sabbath in June, 1877, finding there three local
deacons: Thomas Jones, William G. Cooper, and
Francis P. Main; two local preachers: Benjamin.
Syres, and Israel Harmon; and ninety members en--
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 179
rolled, although only sixty-nine had been returned
to the Confeerence as active. The Sunday school
was large in proportion to the church membership;
and Brother Benjamin Syres was superintendent.
The school had no organ, but it had an excellent
chorister in the person of Mrs. Hester Jane Wil¬
liams, who was blessed with a strong and thrilling
voice and who sang with precision. One of the
first steps was to procure an organ. Later during
the month of August I organized a Sunday School
Missionary Society of eighty-seven members, with
Mrs. Wilson as president. At the first meeting
sixty-seven of the members paid their dues. Later
we remodeled the church building. I remained in
this charge from 1877 to 1880, and although my
support was barely sufficient to keep the wolf from
the door, and my family large and growing, I count
those three years among my happiest. The peo¬
ple were cordial and loving, and my wife made here
some choice friendns who clung to her whole¬
heartedly, who shared with her in the care of the
children and home, and remained faithful to her
to the last.
Two very important experiences came to me dur¬
ing my three years' stay in Zlon Mission Church.
The first of these was my coming in contact with
Rev. John Inskip and his holy wife, Mrs. Inskip.
These two were sincere professers and preachers of
lhe doctrine of Christian Perfection, or Holiness.
180 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
They were earnest and real, free from all sham ancl
pretense; no self-seeking or greed of "filthy lucre"
marred their heart-searching efforts. They were
devoted to their one work and were blessed of God..
By them I was gloriously helped. With them in
their exalted work were associated Rev. R. B.
Johns, Theodore Gould, Enoch Stubbs and George
C. Whitfield, all earnest seekers after the fullness
of God as promised in His Word. Nearly all of
these wothies who walked with God here, serving
Him in the beauty of holiness have gone on to be
nearer to Him—nearer to the Great White Throne.
And the heavenly-voiced sisters, who sang their ex¬
periences in hymns of joy! They too, have gone
on to sing praises in "nobler sweeter songs" in the
bright forever "where the surges cease to roll.""
May heaven keep their memories sweet, and grant-
that their spirits may still call us to that higher
and holier life!
The second experience was as a student in the
Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church
in West Philadelphia. With a letter from Bishop.
Payne I went to Bishop Stevens of that church and
readily obtained permission to join the Junior Class*
Here many of my erroneous notions were corrected.
I found the professors men advanced in years, ripe
in scholarship, and profoundly Christian. I soon
discovered that my teacher in Biblical learnings
George Emlen Hare, D. D., father of Bishop Hare*
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 181
was a man of deep spirituality, a believer in the
life of God within the soul, and a hater of all shams.
Doctor Clement C. Butler was gifted with a fervid
eloquence, a loving disposition and was a man of
happy devotion, worshipping God with delight. He
prayed with the book, of course, but one could feel
that his soul soared far above the words. The
words were for the assembly, but his soul talked,
with God. Doctor Butler read prayers it is true
but I always felt that Doctor Butler prayed. Doc¬
tor Meir-Smith, our Professor in Homiletics and
Pastoral Care, was a wholesome, well-fed Christian
man, who believed the preacher should be human,
and masculine. Doctor Goodwin the subtle, mas¬
ter of all the turns in logic, was nevertheless most
reverent in things divine. In a word, I found gen¬
uine religion, among the Episcopalians.
The class I entered was composed wholly of col¬
lege men, excepting myself. I had never attended-
even a graded school; never entered a high school-
as student; never approached a college. I entered:
the Hebrew class without informing either profes¬
sor or student that I had studied it before although
at the time of entering the class I held a certi¬
ficate of proficiency from an eccentric Hebrew au¬
thor and teacher. I took a brief course of inten¬
sive Greek instruction from a Yale man, who was
the most exacting teacher I ever ksew; I then was.
accepted as full student and was soon at the head
182 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
of my class. At the close of my career in the sem¬
inary, aside from the diploma of the institution, the
dean, Doctor Goodwin, gave me a letter in which
he quoted from his report the following: "In the
vSenior Class, Mr. Steward, a minister of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church, who now completes
his full three years' course with us has particularly
distinguished himself. His essays are of the very
highest order, both for style and for philosophical
and theological accuracy and reach. I need only
add that I have had few men under my instruction,
in any classes who have so thoroughly mastered
the subjects and system of Christian Theology as
Mr. Steward has. Of Mr. Steward's character as a
Christian and a man nothing need be said. I will
only say that he has commanded the respect and
secured the high regard of all here with whom he
has come in contact." The entire faculty signed a
testimonial containing the following:
"For character, demeanor, scholarship, fidelity
and ability he takes the very highest rank. His
accurate thinking, his range of study and his fe¬
licity of expression combine to promise distinguish¬
ed usefulness in any sphere of labor to which he may
be called." I insert this record of success in the
seminary for the encouragement of men who have
not been so fortunate as to have college prepara¬
tion. An exact reproduction of my experience is
found in that of Bishop Coppin. I can exhibit this
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 183
best by quoting from a letter written by him June
10, 1887. He says: "Yesterday was commence¬
ment, and I pulled through. My place was third in
a class ol* six, which began three years ago with
nine. Doctor Hare said to the examiners in the
presence of the other members of my class that
few men were capable of doing the work I had done
in three years. The dean says I actually stood
third, and comparatively stood first; i. e., granting
that my class was made up of Harvard, Princeton
and University of Pennsylvania men, who had noth¬
ing to do but attend to their studies, and I with no
regular preparation, and a church to carry. Par¬
don the mention of myself, but remember you were
my early teacher, and you recommended me. My
constant aim has been to do you credit and I
thought you would like to hear from me at the
end of the race." Here was a duplication of my
own experience and of course the letter gave me
a thrill of joy, and affords me pleasure still. I
should state also that while taking my seminary
course, I also took a course in elocution in the
National School of Elocution and Oratory in the
evenings. Among the lecturers in this course was
the veteran actor James E. Murdock.
My work at Zion Mission terminated in the
Spring of 1880 and I was then assigned to Frank-
184 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ford, at which place I remained one year. In the
Conference of 1879 I had been elected by the al¬
most unanimous vote of the brethren as delegate
to the General Conference, although I had not de¬
sired to go. The General Conference met in St.
Louis and was very little like the orderly body that
met in Philadelphia in 1864. Nor was it as well
balanced as that of 1872. I had not met that of
1876 and consequently was not prepared for the
manifestations of disorder which broke out so fre¬
quently. My room mate was the affable H. J. A.
Knight, then a very promising young minister who
soon finished his course. I myself had become
somewhat restive under Hvhat I '.considered the
harsh personal rule of some of our Bishops; but
this conference convinced me that this kind of rule
was a necessity.
My part in the General Conference of 1880 was
not very conspicuous, for I was at that time finish¬
ing my course in the seminary and was keeping up
studies through the aid of a fellow student who
furnished me outlines of the claas work by mail.
A very important case came up involving an inquiry
into the action of the Bishops in removing from the
position of Corresponding Secretary of the Mis¬
sionary Society, Rev. R. H. Cain, former member
of Congress from South Carolina. The Board of
the Home and Foreign Missionary Society holding
its meeting in Bethel Church, Baltimore, on May
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 185
3, 1879, resolved that as: "Rev. R. H. Cain, member
of Congress from Charleston, S. C, who was ap¬
pointed Corresponding Secretary of the Home and
Foreign Missionary Society at the last Quadrennial
Conference had failed to fulfil the duties of the
office, his appointment be annulled and the sub¬
ject referred to the Board of Bishops to fill the
vacancy." (Gen'l. Conf. Min. 1880, p. 171.) Cain
on learning this, went to his old Conference and
was elected delegate to the General Conference,
and there instituted proceedings against the action
of the Bishops, who acting on the request of the
Missionary Society had appointed J, M. Townsend
as his successor. He proceeded to bring his case
up as an appeal; the Bishops demurred on the
ground that there had been no previous trial and
conviction; nor had there been any ruling made by
a bishop which might afford basis for an appeal. I
was of counsel for Cain and argued that the case
should be heard. The motion to hear the case was
carried by a very large majority. In speaking of
this vote to an experienced lawyer in the Congre¬
gation he remarked that in the end the Bishops
would win. As I was maintaining Cain's right, I
asked him whiy he thought so. He replied: "The
morals are with the Bishops, and you will see in the
wrear and tear of the case that the morals will hold,
and the appeal will fail." And so it turned out;
one member of Cain's counsel abandoned the case
186 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
before it came to a vote, and I finallly grew so
worn and weary of my up-hill job in defending the
man who had no defense, that I appeal to the
Conference "in the name of everything honorable"
to let the matter come to a vote and be done with it.
The vote came; the lawyer's prediction was veri¬
fied; one hundred and forty-nine voted that the
Bishops did right in recognizing the vacancy, and
in filling it by appointment, and only thirty-two
stood by Brother Cain. Yet R. H. Cain was one of
"the giants of the Church" as was said at that time ;
and within a few days after this signal defeat he
was elected Bishop. The action showed that many
of the voters were capable of condemning an action
without entertaining prejudice against the author
of the action. Doctor Cain, as a member of Con¬
gress, and engaged almost constantly in the affairs
of State, was admittetd to have forfeited his right
to hold an office, the duties of which it was claimed
he did not discharge; and his going to the South
Carolina Conference and accepting an election to
the General Conference, when as Corresponding
Secretary he was a member of the General Con¬
ference ex-officio, it was argued, was an acquies¬
cence on his part in what the Missionary Board
had done. While the Conference by its action de¬
cided that the Missionary Board and the Bishops
were justified in what they had done, their subse-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 187
quent action showed that Doctor Cain was still well
established in their esteem.
Returning- from the General Conference, I began
my work in Frankford, laboring there one year.
My experiences here were not so agreeable, chiefly
on account of the wretched school conditions. I
found a poor little "colored school" to which I was
expected to send my children. As I did not ex¬
pect to remain there I did not care to precipitate a
fight; but after entering a field ^elsewhere jfche
Frankford Newspaper kindly referred to me as fol¬
lows : "The Rev. T. G. Steward, pastor of Bethel
A. M. E. Church, Wilmington, who took an active
part in Delaware politics last fall by advocating
mixed schools from his pulpit (a plain lie) has been
semi-officially notified by the trustees of his church
that they would learn with pleasure of his accep¬
tance of a call in some other locality. The same
Rev. T. G. Steward, when he came to Frankford,
applied for an order to admit his children in the
Henry Herbert School, and was greatly dissatisfied
with his people when he found they declined to
assist in overturning the existing order of things."
In the succeeding Chapter when I come to relate
the story of my second pastorate in Wilmington,
I will explain this whole affair.
One interesting and slightly humorous incident
occurrred during my stay in Frankford. One Sun¬
day morning I chose for the text of my sermon:
188 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
"Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked
men, and touch nothing of theirs., lest ye be con¬
sumed in all their sins."—(Numbers 16: 26.) I re¬
lated the story of Korah Dathan and Abiram's re¬
bellion and drew the natural lessons from it, but
said nothing whatever upon domestic relations. The
attitude and expression of countenance of a female
member of my congregation were such as to cause
me to remember her manner immediately, when I
learned the next morning that she had fled during
the night leaving her husband bewildered as to her
destination. I subsequently learned that her home
had been an unhappy one and that she had applied,
as she ought, the advice of Moses to the Children
of Israel, to her own case. She reflected rapidly,
and acted decidedly, departing from the tent ere the
rising of the next day's sun. Of her after life I
have never learned.
In the Philadelphia Conference in 1878 while
Bishop Payne was presiding, the following report
written by myself was unanimously adopted—not
one vote was found against it:
"In many parts of the country, and notoriously
in this city, the sad spectacle of Colored Schools is
still seen. The policy which founds and perpetu¬
ates these schools, either with the consent of the
Colored people themselves, or against their protest,
deserves nothing from the Christian patriot but the
severest censure. In whatever light viewed, it is
Years in the Gospel Ministry
189
class legislation inconsistent with pure republican¬
ism, is opposed to the idea of a common humanity,
and utterly irreconcilable with the principles of the
Christian faith.
If it should be objected that we who protest
against Colored schools, maintain Colored churches,
the answer is: Public schools are public benefits,
established by law and supported from public mon¬
ey, while a church is a purely volunteer association.
Men in this country are free to choose among sev¬
eral denominations, and colored people are not
obliged to join any particular church though it may
be called colored. Between the Colored church and
the Colored School there exists the wide difference
which exists between choice and compulsion. The
whole power of the State is invoked to force the
colored people to send their children into school-
houses. badged with a disgrace as incurable as the
ancient leprosy.
Against these separate schools your committee
desires to protest in the strongest possible terms,
and would especially invoke the Christian sentiment
of this great city, and urge it to rise above the
prejudices bequeathed by the demon slavery, and
throw open the doors of all its public schools to
the children of all the people alike."
Not long since a minister asked one of our
Bishops how he could maintain a colored church and
oppose colored schools. The bishop's reply was:
190
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
"The church is one thiag; the school is another;
and turned away." The minister related the matter
to me and hinted that the bishop's answer indicated
dotage; while to me the suspicion of constitutional
dotage lies in the inconsequential question to which
the bishop's answer is absolutely complete.
In the spring of 1881 I began my second pastor¬
ate in Wilmington, following Rev. C. C. Felts, and
found a new church building partially erected. It
was a substantial modern brick building, and when
I arrived, was enclosed, and the basement finished,
and the people were worshipping in it. Finding it
impossible to let the completion of the building on
contract, I began the work on July 25th, employing
three carpenters, one being Elias Chase, formerly
of Frankford, where I had labored the year before.
During the course of the work we raised ouside of
current expenses for completing the building a
little over $1,800 and were obliged to borrow over
$2,000, as the work altogether cost us a little over
$4,000. The church was ready for dedication April
23, 1882.
As the thought of dedication had been in the
minds of the people for a long time, plans now began
to be proposed and discussed, and all were agreed
that the preacher on the occasion should be Bishop
Campbell. No other name was even suggested; nor
was any thoughth expressed but that the bishop of
the district would be in complete harmony with this
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 191
wish. The district idea had not taken definite
form in the minds of either the people or the min¬
istry of the older conferences; and none of the
officials of the church, nor myself either, thought of
the matter, as we planned our dedication services.
We thoughth any bishop within reach was at liberty
to accede to our request. And so we invited Bishop
Campbell to preach, the invitation was accepted
and the matter published. We were still believers
in the general doctrine that our bishops might
"travel at large" and were free to serve wherever
they might be needed.
Suppposing all was agreeable and taking for
granted that Bishop Brown and Bishop Campbell,
who were so frequently together, could have no
misundrstanding, I wrote to Bishop Brown, inform¬
ing him of the arrangements made and inviting him
also to be present to take part in the service. The
whole affair as I now see it was a blunder on my
part. I should have begun with Bishop Brown; but
in my mind Bishop Campbell was familiar with the
work; was near at hand; was senior; and was the
preacher wanted. Bishop Brown saw the subject in
a very different light from the way it appeared to
me, and replied to my letter in a spirited manner
evolving entirely new ideas of our episcopacy. I
appreciate now as I did then, the feeling under
which he was laboring when he wrote among other
things as follows:
192 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
"You know, or ought to know, that it is the duty
of the Bishop of a District to dedicate his churches
—to ordain all preachers in his work; to superintend
all the work in his District; and a minister who un-
stands himself will not infringe upon the rights and
prerogatives of the Fresiding Bishop.
"Possibly you have yet to learn that the Bishop
has rights which the clergy cannot abrogate and
this is one of his rights; and no other Bishop has
a right to interfere with such duties, unless there
is an invitation extended through a brother Bishop.
Nor will any other Bishop go into another Bishop's
District to officiate in any duty that is exclusively
his brother Bishop's. I hope you will learn that in
this world and in the African Methodist Episcopal
Church there are those who have rights and those
rights must be respected if we would have peace."
I had lately graduated from an Episcopalian Sem¬
inary, and I could see that what the Bishop wrote
accorded well with the Episcopalian idea of dio¬
cesan episcopacy. But I knew it was too late to
argue; and it would do no good to write. I left
everything and went to see the good Bishop, and
gentleman as he always was, it was not long ere the
troubles were like rough places in the linen—ironed
out into a smoothness that left no "spot or wrinkle
or any such thing."
Bishop Campbell came and preached as he only
could preach on such an occasion; the revival spirit
BISHOP J. C. CAMPBELL
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 193
was high in the church and the day was successful.
We were then receiving members frequently and
penitents were found at every service.
The floating debt at dedication including the
price of the organ was about $2,000 and the mort¬
gage $8,000.
Rev. C. C. Felts, who later graduated in medicine
from the Hahnemann College of Philadelphia, had
introduced into our church the method of organiz¬
ing his congregation into groups or sections under
enthusiastic leaders. This was to our ministry as
the phalanx was to the Macedonians. It was the
method that brought success. Whether Doctor
Felts learned it from some one else, as did Philip
in respect to the phalanx which he undoubtedly
acquired from Epaminondas, is not known. It is
highly probable that the three years' army service
which Rev. Felts had passed through in the Civil
War, was the base out of which his efficient organi¬
zation was evolved. He had his congregation or¬
ganized into ten tribes of Israel, the most famous
of which was the tribe of Dan, led by Daniel P.
Hamilton, a most loyal churchman, a patriotic and
valued citizen and a man of talent, skill and indus¬
try, possessing qualities of head and heart of the
highest order.
In the Campaign of 1882 it was understood that
the Republican Party favored the extension of pub-
iic-sc1nool privileges to colored children on equal
194 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
terms with those accorded to white children. The.
colored people themselves had in their meetings
asked, in fact demanded, that their children should
share in the common school fund; but nothing
whatever was said about colored and white children
occupying the same schoolhouses. There was no
thought toward what was called "mixed schools."
Up to that time outside of Wilmington, and pos¬
sibly one other place, the colored schools received
no support from the public taxes. Indeed I am not
sure that even in Wilmington the Colored School
received anything from the public-school fund. Our
contention was for schools supported from public
money. The Democrats taking advantage of the
Republican Party's expressed willingness to aid in
the education of colored children, charged that party
with having the purpose to establish "mixed" pub¬
lic schools. This charge so frightened our candi¬
dates that they came out in most cowardly denials
and denounced the idea of the so-called "mixed
schools." I was a member of the State Central
Committee and had taken an active part in the cam¬
paign. On the publication of these manifestoes on
the part of bur candidates I immediately withdrew
from the campaign, and left the committee. This
action naturally caused some feeling in the church,
although nothing like a rupture. Conference would
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 195
come on in May and I expected to leave at that
time.
The latter part of April the Gazette, of Wilming¬
ton, published that there was trouble in Bethel
Church because of the "position taken by the pastor
on the mixed school question." In the same article
the reporter who had visited me quoted me correct¬
ly as follows: "The Congregation understands my
views on the school question thoroughly and I have
no reason for wishing to change them."
I then wrote the News the following letter which
was published in the next day's issue:
"To the Editor of the Morning News:
"Sir: You report a fact when you say that some
of my congregation have been made dissatisfied with
me because I advocate the equal rights of the peo¬
ple. I believe that in this country there ought to
be one set of public schools in which all the chil¬
dren should be educated. These have been my
views publicly expressed for the last ten years. I
see no reason to change them. That unprincipled
politicians induce my people to oppose me on this
account in order to increase their own value in the
political market is a fact which I regret but cannot
alter and am not responsible for. The crime of
maintaining genuine Republican doctrine—the doc¬
trine that Sumner, the acknowledged idol of the
colored people, maintained, has become an offense
195
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
to the pious colored people of this city according to
the statements of those who claim to represent
them, by the side of which theft, adultery and
drunkenness are mere pecadillos. I wish to say
that I have a better opinion of the colored people of
Wilmington than this. T believe that they have
been misled, and are misrepresented by trading" poli¬
ticians—politicians who would sell me for old rags
if thereby they could increase the value of their
political charms.
I am willing to risk myself among the rank and
file of Wilmington's colored people and am not
afraid to trust Bethel Church. I have spent on the
church since being here $6,921.53 and have raised
and paid on this account $4,719.84 or over $2,350
for each of the two years I have been here. I
superintended the work of building, myself, and am
willing to leave my record for faithfulness to the
interest of the church to the hands of all the men
who worked in or around the building. I have
received over one hundred members into the church,
kept up insurance and paid $865.92 interest. We
have raised all told in the church in actual cash
during the two years, $8,200. No two years in the
history of the church can show a similar record,
and no church of colored people in the State ever
did the like.
(Signed) "THEOPHILUS G. STEWARD,
"Wilmington, May 3, 1883."
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 197
Thus ended my second term of service in Wil-
-mington with no change whatever in the hearts of
mkny staunch friends, and no change in my own
feelings toward the enterprising colored people of
that city.
In Delaware, three of my children were born:
Frank Rudolph and Stephen Hunter (mentioned
earlier in this book ; and on April 23rd, 1881, Gus-
tavus Adolphus. On the birth of this son I wrote
immediately the following lines:
THE NEW BABY
Tiny, helpless, chubby and fat
Troublesome, fussy and "Cross as a Cat,"
.Eyes half closed and face all awry,
A mouth ever ready to sniffle and cry,
Jiands doubled tightly into two little fists,
Arms that seem nothing but elbows and wrists,
There's but little of him—but then he's a boy
His father's pride and his mother's joy.
He enters our world from the great nowhere
And finds a warm welcome and a mother's care,
There are hands to nurse him, and hearts to love,
And a home somewhat akin to that home above,
The new babe's entrance is truly blest,
And a new plade is opened in the family nest.
198
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
What matters it though that home is poor,
And the mouths to fill were seven before,
And father and mother toiled early and late
To find bread for seven! There's enough for eight I
The "poor man's blessings" crowd around the board,
Every new-comer welcomed as "from the Lord."
Like stairsteps they rise from young to old
Like links interclasped in a chain of pure gold,
They bind and are bound in turn each one,
From the oldest daughter to the youngest son;
While the ends of the chain meet in father and
mother,
And around the ring stands each sister and brother:
The new babe's a new link, and though "Cross as a
Cat"
He's made our gold chain longer, he's welcome for
that.
The Conference of 1883 met in Bethel Church,
Philadelphia, Bishop Brown presiding. Election
for delegates took place and for the first time in my
experience the effects of Episcopal electioneering
came into view. Up until that time neither in the
Philadelphia nor in the New York Conference had
I discovered any soliciting or electioneering on the
part of the men who were chosen to go to the
General Conference. There were absolutely no
candidates. Suddenly in 1883 all this was changed,
and the Bishop had stimulated ambition, which in
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 199
itself was not harmful; perhaps it was better that
more interest should be aroused, although emula¬
tion, rivalry, and even strife should result. The
election of delegates to the General Conference
was the complete overthrow of those who had been
accustomed to lead. New men, good men indeed,
were selected; but it seemed strange that such men
as Gould, Shaffer and Felts should have been left
out. I went down with the rest; and the newly-
imported steam roller made the walking good over
all of us. The lay-delegates were F. P. Main and
Isaiah C. Wears, both remarkably able men. The
first of these became involved in a controversy
with the Bishop as to his right to represent the
laity, he being a local deacon in the church. Mr.
Main, however, in reply showed that the Bishop
"himself had recognized him as a layman, and had
nominated him as a layman for membership in the
board of trustees of the Book Concern.
The second important test came to me at the
close of the Annual Conference of 1883 when I was
appointed to the pastoral charge of Union Church,
situated then on Coates Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
Before leaving my Wilmington ministry I might
relate that in completing that important church I
employed three carpenters, a foreman (white) nam¬
ed Gould, to whom I paid three dollars a day; a
second man, Elias Chase (colored) to iwhom I
paid two dollars and a half a day, and a third man,
200
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Gamble (white), to whom I paid two and a quarter
dollars a day. They were all good workmen, the
two former being especially expert. The material
we used in finishing consisted of the best the yards,
could furnish. The men were paid weekly and I
required them to sign the pay roll which I still
have. One man who secured a contract for a
large amount of work promising a contribution of
fifty dollars, failed to keep his promise and denied
having made it. His promise was made to me,,
and it had nothing to do with awarding the con¬
tract, but I was unable to prove it, and he posi¬
tively denied it, and as he was a highly respect¬
able man of the city and white, of course his word,
prevailed. The painting was put up for bidders-
and several came and looked it over, and were-
preparing their bids. One came, looked the pros¬
pective job over, and then proceeded to give me
advice as follows:
"Now, I wouldn't let every Tom, Dick and Harry
and Jack-leg painter bid on the job. I would con¬
fine it to respectable painters."
To this I agreed; and as I was sure all who
were bidding on it so far were respectable; and as
he was a stranger to me, I said: "I know all who
have looked at the job so far are respectable, and
can vouch for all but you." He did not bid, right¬
ly understanding, I suppose, that to do so would
Lie merely casting away labor and time.
CHAPTER VII.
THE NEW UNION CHURCH:
Annual report of Trustees—Conference of 1884—Case of John E.
Davis. General Conference of 1884—Bishop Brown's "Dogmas"—
Sermon on outcome of Cleveland—Blaine campaign. Remarkable
Conversion of young lady: "Oh it is grand to be trusting."—
Resolutions—Transfer to Metropolitan Church, Washington, D. C.
My appointment to UnioM A. M. E. Church, in
Philadelphia, I have always regarded as the su¬
preme test of my life. Not long before the con¬
ference I had preached there and had expressed
the wish that after the people were entirely clear
-from the church the building might fall down and
thus go out of existence. It was such an un¬
gainly, unsightly piece of architecture that I
-wished for it only the most effective obliteration.
Of course my expressed wish offended many of
the congregation who were wedded to their old
building by long association and by memories of
precious seasons of grace they had experienced
within it.
Then again, the church had been served for
two years by Rev. J. W. Beckett, a very earnest
and popular preacher, always full of good cheer
and a remarkably sweet singer. His singing was
202 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
perhaps more effective than his preaching. Thou¬
sands have been cheered by his song's, and hun¬
dreds were led to the altar and into joyous fel¬
lowship with Christ by the same instrumentality.
At this conference in 1883, there was a petition
from the united church for his return presented
by a delegation of the official board. The people
of the church in Wilmington which I was leaving
were also asking and negotiating for the services
of Brother Beckett to fill the place that I had
previously held. This then was the situation.
Union Church unanimously and earnestly wished
the return of its pastor: Wilmington did not wish
the return of hers. I was in a measure discredit¬
ed; 'while Brother Beckett was thoroughly es¬
tablished in the affections and confidence of his
people. He was wanted by his people; I was not
wanted by mine.
Without any consultation with me the Bishop
read out my appointment to Union Church. A
murmur of disapproval greeted this announcement
while that of Brother Beckett for Wilmington
brought forth a round of applause. It was my in¬
tention not to go immediately to the charge; but
my friend. Rev. W. H. Davis, who knew the people
and who also knew me, advised me to get on the
ground at once. I followed his advice and thus
prevented a possible, if not probable, "lock out"
On meeting the official board I found great dis-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 203
satisfaction. The men were not only grieved over
the loss of their pastor, but were incensed because
as they claimed, their petition had been ignored
and the wish of the church treated with contempt.
I sympathized with them heartily and truly; but
assured them that my appointment to them was
not of my seeking in any way, and that I had noth¬
ing to do but come; and now inasmuch as we were
thrown together let us hope, by the will of the Lord.
Would they be willing to join in the common work
of the church? Will we accept the situation as it
is, join hands and go forward? After full and free
•outpouring of grievances all but two of the mem¬
bers agreed to co-operate for the forward move¬
ment of the church.
It was on a Sunday evening that I was presented
to my congregation. The chief of the stewards,
recognized as especially the pastor's steward, at
the close of the services requested the congregation
to come forward and be introduced to the pastor.
He also asked that my wife come and stand with
:me that the people might get acquainted with her
at the same time. My wife who was seated in the
congregation was unknown, and when it was pro¬
posed that she come forward the lady sitting beside
"her said: "Why, I understand he does not allow his
family to associate with the people." My wife re-
204 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
plied: "Well, that is strange; I never heard that of
him."
It was soon time for her to leave her seat and.
come forward where nearly all the women of the
congregation met her individually; but as she re¬
marked to me afterwards with a twinkle in her
eve, the lady who had talked with her while in her
seat did not come.
Soon after my arrival a great church wedding
was planned for, and the former pastor invited to
celebrate it. I was ignored altogether. I directed
the sexton to open the church and prepare it, but
to keep the pastor's study locked, and if asked to
open it to say that the pastor had ordered it closed.
This act of mine was inquired into by some of the
members, as the invited pastor naturally wished to
use the study. I never explained but replied: "A
man is sometimes obliged to leave his hat in his
seat in the cars in order to retain his seat." I
think my reply was understood as there were no
more cases of ministers officiating in my church
except through my invitation.
I found here a fine Sunday school, a well-organiz¬
ed church, an overflowing night congregation, but
a very small Sunday morning congregation. The
former pastor said if we got two dozen out in the
morning we might consider it a fine congregation.
I set about remedying this at once by preaching
every Sunday morning and advertising. In a few
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 205
weeks my morning congregation ran up to over
seventy. Then I began to cast about to make my
earlier wish good in the way of securing a new
church building.
It required much conciliatory effort and much
prayer and leaning upon God to change hostile
minds into a state of earnest friendship, but by
God's grace the work was accomplished in a sur¬
prisingly short time. Brothers Walter P. Hall,
Robert Jones, W. H. Amos, "Father Turner," the
older and younger Brothers Simpson, Isaiah C.
Wears, John Clowers and a host of excellent women
whose names are recorded in the Book of Life,
came up to the Lord's cause gloriously. I must
mention especially Sister Hall, wife of Walter P.
Hall, and Mrs. Wears and her daughters. It was
through the earnest efforts of these that the final
vote of two thirds of the members was secured for
the purchase of a solid church building and parson¬
age on Sixteenth Street, just below Fair-mount
Avenue.
The opporunity was presented to me by Mr.
Isaiah C. Wears and I at once visited the place and
on examination considered the building, ground and
location desirable for our congregation. During"
the month of December, 1883, we took possession
of our new church but did not open it immediately
for worship. The choir from ray former church in
Wilmington gave in it a very successful concert
206 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
conducted by Miss Esther Armstrong, one-half of
the proceeds, amounting to $74.89, coming to the
church, the other half going to the choir. Soon
after the opening of the church for service Fred¬
erick Douglass delivered in it his famous lecture on
John Brown. The crowd desiring to attend was
so great that many were unable to get in. The
lecture was well received and netted the church
over $200.
When the day had arrived for us to move into our
new church and occupy the new commodious par¬
sonage nothing spectacular was attempted. The
people assembled at the appointed hour, and a suf¬
ficient corps of ushers directed them to seats until
the edifice was filled. The ministers, headed by
Bishops J. M. Brown and J. P. Campbell, proceeded
from the parsonage to the church and were met at
the door by trustees and officials of the church,
lieaded by the secretary, Mr. William T. Simpson,
who read the following address:
"Bishops and Elders: As you are about to enter
this building, a house erected in which to worship
God, we, the Trustees, meet you at the door, and
with pride and pleasure present to you, by author¬
ity of the Board of Trustees, these keys. We would
that the founders of "old Union" were present to
witness this sight. They would admit with us
that the wall of prejudice, which has been so long
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 207
standing against a movement of this kind, was re¬
moved, and truly a new era had dawned on the
church. To-day we witness its dedication to God*
and the Bethel A. M. E. connection. And with the
keys surrendered to your hands, you have free ac¬
cess as ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ, under
the Discipline of the A. M. E. Church to enter the
pulpit of said church, and from whose sacred ros¬
trum dispense the Word of Life. The door of the
church is now open to you and we bid you wel¬
come in God's name."
WALTER P. HALL,
E. H. SCOTT,
WM. T. SIMPSON,
SMITH T. WRIGHT,
HENRY E. BROOKS,
JOHN FISHER,
JOHN R. THOMAS,
WM. T. BRYANT,
Board of Trustees.
Attest: William T. Simpson, Secretary.
The dedicatory sermon was preached by Bishop
Campbell, the ceremony of dedication was read by
Bishop Brown. In the afternoon Rev. W. B. Der¬
rick preached; and at night Rev. J. H. A. Johnson,,
of Baltimore. All of the sermons were spiritual
and inspiring. The collection during the day
amounted to $3,052.48, the largest amount of money
208 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
that had ever been taken up on one day in any
church of our denomination up to that time. I do
not think this collection was surpassed until Rev.
W. Sampson Brooks doubled it in a collection in
St. Louis, Missouri.
The preparation for the collection was built upon
the principles first employed by Rev. C. C. Felts
in Delaware, only I used the classic military for¬
mation of Right Wing, Left Wing and Center Col¬
umn, with a commander for each. This gave three
great divisions in the church and stimulated a
wholesome rivalry. I followed military customs
of publishing orders as far as I could without weak¬
ening enthusiasm. The conference of 1884 found
us in our new church and I could but feel that it was
the Lord's doings. Seeing myself dangerously near
the pit as conference adjourned in 1883, I had
thrown myself wholly upon God for guidance and
strength and He had brought me to the conference
of 1884 with a "new song in my mouth," and I felt
■"my goings" were established. Praise the Lord!
One of the methods of determining the progress
of a church is to note the returns of the collec¬
tions. The amount of money contributed from
month to month is quite significant as to the at¬
tendance and interest. By this standard we may
read the progress of the church, as follows: First
month, $61.11; second month, $128.10; third month,
$80.85; fourth month, $75.57; fifth month, $96.83;
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 209
sixth month, $91.44; seventh month, $64.48; eighth
month, $76.43; ninth month. $183.32.
Up to this, January 8, 1884, we were receiving
our regular collections and doing nothing in a spe¬
cial way. No subsequent month ran quite as low
as the first month, although several ran only about
three dollars above it. These figures represent only
the money handled by the trustees, and do not ac¬
count for the finances of the stewards. The amount
-collected was ample for the running expenses of
the church, furnishing light, fuel, sexton's pay and
organist's allowance.
But what was of more importance than the out¬
ward or material prosperity of the church was the
spiritual activity and growth within the church.
Our congregations had become large and our ser¬
vices were attended with manifestations of the Di¬
vine presence. Numerous conversions took place,
■among them some who became very active in after
years, notably Rev. Julian C. Caldwell.
The conference of 1884 was held in Chambers-
burg, Pennsylvania, and was a very pleasant ses-
The report for trie year ending April 14, 1885, shows reeeipts $5,863,18
•and a payment of $2,500 on the principal of the debt, besides keeping up
current expenses and paying inierest. The Trustees Report for the yea
ending April 14, 18S6 is not in my possession. These Reports do not in¬
clude money raised by the Stewards for the support of the ministry and
^relief of the poor, nor that raised for Conference Claims.
210
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
sion. I took a very active part in its proceedings,,
introducing a resolution on divorce, and also as
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES OF
UNION A. M. E. CHURCH
To the Elder, Corporate Members and Members of the Quarterly1
Conference of said Church:
In submitting the usual annual statement of the financial trans-
actions of the trustees for the year ending April 14, 1884, we beg
leave to say that the year was a memorable one in the history of
the Union A. M. E. Church. One of the most important incidents
that occurred was the announcement by the Pastor, Rev. T. G,
Steward, of his desire and the opportunity of the church to purchase
the present location.
The growing necessity of a change of location was obvious to
all, not only for her future usefulness and prosperity, but even for
the retaining of her present position among her sister churches.
A movement of this kind, of so much importance and responsibility*
required great care and deliberation upon the part of the Elder
and the Board of Trustees. They did not desire to remove with
a bare majority favoring such action, as it was necessary, accord¬
ing to the Constitution of the Church, for a two-thirds vote of al!
the males of the Church. It was necessary to secure this vote
before definite action could be taken, for fear that any other
course pursued would seriously affect the enterprise at the very
beginning. This being accomplished, definite steps were taken to¬
ward carrying into effect that which was so plainly needed, a.
larger church. The voice of the members was almost unanimous
in favor of removal, and those who could not see their way clear
to vote for the proposed change, with becoming Christian grace,,
went with the crowd when the decision was rendered.
To God be all the praise and glory. We have had truthfully a
successful year in this branch of His Zion. We have abundant
cause for congratulation. Though unexpectedly. Rev. T. G. Steward,
was assigned to this church, yet his energies have been unceasingly
employed since he has been here to improve and elevate the char¬
acter of his people, to imbue them with proper conception of their
capabilities of doing good; to enlighten their minds, and to enlarge
their sphere of usefulness. If we continue to adhere to the rules
of right, keeping aloof from disturbing elements that distract and
destroy, we may expect our labors in the future to be as bountifully
blessed as our efforts in the past.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 211
chairman of the Committee on Education presented
a report on that subject which elicited much dis¬
cussion. The business done by the conference was
more in the nature of shaping the work for more
effective evangelism than for raising money for
specific objects. The spiritual feeling ran high and
the services were devotional, the preaching earnest
and scriptural, some of it characterized as of the
old-time Methodist sort.
Yet the people of these days gave willingly to the
lord's cause in proportion to their incomes. It
must not be thought that because we do not see
large sums reported in the financial tables that the
people had not learned to give. In 1871 the Phila¬
delphia Conference reported 7,305 full members who
paid for the support of their ministers and for the
general interests of the church $23,414.78, indepen¬
dent of what they paid for the current expenses of
their respective churches and for building and re¬
pairs. Up to that date and for some years later
there was no systematic method by which the tem¬
poral expenses of the church could be reported;
•and although the sums contributed were consider¬
able we have no reliable record of them. Later,
particularly after the General Conference of 1884,
this work was much more carefully done.
Bishop J. M. Brown, whose views of the episco¬
pal office had been expressed to me in his letter
referring to the dedication of the church in Wil-
212 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
mington, Delaware, mentioned in the preceding
chapter, on the opening of the General Conference
of 1884, delivered a sermon in which he said: "By
episcopacy we understand it to be that form of
church organization in which the chief ecclesiasti¬
cal authority within a defined district or diocese, is
vested in a Bishop having in subordination Elders
and Decons, and with the power of ordination."
He supported his views from quotations from Rich¬
ard Hooker and finally affirmed: "This confirms,
the position of the A. M. E. Church as to its dis¬
trict episcopacy."
The gist of the discourse met with very strong
opposition and some of its statements were openly
challenged as being out of harmony with our doc¬
trines and policy. The Conference finally declared
its position by adopting a set of resolutions which
have been published in the Discipline ever since.,
These resolutions expressed deep regret at some of
the dogmas preached in the discourse, and declared t
"That we recognize the two orders and the one
office in our church to be the regularly ordained,
ministry, and that we are satisfied with the ordina¬
tion of the same, holding it to be valid and true in.
every respect." "That there is identity between,
the Bishops and Elders or Presbyters; but as every¬
body must have a head, the bishops among us are
Primi inter pares—chiefs among the elders." Since*
that time the subject has not come up for action,.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 213
although district episcopacy, subordinate to Gen¬
eral Conference assignment has now become fully
established in the church. Those who took the lead
in having these resolutions adopted were C. S.
Smith and T. H. Jackson, the former now a Bishop,
the latter professor of theology.
My only connection with the General Confer¬
ence of 1884 was in the capacity of counsel for
Rev. C. H. Green who took an appeal to that body
against the action of the New Jersey Conference
by which he had been expelled. The appeal was
heard, and the case sent back for a new trial.
In the second year of my pastorate in Union
Church I encountered the usual vicissitudes; trouble
in the choir, and trouble among the local ministers.
The organist of our church was Miss Phoebe Har¬
vey, who afterwards became the wife of Mr. Samuel
J. Diton, himseslf also a lover of music and who
had studied the subject thoroughly in the IJniver-
sity of Pennsylvania. From this gifted and musi¬
cal pair came the accomplished musician. Mr. Carf
Diton who to splendid talents added long and pa¬
tient study both in this country and in Europe. F
need but mention here a physical collision which
took place between Mr. Diton, the father, and Mr..
Powell, the chorister, in the church on Sunday
evening, February 10, 1884. Although there were;
actual blows struck and some action on the part
of the church followed, and although explanations
214 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
and apologies were given, yet I headed the whole
affair in the notes which I made at the time as
"The Union A. M. E. Church Comedy." The or¬
dinary jealousy of rival male singers in the centre
of a corps of sopranos and altos, all more or less
attractive and insinuating, doubtless furnished the
casus belli. In preparing for the investigation I
put in among my precautionary notes: "We are
not to decide which is the better musician, or which
has the larger number of friends or larger amount
of influence." The tempest blew over and Mr.
Diton absented himself from the choir thereafter.
The choir generally was orderly and efficient, fur¬
nishing good special music, and leading the congre¬
gation in good old Methodist hymns to standard
tunes.
The conference of 1885 was a pleasant session
held in Wilmington, Delaware, presided over by
Bishop Cain. I served as secretary. A case of
importance came up from my church. Rev. John
E. Davis, a local deacon in my church had been
suspended temporarily, and disregarding his sus¬
pension, he had attempted to take part in the ad¬
ministration of the Lord's Supper. I was con¬
trolling the service and as he entered the chancel
unasked and seized the emblems and was proceed-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 215
ing to distribute them to the communicants, I im¬
mediately stopped the service and dismissed the
congregation. For his action on this occasion a
charge of insubordination was preferred against
him upon which he was tried, convicted and sus¬
pended from his office as Deacon. He therefore
appealed to the Annual Conference and the action
of the Quarterly Conference was sustained. The
result was that his office of Deacon was taken away
from him permanently, although his membership in
the church was not interfered with. Chagrined at
finding himself beaten in his effort to obtain vin¬
dication as he thought, he entered civil suit against
me and the church, demanding to have the effects,
of the church action set aside and have himself re¬
instated as a Deacon in the church. •
After many delays the case came finally to trial
in the court of Common Pleas with Judge Allison
presiding. After the argument the judge charged
that if any error had been committed in the court
of trial the appellant had failed to notice it, and that
as he had appeared and taken general defense it was
too late to bring up any faults as to notification, if
there were any. Davis had elected to run his course
of redress through the church and had gone as far
as he could go in that sphere. He could not now
begin another course through the civil courts. He
had the privilege of using either the church courts
or the civil courts; he had chosen the church
316 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
courts and had had the benefit of the church law.
The civil courts discovered no error in the church
proceedings and would not interfere. With state¬
ments substantially to this effect the case was dis¬
missed. Thus ended my second law suit; the first,
as has been related, for performing an illegal mar¬
riage, and the second for illegally removing a man
from his office as Deacon. These were the charges,
but in both cases the court decided no law had been
violated and certainly no principle of morals had
been infringed upon.
Our conference being held in the new church in
Wilmington of which the popular singing preacher,
the Rev. J. W. Beckett was pastor, was largely at¬
tended and called forth much public commenda¬
tion. From a long editorial in a journal of that
city 1 quote of date of May 23rd, 1885: "For the
colored race the era of Mumbo Jumbo, of fetich-
ism, and Voudouism has passed away, and the Af¬
rican has now asserted with the true logic of a true
premise, the rights to an equal recognition among
the Caucasian races. He has accomplished it at
last, not by any pitiful bending of the knees and
supplication for the inherent rights of all men to
be applied in the interest of his race, but has for
the last few decades been silently and industrially
working, until as was exemplified in this recent
conference, colored men stood up as leaders. In
all things that go to show scholarship, ready ora-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 217
tory, words to the point, clothing the most practi¬
cal and progressive theories in language, which for
beauty of expression and vigorous, scintillating ora¬
tory, it would be difficult to find anything su¬
perior throughout the land."
In my own church in Philadelphia a catastrophe
occurred which but for a gracious Providence
might have resulted in a grea.t loss of life. On
the Sunday of the conference while I was away,
the Odd Fellows assembled in the church for their
annual sermon which was preached by Rev, W. H.
Brown, of the Baltimore Conference. The build¬
ing was filled with an interested congregation;
the services were prolonged, and just as the people
had fully cleared the building with the exception
of Father Simpson and two or three others, the
whole ceiling, not merely the plastering, but tim¬
bers, girders, and joists, came down with a crash.
Had it fallen but a few minutes sooner, scores would
have been killed outright and perhaps hundreds
wounded. Here was another drawback. But the
basement of the church could still be used and after
thorough inspection the building was pronounced
safe and we immediately set to work to restore the
ceiling. Mr. Elias Chase took the contract and em¬
ployed as assistants my brother and two other men;
and in due time a ceiling was put up there that will
remain as long as the walls stand to support it.
During the campaign of 1884 when the contest
218 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
was so close between Cleveland and Blaine, I made
no speeches and took no specially active part. My
church work claimed all of my time and energy.
But while the question of determining- the final out¬
come of the election was pending, and much wild
talk was indulged in calling to mind the Tilden
and Hayes contest, I took occasion to speak on the
subject from my pulpit. The daily press reported
my discourse as follows:
"The Rev. T. G. Steward preached a semi-political
sermon in the Union African Methodist Episcopal
Church, Sixteenth Street near Fairmount Avenue,
last evening. Both the galleries and the spacious
body of the church were filled with the colored
congregation, as well as a number of white listeners
attracted by the announced nature of the address
and Mr. Steward's reputation as an original thinker
and speaker * * *
"He regarded the present situation as serious:
it requires but a spark to ignite the baser passions
and inaugurate riot and blood-shed in all the great
cities. He held that it was but the culmination of
the fatal surrender of 1876 when whole States
were given to the minority through fraud: when
open and bare-faced trading was indulged in, by
which the local governments were exchanged for
electoral votes in undenied defiance of the popular
will in three commonwealths.
"Mr. Steward said that he would not express any
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 219
opinion as to who was or was not elected in the
present presidential contest; he did not propose to
enter at all into that question, but believing that
public affairs were in a startling condition and that
it was the duty of the minister of the gospel to
warn and advise, he wished to recommend soberness
in discussion and expression; the avoidance of all
heat in argument and the cool, calm and patriotic
awaiting of the settlement of the election."
A few days after this sermon was delivered it
was decided that Grover Cleveland had been duly
elected President of the United States, thus bring¬
ing the old Democratic Party back into power. I
then took occasion to speak of the "Incoming Ad¬
ministration" and under the head of general city
news the Philadelphia Press reported my sermon
as follows:
"I am not one of those," he said, "who are ready
to throw up their hats and welcome the new comer
at Washington as a Savior. It is no new power,
but one which we have known for fifty years and
which breeds nothing within me but fear. The
Democratic Party is the party of the old slave
holder; and in it I have no confidence. It is a party
of assassination. It is estimated that it has mur¬
dered at least ten thousand men for nothing but
their political opinions. It has not only murdered
individuals, but governments as well. It is no new
South, but the same old South. The Government
220 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
has been handed over from the North to the South r
and the Democratic Party may as well acknowledge
it.
"They of the South have one hundred and fifty-
two electoral votes based upon murder, intimida¬
tion and fraud; and this gives them their power.
And then they talk of giving us an administration
of justice and morality! The duty of the colored
people is to remain firm in their devotion to the
principles of the heroic men who did so much for
them. We can afford to wTait. This is only a
temporary chastisement. We are too far along in
civilization, too far along in freedom, too far from
slavery, for power founded on such a basis to con¬
tinue.
"Two results have been predicted of Democratic
success in the South—by Tourgee a war between
the races followed by segregation or extermina¬
tion : while others predict a happy era of peace.
My acquaintance in the South has taught me that
a majority of the colored people are not satisfied.
I do not believe everything is so safe as many
imagine. The colored man is not the forbearing,
lamblike creature he appears to be. The day is
past when the Negro will be all the time yielding.
Reaction has set in and the Negro will ultimately
determine to maintain his rights even by force if
he must."
The above report of my discourse gives only a
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 221
faint notion of the whole address, as the paper used
only that which would conform to its own scope
and policy; and only so much of it as it could
afford space to print.
The winter of 1885-86 saw our church in a gen¬
erally prosperous condition, with large congrega¬
tions, flourishing Sunday school and many conver¬
sions. Bishop Wayman visited me in the midst of
our great revival and preached three times on Sun¬
day with remarkable effect. The spirit of the Lord
seemed to fall upon all present; ministers and people
were on their feet praising God and shouting, while
tears of joy were streaming down their faces. Our
congregation was a mixed one. white and colored,
but they were worshipping in the unity of the Spirit.
It was during this revival that a brilliant student
of the Normal School was deeply convicted and
was seeking relief and was urged to trust herself
entirely in the hands of Jesus. By the aid of the
Holy Spirit she did so, and soon experienced the
wonderful joy and peace which come through
faith. With a beaming face she broke out in rich¬
est notes: "Oh, it is grand to be trusting." As I
had known of her struggle in seeking for this
height, I wrote the following lines :
"Suggested by the conversion of a young lady at
Union Church on Monday night, February 1, 1886,
whose first words were, 'Oh, it is grand to be
trusting.'"
222 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Oh, it is grand to be trusting!
Trusting my Savior and King;
Oh, it is grand to be trusting!
Now to His praise I will sing.
Oh, it is grand to be trusting!
My burden has all rolled away
Oh, it is grand to be trusting!
My night has all turned into day.
Oh, it is grand to be trusting!
My heart is now free from all sin;
Oh, it is grand to be trusting!
And Jesus now reigns within.
Oh, it is grand to be trusting!
Grander than tongue can express,
Oh, it is grand to be trusting!
And to feel that Jesus does bless.
Lord, help me to be ever trusting!
Trusting while life shall last,
May Heaven's gates be reached—still trusting!
And trusting the portals be passed.
And in Heaven, forever trusting,
May I stand with the Glorified throng!
And still in the grandeur of trusting,
May I help swell redemption's sweet song!
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 223
During my busy pastorate here I published my
first effort in the domain of theology. It was a
small pamphlet of eighty-five pages specially deal¬
ing with problems in eschatology, and was entitled
"Death, Hades and the Resurrection." I printed
only a thousand copies and these all got away from
me so quickly that I sought for years to obtain a
single copy for myself, and it was not until 1919
that I succeeded. Small as the work was, it
brought forth encouraging commendation. It was
pronounced "fresh, impressive and suggestive" by
so good authority as the Zion's Herald, of Boston.
At the suggestion of Bishop Campbell, I followed
this with another pamphlet on the "Divine Attri¬
butes." This too was quickly sold out, leaving me
without a copy for myself, and up to the present I
have been unable to procure one.
My next step in the literary field was to publish
a more pretentious book on Genesis, Calling it
"Genesis Re-read." The press received this very
kindly, especially the Philadelphia Daily Press; the
conservative Public Ledger commended it as not
having "a dull p'age in it, and as giving evidence
of diligence in study and of acquaintance with the
leading writers on the subject." The Inquirer said,
"The work is done skillfully and evidently by a ripe
student both of theology and science," but the note
I prized most of all was from the thorough-going
Methodist paper of the evangelical type, the Phila-
224
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
delphia Methodist. That paper said, "The author
of this book, Rev. T. G. Steward, is evidently a man
of superior culture, thoroughly posted in the liter¬
ature relating to the subject on which he writes,
capable of grasping and developing its great truths,
and withal wielding a ready and graceful pen. Sel¬
dom have we read a book of two hundred and fifty
pages in which so much matter was crowded as is.
found in this book, and especially put in such a form
as to rivet the attention of the reader throughout,,
and often really delight him with the beauty of its
diction and the eloquence of its sentences whilst it
sweeps away all his doubts, if he ever had any, and
forces on him the conviction that its arguments are
unanswerable."
Yet this book after an edition of only one thou¬
sand copies was exhausted, and I may say quickly
exhausted, was allowed to drop out of print. Why?
Lack of enterprise on the part of the Publication
Department at that time. Of this book also I ob¬
tained a copy only through a friend long after the
edition was exhausted.
My pastoral work in Union Church terminated
in the spring of 1886, at which time I was trans¬
ferred to the Baltimore Annual Conference to as¬
sume the charge of our Metropolitan Church in the
city of Washington, D. C. The church and con¬
gregation were generally well reconciled to my
leaving, as they regarded it as an enlargement of
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 225
my work, and a further recognition of the pro¬
priety of their own appreciation. Also they were
to have in my stead the Rev. C. T. Shaffer, after¬
wards Bishop, who Was very acceptable to them.
The change was thus made with the best of feel¬
ing all around. Good judgment and divine grace
earnestly invoked by both the appointing Bishop
and Presiding Elders and by the Church and Pas¬
tors, will always prove sufficient to effect necessary
changes without ill feelings, certainly without the
rupture of peace and good will.
The Philadelphia Conference unanimously by a
rising vote adopted the following highly flattering
resolutions. The reporters headed the resolutions
as "complimentary." I am gratified to have them
in my record as the testimony rather to the good
will of my people than to my merit.
"Whereas, we the members of the Philadelphia
Annual Conference have learned of the intention of
the Bishop to transfer the Rev. T. G. Steward to
the Baltimore Conference, be it therefore resolved
that in taking leave of Dr. Steward we beg to bear
witness to his strict integrity of character, his
broad intellectual acquirements and his fearless de¬
votion to the right as it presents itself to him.
And be it further Resolved, that we ask for Dr.
Steward, on the part of the Baltimore Conference, a
226 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
reception altogether in keeping with his lofty char¬
acter.
(Signed) "B. T. TANNER.
"L. J. COPPIN,"
Whether influenced in any measure by these res¬
olutions or not the Baltimore Conference accorded
me a most gracious reception and elected me as
one of the delegates to the General Conference of
1888.
COMMON PLEAS COURT
Room A, No. 1—President, Judge Alison
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ex John E. Davis, vs.
The African Methodist Episcopal Union Church, T. G. Steward,
Pastor, and the Quarterly Conference of said church. The plaintiff,
Mr. Davis, was a deacon in the church defendant, the church
"building being situated on Sixteenth Street, below Fairmount
Avenue. In November, 1884, he was suspended from Office and
the present suit is a mandamus proceeding to compel the church
authorities to reinstate him on the ground that the charges pre¬
ferred against hi m were frivolous, and that the defendants had
wholly failed to follow the rules as laid down in the Book of Dis¬
cipline of the church. The defense was that the charge against
the plaintiff was for insubordination; that the defendants proceeded
regularly in accordance with the rules; that the plaintiff had taken
an appeal to the Annual Conference, the highest ecclesiastical
tribunal in the church open to him, and that body affirmed the
■decision of the Quarterly Conference, which had been addressed to
JVIr. Davis.
Jury found for the defendants.
CHAPTER VIII.
DEDICATION OF METROPOLITAN CHURCH:
Pressing Debt—Large building, small membership. Spiritual peo¬
ple—Representative congregation—Excellent choir — Community-
work. Frederick Douglas' confession of Faith. General Con¬
ference of 1888—Much discussion—Combinations Bishop Turner
and organic law. J. M. Henderson and the Ritual. Colored schools
in Baltimore—Isaac Myers—A white man and his colored daughter
in courl
The Conference of 1886 was held in the Union
A. M. E. Church, Sixteenth Street, Philadelphia—
my church. At its close my connection with the
Philadelphia Conference was severed for the third
and last time. I had been honored by the Con¬
ference by being elected to the General Conference
of 1872 and 1880, had been tendered an election
by the New York Conference to the General Con¬
ference of 1876, but had declined. I had never
been a candidate for anything. I was now trans¬
ferred to the Baltimore Conference and appointed
to the most important charge in that Conference
and to the most conspicuous church in the denom¬
ination—the Metropolitan A. M. E. Church, in
Washington, D. C.
The Rev. G. T. Watkins had been pastor imme¬
diately preceding my appointment, but the elab¬
orate dedicatory services and exercises were in
228 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
charge of Rev. B. W. Arnett. financial secretary
of the church, and Rev. James A. Handy, presiding
elder of the district. I arrived oh the ground
early, in company with one of my sons, leaving
the remainder of my family in Philadelphia. My
family remained especially to witness the gradua¬
tion of my oldest son James from the Institute
for Colored Youth, then under the guidance of
Mrs. Fanny Jackson Coppin. My wife had said
to me: "I want to see my first-born graduate."
And so I moved my family out of the parsonage,
rented a house and fitted it up as best we could
to occupy it only a couple of months. James was
Valedictorian of his class and delivered an oration
on "Mind," ending with a beautiful and touching
valedictory. The commencement occurred June
30th, 1886, and soon thereafter the whole family
joined me in Washington.
The dedicatory services occupied Sunday and
all of the week following : during which time I re¬
mained a silent observer and an earnest student.
The Sunday following I began my administration
and soon discovered that my task was a heavy
one. The church was in debt; the creditors im¬
patient; and the congregation not wealthy, nor of
the extraordinary self-sacrificing class. During
the dedications large subscriptions had been an¬
nounced totalling about $12,000 and this had been
published in such a way as to lead creditors to
J. A. SIMMS
Efficient Secretary of Metropolitan
Church
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 229
think the money was on hand. Early Monday
morning after my first Sunday's labors, my troubles
began, and for two eventful years they kept up.
Creditors harrassed me in person and by letter
for what was justly due them, and the church kept
diligently at work, and kept on paying its debts
with commendable zeal; but some of the debts
were ageing although diminishing, and creditors,
though courteous, were nevertheless importunate.
I found ministerial duties more difficult to per¬
form in Washington than in Philadelphia; the peo¬
ple were more exacting in their demands for pas¬
toral visitation; the funerals were frequent; and
I experienced some embarrassment at times when
on being almost peremptorily ordered to attend a
funeral, to find when I arrived on the ground one,
two, or even three other ministers who had been
summoned in like form. Socially the people are
freer than in Philadelphia.
My church was made up generally of a highly
intelligent class of people; government employees,
business men, professional men, school teachers and
persons of character and literary taste. Of course
all were not up to this standard, but many were.
We had a goodly number of common laborers,
washer-women, servants of all grades, and a few
mechanics. Our church was not exclusive, but a
fair representative of real democracy. The congre¬
gation was remarkable for its warm, loving spirit.
230 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
There was unity, because there was oneness of
spirit. It was simply glorious to preach in such a.
church building to such a warm-hearted, co-opera¬
tive people.
I took charge of the Metropolitan A. M. E-
Church, Washington, D. C., on the second Sunday"
in June, 1886. directly after the close of the elab¬
orate dedicatory exercises alluded to. I should
say, that in these exercises during the week-day-
evenings speeches were made by Honorable John
Sherman, Honorable Robert Smalls, Frederick
Douglass and others of sufficient public standing to
be invited to a place in the great program. On the
Sunday of dedication sermons were preached by
Bishop Payne, Bishop Singleton T. Jones, and Bish¬
op Campbell. My remark made of the church,
written not long after assuming charge, was to
the effect that I found the finances in a most con¬
fused condition, and a board of trustees lacking in
business methods. The debt of the church as I
figured it out was about $51,000.
During my two years there, from the spring of
1886 to the spring of 1888, I managed to raise
enough money to meet our enormous expenses and
to make material reduction of the debt. But the
success in debt-paying was not phenomenal. I am
sure it did not meet the expectations of many on¬
lookers who, seeing our congregation increase and
knowing that it included many of the leading people
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 231
of the city, wondered why we could not raise more
money. The explanation was easy when one got
into intimate relations with the situation. Our
building was large, comfortable, beautiful; our ser¬
vices were interesting and orderly; we had a mag¬
nificent organ, a fine choir, an expert musical di¬
rector, and it came to be the proper requisite to go
to the Metropolitan Church on Sunday morning.
Here, too, came the visitors who happened to be in
the city: thither came Frederick Douglass, the larg¬
est figure among the colored people of the city—
indeed of the country. Our congregation was large,
influential, imposing: but our actual church mem¬
bership was small. These visitors and friends con¬
tributed in the general collections, of course, and
contributed liberally; but they did not accept the
debt as their debt. Mr. Douglass was a regular and
liberal contributor in many ways—giving his mon¬
key, his presence, his influence and his public ser¬
vices freely in aid of the church. Still we did not
raise large sums of money.
Having noticed Mr. Douglass in my congregation
regularly, and his serious demeanor always, I
thought proper to address him a letter. I had
heard that he was not a believer in Christianity;
and it was further said by some that he had little
respect for ministers or religion. My letter called
forth from his great soul a confession of faith
which is so characteristic of the man that I prefer
232 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
to insert it in the text of my book without the al¬
tering of a word, rather than to put it in a note.
Here it is:
Anacostia, D. C., July 27, 1886.
"Rev. T. G. Steward.
"Dear Sir: In response to your respected letter
of yesterday, I have to say, without circumlocution
or concealment, that I care less for names, hard or
soft than for things; less for forms than for sub¬
stance : less for professions than for practice; less-
for sectarian creeds than for manly character. I
have frequently heard myself called, in anything
but an amiable spirit, infidel, atheist, and disor¬
ganize^ by ignorant men, inside and outside the
pulpit, who really did not know the significance of
the epithets they applied to me, and yet I have
never heard such men quote one sentence or sylla¬
ble from any writings in proof of the justice of
charges so noisily made.
"I do not wonder, therefore, in view of the fre¬
quency of such utterances, you should be surpris¬
ed to find me a regular reader of your church or¬
gan, a supporter of your church over which you
preside. My line of conduct in this matter is not
determined by my approval of the theological dog¬
mas often promulgated from the pulpit. In respect
to many of those dogmas I should, perhaps, differ
very wideh' from yourself and others, while I yet
find ground entirely satisfactory to my judgment
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 333
and conscience for contributing my mite to the
•treasury of your church, and that of others.
"You, yourself, in asking for contributions last
Sunday stated in theological form the philosophi¬
cal ground upon which, in this respect, I justify
my conduct. You called upon us to give for the
glory of God and for the good of man: and in giv¬
ing, I did both. As to my infidelity, so-called, it
has never denied any attribute of the Deity. To
me, God is good! God is light! God is truth! God
is love! and to glorify God is to lead a life in
harmony with these attributes. In this respect
man is related to his Creator as the watch to its
maker. A watch glorifies its maker when it an¬
swers the end of its manufacture, which is to keep
good time—always to be true, and never to be
false in its measurement of time. As God is true,
I would have man true! As God is holy, I would
"have man holy! As God is pure, I would have
man pure. An unclean man in body or mind does
not glorify his Maker. He may sing praises to
the Lord and call himself a Christian, jbut Jhe
"brings no glory to the Lord, no good to his fellow
man. Christianity is nothing to me, except as it
•stands as the representative of the sigh of the
soul for a noble life; for herein is the true glory
■of God.
"Now looking at the church, apart from what
is purely theological and abstract, I see in it
234 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
means of promoting honorable character and con¬
duct; and, as I have said, for this reason, I con¬
tribute my mite towards its support.
"I have still another reason for this action,
though not one of equal weight with that al¬
ready given. It is because I would have colored
people enjoy advantages for assembling themselves
together, for moral and spiritual improvement,
equal to those enjoyed by others.
"A large, commodious and well-appointed church,
in pulpit, choir and architecture, is attractive to the
people who assemble, and commands respect from
the outside world. The African Methodist Epis¬
copal Church (the name by the way is altogether
too long and stilted for my taste) is such a church,
and therefore, I want to see it flourish.
"I notice what you say of the Bible, but I have
neither time nor inclination to go into questions in
respect of its plenary or other inspiration; for if
it contains the will of God to man, it is vastly
more important to know what that will is, than to
know precisely how that will has been communi¬
cated—whether by man or by angels, by voices m
the air, or by the out breathings and higher aspira¬
tions of the human soul. For. if the Bible con¬
tains the will of God to man, it contains it in that
sense in which God meant it to be understood, and
in no other; for it would be absurd and monstrous
to suppose an all-wise God to reveal His will and
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 235
His law in a sense in which He did not mean to
"be understood. Hence, as a practical man, I hold
it to be much more important to know what the
Bible really means, than to know how it was com¬
posed, and what degree of inspiration we shall ac¬
cord to it. And here we are met by a confusion
of tongues, and by endless contradictions, each
rman and sect drawing from it that meaning which
commends itself to his or her judgment, and a
purely human judgment withal. Whether this in¬
terpretation be for peace or tor war, for love or
;for hate, for charity or for bigotry, for men of all
races and colors at the same communion table, or
-whether it excludes a part and sends it off to a
little kind of kitchen communion table by itself,
like your church—whether the Christian religion is
for one race, or for all races; whether free salva¬
tion or predestination, is the true meaning of the
Bible; whether the Roman Catholic Church is the
true Church, or the innumerable Protestant sects,
constitute the true Church. About these and other
•endless contradictions I might write interminably,
but I lay them aside in that spirit of charity which
leaves each to stand or fall to his own master, and
justify myself in contributing my mite to the sup¬
port of your church and the other individual
-churches, because, upon the whole, I think they
contribute to the improvement and moral eleva¬
tion of those who come within the reach of their
236 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
influence; because I hold that the pulpit is capable
of being a powerful agent in the dissemination of
truth, and I hold that truth is the power of God.
for the salvation of the world, and I do not limit
truth to mere spiritual matters, but to man in all
his relations in the family, in the church, in the
government, in the world.
"Very truly vours,
"FREDERICK DOUGLASS."
The number of members reported to the Confer¬
ence in 1887 was 523, full members, with 97 proba¬
tioners ; a church with a seating capacity of about
two thousand with a membership' equal to filling
about one-fourth of its seats when all are assem¬
bled is a burden to carry. Of the five hundred and
odd members it is hardly probable that more than
three hundred and fifty would be in church on any
Sunday morning, hence it could be seen easily that
our congregation ranging from 800 to 1,000 was.
made up largely of non-members.
For myself my stay in the Metropolitan Church
was most happy. I received into the church one
hundred and thirty-two persons on profession of
faith, mostly young persons from our own congre¬
gation and Sunday school. Among these were
Laura Wilkes, later becoming a successful teacher
and author, Laura and Nettie Arnold; Lillian B_
Cross; John W.. Cromwell, distinguished author
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 237
and publicist; W. H. Dawley, a well-known teach¬
er; and W. H. H. Hart, the lawyer.
My report to the Conference of 1887 shows that
our collections for the year amounted to $4,175.12,
but the running expenses of the church had been
$1,444.06 aside from some repairs which had 4o be
made on the property of the church. Then, we
paid during that year $940.00 interest, which left
us about $1,800.00 from collections to pay on the
debt. From rents ($608), entertainments ($1,623.-
12), church clubs ($304), from the South Arkansas
Conference, Bishop T. M. D. Ward ($50), we de-
sufficient additional funds to reduce the debt from
$51,000 to $47,000, paying off about $4,000.
While living in this city and serving as pastor of
this great church, my wife's mother, Mrs. Martha
Gadsden, died in her native city, Charleston,
S. C. In all her life she had never been out of the
city except to near-by points. Her passing away
caused great grief to our household. A brief ser¬
vice was held in our own house, as it was impossi¬
ble for my wife to go to the funeral. Comforting
words were spoken by Rev. James A. Handy, who
led in the devotions. News of the earthquake in
that city had sent a severe shock to us before the
sad message of death came. Of the demise of Mrs.
Gadsden, it may be written: Her end. was beau¬
tiful and triumphant.
238 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
A gracious revival occurred during the winter of
1887-88 in which I was assisted by that great evan¬
gelical general, Rev. Theodore Gould. Brother
Gould was not a great preacher but he was a man
of supreme common sense and great spiritual power,
of deep convictions and of unfaltering courage. He
abounded in tact and skill and never allowed a
meeting to fail. In our revival work, what was
most unusual was that we were effectively assist¬
ed by the choir—not so much as an organization as
in its individual members. I could mention several
by name but shall name only our sweet contralto,
Mrs. Tyree, who sang with so much feeling: "I
left it all with Jesus, long ago." The thrill returns
as I recall from memory the happy conversions of
that wonderful revival. Many who came in then
Tiave already gone forward to that home beyond the
river.
My activities were not confined wholly to church
work. The Ministers' Union, composed of all the
colored ministers of the city, placed me at its head
and on the termination of my pastorate, that body
put itself on record in a most beautiful testimonial,
speaking of me as having "been a felt power in the
community in every good word and work" and
stating that I had been untiring in my efforts to
promote the welfare of the Ministers' Union in
making its influence felt for good in the National
Capital."
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 239
Having my own sons in the schools, one as-
teacher, others as students, it was but natural that
I should be interested in the city schools. Two of
my sons graduated from the High School and after¬
wards entered Philips Exeter for one year, subse¬
quently entering and graduating from Harvard.
The older at the time of this writing, is a success¬
ful dentist in Boston; the younger, a prominent
lawyer in Pittsburgh, and one of the electors on
the Presidential ticket for the State of Pennsyl¬
vania. It was in Washington that the plan of their
education was decided upon by the whole family—
myself, wife and oldest son all concurring. Not
expecting to leave an estate in material value, I
determined to give my sons that which I thought
would be worth more. In this view I was more
than seconded by their mother.
I visited Mrs. Tyree at her home in Anacostiar
from which, after a long illness, she took her
flight to the home above. When I saw her she
had closed up everything earthly and was only
waiting for the swinging low of the Jheavenly
chariot. Two days after my visit it came for her
and she was carried to take her place in the choir
that sings the song of Moses and the Lamb.
The spring of 1888 carried me to the General
Conference which met in Indianapolis. Here I
was called upon to take a very active part in the
discussions as I had decided views on certain topics.
240 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
My positions were rather negative than positive.
First I was opposed to the adoption of a ritualistic
service which would involve the reading of the Ten
Commandments every Sunday, the recitation of the
Apostles' Creed and other things of that kind. It
was not that I was then or am now opposed to an
order of service more or less ritualistic, but that
I was and am opposed to incongruity. I knew our
whole trend had been in the line of free and simple
methods, and that this attempt to convert the
church into the cathedral type could but result in
confusion. Men standing up with surplice and
gown calling people to come to the table and put
their money thereon, employing iests, provoking
laughter; people sitting stock still in their seats,
lazily and listlessly singing the "Gloria Patri,"
drawling over the Commandments, grouping three
or four of them together to make one response
cover all—these are some of the events I foresaw,
and some that I have seen. And as to the reading
of the Psalter, it fared so badly that it soon dropped
out altogether.
But the main question in the General Conference
of 1888, as in that of 18S0 was the election of
Bishops. In 1880 Bishops Turner and Cain were
elected as representatives of that great body of
ministers and members who had entered the church
in the South Atlantic States since 1865. It was
now time that some of the real sons of that sec-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 241
tion, some of the new men themselves, who had
developed power and leadership should be elevated
to the bishopric. I had especially advocated this
course and had championed the election of Rev. W.
J. Gaines, of Georgia. By my contributions to the
Christian Recorder I had won to his support many
able men of the North and West, although for my¬
self I had determined never to enter any combina¬
tion or caucus arrangement intending to control
the selection of men to fill the offices of the church.
In February, 1888, two months before the sitting
of the General Conference, Brother Gaines wrote
me that he had arranged with Rev. A. Grant, of
Texas, Rev. Scipio Robinson, of Georgia, and others
to make me, as he said, "Editor of the Christian
Recorder." He further said the proposition "would
be supported by the South," naming, especially,
""Georgia, Florida, Texas and Arkansas." Although
Gaines and Robinson were among my warmest
friends and the position of editor quite to my liking,
I could not persuade myself to join what I regarded
as an improper combine and replied that I pre¬
ferred not to be named for the place. In a few
days I received a second letter on the same sub¬
ject in which Brother Gaines endeavored to over¬
come my objections and argued that we should
have an understanding which in meaning was about
the same only it might be dignified as "a gentle¬
man's agreement." After affirming the necessity
242 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
of such a measure he added: "I repeat this to you
with great earnestness: Let's have an understand¬
ing. We have full control of the matter now; all
we need is to hold it."
Events proved that this forecast was exact, but
I preferred not to step on board. As Napoleon
missed his destiny at Acre, so I missed mine at
Indianapolis; but I missed mine with eyes wide
open and willingly—not wilfully. The desire to be
a bishop in the African M. E. Church never re¬
mained with me one hour in my life. The idea
has risen in my mind and the desire has kindled,
but before it could send forth light, much less any
heat, the irksomeness and responsibility of the posi¬
tion coming in at the other door of thought, would,
extinguish it leaving neither steam nor smoke, no
not even coal or cinders. Yet the bishopric in our
Church is a much greater office than any man wha
has yet served in it. "God give us men!"—Big
enough to fill the episcopal chair even of our own
humble Church!
The election at the General Conference proved
that Brother Gaines' letter clearly and truthfully
portrayed the political situation of the church. He
was elected bishop on the first ballot running far
ahead of any competitor and receiving just two
votes more than he had anticipated. Following him,
in the same ballot with just a bare majority came
Rev. B. W. Arnett. Subsequent ballotting elected.
BISHOP W. J. GAINES
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 243
Rev. B. T. Tanner and Rev. Abram Grant. I may-
add that all of these, save the feeblest one of the
quartette have passed on to their rest. Rev. B. T.
Tanner, who for years before his election had not
been in good health and never could have been class¬
ed as robust, still lives (1920), while Gaines and
Grant, both vigorous and of large physical endow¬
ment, have long since finished their earthly course
and gone above. The bruised reed has outlived the
sturdy oak. Thus have I observed it in so many
■cases. The man whom "nothing hurts" usually
succumbs early, while he who gets sick easily holds
on his way and like the righteous often "grows
stronger and stronger."
On the second day of the Conference I offered
the following Preamble and Resolutions:
"The Following Preamble and Resolutions were
offered by T. G. Steward:
"Whereas, since the last General Conference
final proclamation has been made of the accomplish¬
ment of the union between the African Methodist
Episcopal Church of the United States and the
^British M. E. Church of Canada and the West
Indies, and
"Whereas, Delegates from the Conferences lately
•composing the British M. E. Church appear here
duly accredited to this body, and
"Whereas, Bishop Disney, formerly Bishop of
that Church, has been freely and fully recognized
244 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
by the Bishops of the African M. E. Church, and
has been associated with them in Conferences in
the United States, and Bishops of the African Meth¬
odist Episcopal Church have been recognized in
Conferences formerly belonging to the British M.
Y. Church, therefore be it
"Resolved by this Nineteenth General Conference
of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and
First General Conference after the union thus re¬
ferred to:
"1. That the present African Methodist Episco¬
pal Church of the United States and Canada is the;
legitimate successor of the African M. E. Church
of the United States and the British M. E. Church
of Canada, and that the union between the two.
bodies has been satisfactorily accomplished, in ac¬
cordance with the provision of the agreement.
"2. That we hereby pledge ourselves to stand
by this action and to regard the matter as settled j
and we shall feel it our duty to defend, by all hon¬
orable and Christian means, the integrity of the
Church as thus united.
"3. That all questions as to property, or as to.
the status of individual churches, are referred to>
the Annual or Quarterly Conferences where such-
differences may arise, and that the General Confer¬
ences ought not to pass upon such matters only as,
they may come before it in the regular way, after
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 245
all local remedies shall have been exhausted.
"THEOPHILUS G. STEWARD."
A. M. Green moved to refer the resolutions to
a committee consisting of one member from each
Episcopal District, upon which remarks were made
by A. R. Green, J. W. Early and C. S. Smith.
J. G. Yeiser moved to amend by striking out the
words "One from each Episcopal District/' and in¬
sert the words, "One from each Annual Confer¬
ence."
The motion of Brother Yeiser prevailed.
The subject matter coming up again, the Resolu¬
tions were called for as it is shown here from the-
minutes:
"Dr. W. D. Johnson moved that it be the sense
of this General Conference that the Bishops and
Commissioners of both Churches have complied
with the rules, and that therefore the union be¬
tween the A. M. E. and the B. M. E. Churches was
truly consummated."
B. F. Watson moved to lay Dr. Johnson's motion
on the table. Carried.
Brother A. J. Carey moved that we hear from the
Special Committee on Dr. Steward's Resolutions
concerning the union with the B. M. E. Church.
Carried.
The Committee reported as follows:
"Committee Room. May 11, 1888.
"To the Bishops and Members of the General Con-
246 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ference in session in Bethel Church, Indian¬
apolis, Ind.:
"Dear Fathers and Brethren: We, your Com¬
mittee, to which was referred the resolutions of
Dr. T. G. wSteward relative to the union of the A.
M. E. and B. M. E. Churches, after several vain
attempts to satisfy ourselves upon the subject mat¬
ter referred to us, submit the following- resolution:
"Resolved, That it is the sense of this Committee
that there appears to be something existing- which
gave rise to the resolutions offered by Dr. Steward
which should claim the attention of the General
Conference, and we therefore recommend that the
matter be investigated by the Conference.
"Signed in behalf of the Committee.
"I. N. FITZPATRICK, Chairman.
"Richard Harper, Secretary."
After long wrangling the resolutions were adopt¬
ed by a vote of 186 to 64.
On a question of admitting the lay delegation
from the North Georgia Conference, Rev. W. D.
Johnson claimed that the delegates had not been
elected according to law, and that the North Geor¬
gia Annual Conference had refused to enter their
names on the list. He read the resolution of the
Conference affirming that they had not been elected
by ballot as the law prescribes. The Conference
minutes say: "Great confusion followed his re¬
marks. The Conference became uncontrollable."
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 247
On motion of A. W. At water, adjourned.
When it re-assembled the minute's record: "Dr.
T. G. Steward made an able appeal to the Confer¬
ence for better order. Dr. Derrick read a resolu¬
tion in regard to better jorder in the future."
(Gen. Conf. Min. p. 26.) When the case came up
again Dr. Derrick spoke in favor of admitting the
delegates; Dr. T. H. Jackson spoke against their
admission on the ground that the method of the
law had not been followed." I argued that it was
not a question between contesting delegations, and
this was not in the nature of a contest. These men
had been elected and if not seated the North Geor¬
gia Conference to that extent would be deprived of
representation. It was these delegates or no dele¬
gates: and there was nothing to overthrow their
claim to some right to seats here as representatives;
of their Conference; and there were no other per¬
sons present or elsewhere who could show any
right to such sea.ts. The vote was taken resulting
in 132 in favor of their admission to 38 against it.
Immediately after announcing the result the fol¬
lowing resolution was offered and adopted:
"Resolved: That the members of the General
Conference who voted for the seating of the laymen
of the North Georgia Conference, who though
elected, acknowledged that they were not elected
by due form of law, disavow any intention to the
248 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
establishment of a precedent, as all delegates
should be elected uniformly by ballot.
"C. T. SHAFFER,
"J. W. BECKETT."
When the question of the ritual service came up
a strange thing happened. The measure was in¬
troduced by Rev. J. C. Embry, afterward Bishop
Embry, who was at that time manager of our
Publication Department. He was a man of ripe
experience, having served as Financial Secretary of
the Church, a writer of considerable ability, a stu¬
dent and a forceful and logical speaker. He had
prepared a neat order of service, which had work¬
ed its way into use and was acceptable to many.
He wished it adopted in form as it was, and wished
it made the regular order of service in all of our
congregations. The committee had accepted his
recommendations and reported in favor of its
adoption.
Dr. Embry supported his views in a very strong
speech, free from all bitterness and abounding in
both logic and love. Bishop Payne followed ad¬
vising that the ritual service be adopted just as the
committee reported it. Bishop Campbell express¬
ed himself as not unfavorable to the measure but
advised against making the service a part of the
law and consequently "binding upon all." Broth¬
ers Jenifer and Hayne sided with Doctor Embry.
Doctor T. H. Jackson spoke against the section, as
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 249
I also did in a few closing remarks of the debate.
I had spoken at length against the proposal at the
opening of the discussion. The printed record
reads as follows:
"R. Knight moved to extend the time fifteen min¬
utes. On a decision, the vote stood, yeas 40, nays
123.
"The motion to strike out Section V. was not
carried."
It is very difficult to correct a record as old as
that of the General Conference of 1888 and at pres¬
ent I am unable to substantiate my view by evi¬
dence as the documents consisting of reports made
by newspaper correspondents who were on the
ground were lost in the recent destruction of my
home by fire. My memory has always been faith¬
ful and the Baltimore Sun, whose correspondent
was very attentive and very accurate will show in
its report of the summing up of the discussion
words just about in this form: "Neverthless Doctor
Steward was successful and the section was strick¬
en out."
Not long after this event I wrote in a very ani¬
mated controversy with the versatile and able J.
M. Henderson the following statement:
"Coming to the General Conference of 1888 an¬
other direct effort was made to so amend our rules
of worship as to admit the order of service which
the bishops had prepared by the authority of the
250 Fifty Yeats in the Gospel Ministry
General Conference of 1880, and which Dr. Embry
had printed in such general good form. The ef¬
fort was supported by high influence by charming
eloquence, for I doubt if Dr. Embry ever made a
sweeter speech than he did on that occasion, bar¬
ring the few unfortunate personalities, and by solid
argument: What was its fate ? The proposition was
rejected by such a decided No! that its friends never
thought of asking for a decision."
Had I been wrong in this statement, my wide¬
awake opponent would have convicted me at once
of unpardonable ignorance or shocking mendacity.
The plain, simple fact is that Section V. which in¬
cluded the special ritual was not adopted. This
was done on the morning of May 22nd, 1888, and
when the Conference assembled in the afternoon
the journal was not read and the election of gen¬
eral officers began at once. The next morning
the minutes were read and approved and Confer¬
ence went at once into the election of Missionary
.Secretary. The error may have been in the record
at the time. The direct vote to adopt Section V.
was lost by a very decided majority, no division
being called for. No man was more interested in
the matter than I was and none better assured as
to its final disposal; and the historian who follows
the record in this particular, although justified,
nevertheless will be in error. Forunately the mat¬
ter is of minor importance.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 251
The most important measure of the session so
far as our own polity was concerned was brought
in by the introduction of a resolution by Rev. W.
H. Heard to the following effect:
"W. H. Heard offered the following substitute for
the whole:
"Be it enacted that the General Conference shall
be composed of the Bishops, one ministerial rep¬
resentative for each twenty-four full members and
each Annual Conference with less than twenty
members shall have but one ministerial and one
lay delegate; provided that any and all Confer¬
ences entitled to two or more ministerial represen¬
tatives shall have but two lay delegates."
This was offered as a substitute for an amend¬
ment previously offered by Rev. S. H. Jefferson
which made no material changes in the law*, mere¬
ly determining the ratio of representation. The
substitute was immediately tabled on motion of
Rev. W, H. Hunter. The question of the composi¬
tion of the General Conference was then open to
full and free discussion, and I took the floor and
argued against the General Officers being ex-officio
members of the General Conference on the ground
that it practically continued the existence of the
Conference from session to session, and made these
General Officers most important members of the
body that appointed them and to which they were
to report; that in a modified sense they appointed
252 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
themselves; reported to themselves; and passed
upon their own work. They should not hold so
important a standing in the body to which they
were amenable. I was followed on this side of the
question by J. E. Hayne, A- W. Lowe and A. M.
Green: opposed by B. F. Lee, C. S. Smith and Alex¬
ander Clark. My motion to exclude the General
Officers from the composition of the General Con¬
ference on the ex-officio basis was passed by a vote
of 101 to 55.
The question was settled by the General Con¬
ference but not by the church. Bishop Turner be¬
came the champion of the unseated General Offi¬
cers, and I became the target. I had now two ac¬
tive controversies on hand: the question of the
ritual in which Rev. J. M. Henderson was keeping
me busy with arguments which I had to answer;
and the General Officer question in which Bishop
Turner was assailing (my position by "sea and
land" with considerable verbiage and some argu¬
ment.
To give an idea of the Bishop's fulminations I
will present to the reader verbatim extracts from
my replies.
The Bishop argued that to eliminate the General
Officers from the General Conference was to
change the organic law of the church and that this
could not be done without the consent of the whole
church. My reply to this argument is seen in the
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 253
following article published in the Christian Re¬
corder :
"The question as to who determines the compo¬
sition of our General Conference has been brought
forward with great prominence in the utterances of
Bishop Turner with reference to the action of the
late General Conference. Without attempting any
reply to the aspersions which that otherwise
quite able article contains, I beg leave to direct at¬
tention to the main question rather than to follow
the extended details which make up the Bishop's
article.
"Before doing so, however, I beg to remark that
I consider a bishop as much bound by the law
which prohibits 'inveighing against either our doc¬
trines of our discipline as any other member of
the church. I do not consider though that either
this law or any other law, is intended to prohibit
the respectful criticism of any action of the General
Conference, or the free discussion of any church
law. My contention is that under it no one is
licensed to malign the General Conference as a
whole, or speak evil of any of its members. And
bishops above all others should avoid giving coun¬
tenance to a course at once so disorderly and in¬
jurious.
"The General Conference of 1888 did proceed in
a lawful manner to define by law who should com¬
pose the General Conference and did accomplish
254 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
its purpose. That action is as much law as any-
other of its acts. It was accomplished without
even a protest, and so stands upon the record; and
I know of no Supreme Court that can set it aside.
The action, therefore, whether wise or unwise, is
law, or there is no law in the church.
"The only restrictions upon the General Confer¬
ence are those expressed in the Discipline. I doubt
if the General Conference has ever recognized con¬
structive restrictions; it certainly has never recog¬
nized the conjectural restrictions referred to by
the Bishop.
"The distinction between the General Confer¬
ences prior to 1868 and those since, is theoretical,
ideal, and even logical; but it has been practically
and consistently ignored; so that it has no existence
in the history of our church legislation. The pow¬
ers of the General Conference and the restrictions
of the General Conference were the same before
1868 as they have been since. Practically the body
has been the same, although its compositions have
been different.
"Great stress is laid upon the fact that the new
law does not provide for the ex-officio membership
of persons described as general officers ; and it is
asserted with great apparent earnestness that this
cannot be done notwithstanding that it is done.
Even this action, however, is no new thing; I re¬
member quite distinctly that the General Confer-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 255
ence of 1868 legislated one H. M. Turner out of a
standing membership, and legislated one T. G.
Steward into a delegated membership. The form¬
er did not cry over lost rights, and the latter
did not shout over privileges gained. Both seem¬
ed to think it a matter of course and right. I
beg to insist that the General Conference of
1868 claimed no rights not claimed by the Gen¬
eral Conference of 1888; and yet it legis¬
lated men out of a membership of over a
half-century's standing—a membership not founded
upon the accident of office, but upon age and ex¬
perience in the ministry. I would also remark that
the General Conference of 1868 at its commence¬
ment was a partially delegated body, and after the
admission of the many delegates from the Southern
conferences it was largely a delegated body; and
it was this General Conference, composed partly
of members by virtue of age; partly of lay dele¬
gates ; and partly of a very respectable number of
delegates from the new conferences, which mark¬
ed out the composition of the General Conference.
"With all these facts in the case, it seems strange
now that any one should be found willing to call
the General Conference before a court and with
great solemnity inform it that its action is null
and void. It may be perfectly proper for a Bishop
to pronounce thus upon church laws and his own
church-legislators; but when the full harvest of
256 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
may expect to reap a share in the evil and only-
evil of which it will consist."
The Bishop added to the work of his pen that of
his voice in making fiery, denunciatory speeches
before the Conferences during which I came in for
a good share of open attacks. The Bishop was an
effective speaker, and when aroused could reach
eloquent heights and it was not difficult for him
to win popular support. The momentum gather¬
ed by more than fifty years of movement on the
line the Bishop favored, could not be completely
annihilated and reverse motion set up within a few
months. Before the General Conference of 1892
assembled those of the Conference of 1888 had
figuratively repented in sackcloth and ashes, and
as for me, the Baltimore Conference in 1891 de¬
cided that my views and connection with this sub¬
ject and others, rendered me unavailable as a dele¬
gate.
I wrote a reply to the substance of the Bishop's
speeches but did not publish it because it was de¬
cided that the controversy had run its course and
further discussion would be profitless.
"It is worthy of note that the most important
change ever made in the constitution of our church,
a change which affected, not only one part of the
General Conference, or one class of its members,
but which dissolved into nothingness the previous
method of making up the General Conference and
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 257
method of making up the General Conference and
constituted that body thereafter according to an
entirely different plan, and upon an entirely dif¬
ferent principle—a change equivalent to a revolu¬
tion was accomplished by an unwritten motion of¬
fered by the late William Mooore, and adopted by
the General Conference of 1868; and this revolu¬
tion has been thoroughly concurred in for more
than twnty years, though never thoroughly sanc¬
tioned by any congregation, quarterly conference,
or annual conference, in the church. Nor indeed
was it ever submitted to any such body for ratifica¬
tion."—Ouarto-Centennial Address of T. G. Stew¬
ard, Charleston, May 17th, 1890, Quarto-Centennial
Budget.
Concluding my two years as pastor in the Met¬
ropolitan Church, I was sent to Bethel Church,
Baltimore, remaining there until the Spring of 1890.
Bethel Church, situated on Saratoga Street, Balti¬
more, was a notable building. It had been erected
during the pastorate of Daniel A. Payne and re¬
flected his intelligence and taste. When I assumed
pastoral charge it had been so surrounded in rear
and at the sides by other buildings that the light
was partially shut out, and the heavy ornamenta¬
tion on the gallery fronts, and the large columns
added still more to the internal obscurity. Never¬
theless it was a beautiful and spacious building of
the established churchly type, made to worship in,
258 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
rather than for holding mass meetings.
The congregation was well organized and most
thoroughly grooved. To every proposition they
had a reply beginning with: "We always do, etc.,"
and which meant so far as the proffered change
was concerned, "We will always continue to do,
etc."
As superintendent of the Sunday school I found
a man extraordinary in many respects. By trade
he was a caulker : he had served in the Post Office
Department as an inspector; was a superb detec¬
tive ; had been employed in the U. S. Revenue
Department, and was a well-equipped business
man. This was in the days when typewriters were
few, and Isaac Myers, the man of whom I speak,
often spoken of as "Colonel Myers," was a fine
penman, an expert and accurate bookkeeper, and
an organizer of surpassing genius. His Sunday
school was the Sunday school of Baltimore. He
wras not a teacher; but he could get the people
there, arrange them in proper groups, prepare the
material, look after the finances, and then prac¬
tically say to the pastor: "Now here is everything
to your hand." There seemed no disposition on
his part either to oppose or ignore the pastor. He
was not spiritually minded or poetical, but he was
singularly practical and efficient in the sphere with¬
in which he voluntarily limited himself. Bethel
Church in the eighties was very much what Isaac
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 259
Myers determined it to be.
I should add that but a few years later this old
Bethel Church awoke from its past enthraldom
and turning its face toward the future took a for¬
ward bound as startling as it was grand and states¬
manlike. A church-building of commanding loca¬
tion and ample capacity was purchased and the-
congregation which had so long hesitated before
the faint steps becoming to a people of moderate
ability dared to assume the role of an organization,
of giants, and giants they proved themselves to be.
The people of Baltimore, although not noted for
literary activities, have nevertheless been long dis¬
tinguished for business tact for industry and thrift,
and for enterprise generally in economic life. They
maintained good homes, knew how to make money,
and how to organize. Hence should there appear
among them a leader with sufficient wisdom not
to offend their local pride, and with a purpose
which would appeal to their deeper sentiments and
a courage which would inspire concerted action,
they were capable of accomplishing great things.
Such a leader came to them in the person of
Bishop Coppin, who was of them, and who was-
endowed with both courage and skill. He induced
them, speaking after the manner of the times, to
shout from the deep springs of an awakened en¬
thusiasm : "Baltimore uber alles!" and led them
into the possession of that great building, the oc~
260 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
cupation of which opened a new era in our work
in that city.
To maintain the social ground thus won until
the congregation had recovered breath and develop¬
ed strength for further advancement, Revs. D. G.
Hill, W. H. Fickland, L. S. Flagg and J. W. San¬
ders labored earnestly in the church up unto the
coming of the flood tide of war money when the
Rev. William Sampson Brooks was called to the
pastorate. These aforementioned faithful minis¬
ters served as effectually in building up the church
and giving momentum to the general enterprise as
did those others upon whom the crown of public
praise has been bestowed. And I am sure none of
them will wish to dim one laurel upon the brow of
either Bishop Coppin who inspired the purchase of
the building, or of Rev. William Sampson Brooks,
under whose ministry the great debt was paid off.
The raising of near one hundred thousand dollars
among the colored people of Baltimore by that
devoted servant of God was the last turn of the
key which unlocked the door opening to the bishop¬
ric for Doctor Brooks. It was the crowning act of
a brilliant pastoral career. Thousands doubtless
are praying that the same measure of success, the
same rich showers of blessings may accompany
him in his great field in Africa whither he has gone
as Bishop, bearing precious seed, and from which
he will doubtless return rejoicing and bearing his
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 261
sheaves with him. May the God of all Grace pros¬
per his labors, preserve him for years of usefulness
and enrichen his soul from that bounteous store
that never exhausts.
The schools in Baltimore, during the period of
my pastorate were very poor so far as they made
provision for colored children. There was one
school supported by the Friends in which colored
teachers were employed which was respectable, but
which did not go far on the highway of learning.
It, however, inculcated good manners and good
morals and thus contributed an important share in
the well-being of the community. The public
schools supported from the general school fund of
the city were the poorest I had met anywhere.
The teachers were uniformly white and perhaps
as uniformly unfit for the positions they held.
To illustrate the character of the schools I will
relate a Christmas experience which came to me
while living in that city. I had two small boys
attending a school in Saratoga Street taught as I
recall by Mr. Savalle, principal, with two ladies,
assistants. The principal was one of those "finish¬
ed products" who had learned nothing in a score of
years, and the assistants were in all respects fit
to be his associates. I called to the school to see
how the teachers and children would welcome the
arrival of Christmas. The school-building had a
kind of balcony extending from its second story and
262 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
on this I found the big, fat principal and his two-
assistants. The small school yard was completely
enclosed by a high board fence and was paved
with brick. This was the children's playground.
As I entered I found these teachers on this bal¬
cony with a pail of cheap candy throwing it down
on this dirty brick pavement for the children to
pick up, and the children, even mine, were scramb¬
ling for it. I was so incensed that I immediately
extracted my two boys from the crowd of innocents
and with a look of as much scorn as I could com¬
mand, and I know not what, words, sent my boys
home, while I went directly from this scene to the
Mayor's office. I related to the Mayor just what
I had seen and my story appeared to take proper
effect.
A new school house for colored children was
building and it was said that in it the experiment
of colored teachers was to be tried. In my ser¬
mon, Avhich the newspapers reported, I said that
trying the experiment as to colored teachers was
just as necessar}' as it was to try whether the gas
supplied by our city would burn. The building was
finished and although Baltimore was gone over
carefully and assistance was sought and obtained
to prepare persons for examination, there could not
be found eligibles enough in the whole city to
supply this one building requiring only about a
dozen teachers. The Board of Education then
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 263
paused to await instruction from the colored people.
In a conversation with one of the leaders, when
this situation had arisen, I remarked: "I can have
the teachers here within twenty-four hours."
"Where can you get them," said he. "I cannot
get them in Baltimore, that is certain," I remarked.
He then said with great feeling: "Before I would
agree to have teachers come here from Washing¬
ton or Massachusetts to teach here over the heads
of our girls, I would go back under the same old
white teachers, and stay there forever." And here
the conversation between him and me on this sub¬
ject ended forever.
The following incident will illustrate something
of the hidden things in Maryland:
One day while walking along the streets in Bal¬
timore, I observed a policeman with a white man
of middle age in custody, accompanied by a young
colored girl, and also by a colored woman of rather
striking appearance. A small crowd was follow¬
ing them. My curiosity was aroused and without
asking questions I decided to follow likewise.
The policeman with his prisoner, followed by
the woman and the girl finally entered a magis¬
trate's office, and thither I entered also. As the
matter was explained I learned that the woman was
a keeper of a house of prostitution; that this white
man had brought this young girl there; that the
girl had manifested unwillingness; and that the
264 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
woman, although following such an abandoned
course, was touched by the girl's aversion and
had assured the girl that she should not be com¬
pelled to submit to the man's desires. This led to
the call of the police and to the arrest. She re¬
lated all this to the judge, the prisoner not re¬
futing any of her statements.
The girl was then questioned by the judge and
gave her answers in a straight-forward and modest
manner. Asked as to how she became acquainted
with the man she replied:
"He lives with my mother." Her appearance
was such that it doubtless had something to do with
the next direct question which the judge put not
to the girl but to the lecherous culprit: "Is she your
child?" The judge looked squarely at the biped,
and he with a baboon grin replied: "They say so."
The judge was evidently disgusted; but there
seemed to be no statute under which the prisoner
could be held. The fellow, assuming an air of dis¬
courtesy, the judge fined him five dollars for con¬
tempt of court, and reluctantly dismissed him, to
go on his way of debauchery and incest.
While very little change of any sort was made in
the church while I was pastor, I did succeed
in attracting the attention of the public press to
the extent of getting reporters to the church; and
also here I established Old Folk's Sunday. But
sickness overtook me here and reduced me to a
ISAAC MYERS
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 265
very low state; and from the latter part of 1889
up to August 1891 my health was very poor. I tried
to serve Mount Pisgah Church in Washington, and
Water's Chapel in Ealtimore; but was not able to
accomplish much. I was carried through this pe¬
riod of great weakness by the untiring devotion
<of my noble wife and the faithful and loyal aid of
:my growing sons. Thus closes twenty-seven years
in the regular pastorate of the Church during which
-period I had accumulated much experience, acquired
some knowledge of men, and had learned how to be
"happy most of the time whether abounding or in
want. Above all I had learned how to lean upon
'God.
CHAPTER IX.
APPOINTMENT AS CHAPLAIN IN THE ARMY:
Recommended by Honor,ables B. K. Bruce, John R. Lynch and1
John Wanamaker. With the regiment in Montana—Reception—
Col. George L. Andrews, Mrs. Andrews—Refused admission to
a hotel dining room—Protests—Commanding officer's attitude—
Settled. Regiment ordered to mobilize for Spanish-American
War—Recruiting—Montauk Point—Denver. Special order to write-
history of the colored regulars. Ordered to the Phillipines.
Early in 1891, I was visiting at the home of Rev.
Francis Grimke, who had been for years a devoted
friend, and to whose fervent piety and exalted
character it is a delight to bear testimony when
Hon. John R. Lynch called on Doctor Grimke also.
After some conversation Mr. Lynch remarked:
"Well, this may be Providential. I came here on
purpose to talk with Doctor Grimke about Doctor
Steward, but now that I meet you both together
I will say in Doctor Steward's presence what
I had intended to talk with Doctor Grimke about."'
He then said there was a vacancy in the army for
a colored chaplain and that I might fill it if I
would accept it. I proposed that Doctor Grimke
should take it; but he positively declined, urging
that I should take it. I then said to Mr. Lynch:
"I do not dare refuse it for it may be the Lord's.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 267
way to provide for me. But I must consult my
wife before I can give you an answer." He then
said that if I wished the place I must meet him
at Mr. Bruce's office the next day at eleven o'clock.
My feeling was that my wife would object, but
after prayer over the matter she decided that this
was probably the Lord's way. On meeting Mr.
Bruce I was affected by the warmth of interest
manifested by him. Taking me by the hand, he
said: "I know it is said Take no thought what ye
shall eat or what ye shall drink or wherewithal
■shall ye be clothedbut men do think about such
things, and I want to see you fixed for life where
you will not have to care for the wherewith to live."
That he should thus concern himself about my wel¬
fare impressed me deeply. He had already secur¬
ed a place for my son in one of the schools, and
was concerned now, about me. It was thus that
John R. Lynch and Blanche K. Bruce tendered me
their influence and aid, requesting only that I
should not breathe the matter to a soul, only as
they should direct, which request I faithfully ob¬
served. With their permission, and upon their
recommendation I laid the matter before Hon. John
"VVanamaker, then Postmaster-General, who had be¬
friended me before, and who knew me well. Mr.
Wanamaker joined my other two patrons and this
great trio secured for me my appointment as
-Chaplain of the Twenty-fifth United States Infan-
268 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
try, the second colored chaplain appointed in the
regular service.
Assurances were given me that I should enjoy
perfect freedom in preaching the gospel as I un¬
derstood it; and on July 21, 1891, I accepted the
appointment and was soon on my way to join my
regiment then stationed in Montana. Ignorant of
army ways beyond what I had learned by observa¬
tion during the closing days of the Civil War, I
arrived at the headquarters of the regiment at
Fort Missoula, on the 24th of August. I expected
no favors, and merely wrote to the Adjutant what
time I would arrive, stating that I would thank him
to make temporary arrangements for my accommo¬
dation. I was greatly surprised when I arrived to
find the Adjutant at the depot with a buggy, an
ambulance, and an escort wagon, with two men
in it, besides the driver. Provision had been made
for myself, family and baggage, but I was alone,.
with no baggage beyond a hand-bag and moderate
trunk.
On arriving at the post I was informed that T
was to take breakfast with the Colonel. This was
altogether surprising to me. I made my toilet as
rapidly as I could, and was scarcely through when
an officer, lieutenant, came bearing the first military
message I had ever received, running somewhat
in the following form: "The Commanding Officer
sends his compliments to the Chaplain and informs.
COLONEL GEO. L. ANDREWS
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 269
that breakfast is served." Promptly I responded
and breakfasted pleasantly with Colonel George
L. Andrews and his highly accomplished and ami¬
able wife. On leaving the breakfast I was in¬
formed of the hour for luncheon and affably com¬
manded to return for lunch. Meanwhile my
trunk was still on the side-walk in front of the
coloners house; my grip was at the Adjutant's;
but I had already reached the mental position that
my course was mapped out by competent author¬
ity, so I said nothing and asked no questions.
On coming to luncheon I noticed that my trunk
had been removed, but I ventured no remark or
inquiry. After luncheon the Colonel, leaning back
in his chair remarked dryly: "Well, I suppose you
would like to know Avhat has become of your
trunk."
"If you please," I replied.
"Come with me and I will show you."
I followed him up stairs and into a large, well-
furnished room, when showing me my trunk he
said: "There is your trunk; this is your room.
Come and go as you please. If you do not find
here all you want, ask for it."
In the afternoon the Colonel's wife took me
into the town in her carriage, introduced me to the
merchants as the chaplain of the regiment, be¬
speaking for me their confidence. The Quarter¬
master was directed to show me the quarters which
270 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
were open to my selection and to put in order those
that I should select. The members of the garrison
-came forward to lend me any household goods I
might need for use until mine should arrive. Al¬
though enjoying the Colonel's hospitality, I set up
housekeeping as soon'as possible, employing a sol¬
dier's wife as cook and housekeeper.
When my family arrived the Colonel's wife gave
.a dinner in honor of the new addition to his staff
at which all the staff and fiel^ officers were present.
In going into the dining^oom the Colonel took my
wife on his arm, and Mrs. Andrews went on my
-arm. My wife was seated at the table on the
Colonel's right, and I was seated on the right of
Mrs. Andrews. I take pains to detail this that the
reader may appreciate the character of my intro¬
duction to the chaplaincy of the Twenty-fifth Infan¬
try, under its noble commander.
Colonel George L. Andrews was a man of com-
.manding appearance, with a sonorous voice, an ex¬
cellent administrator, regardful of the welfare of
the men in his command, strict as to the matter of
discipline, impartial and just in all his actions. He
was temperate, and enforced respect for morality
.and religion, in a quiet and effective way more by
example than otherwise. He had a Civil War
record and when I arrived at the post was nearing
Jiis retirement age. He had been abstemious and
iiad laid up for himself a good basis for the years
MRS. ANDREWS
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 271
which might come after leaving the active ser-
■'-'ce. As a matter of fact he survived his retire-
'ment tjwenty-eight years, dying at the age of
ninety-two.
Mrs. Andrews was the daughter of General H.
K. Oliver, the composer whose name appears in so
many of our church hymnals. He gave us "Mer-
ton," and perhaps, above all, our "Federal Street.'*
The daughter was a lover of music and flowers.
She played the organ at our services, was loved
by the men, and she was very proud of them in
return. She had had long experience in frontier life
and knew how to make the most out of her sur¬
roundings. She was an earnest Christian. Both
she and her husband danced, usually leading the
"Hops," but the Colonel always went about it as
discharging cheerfully a "military duty," while Mrs.
Andrews in the same manner fulfilled her social
obligations as head of the post circle. The first
invitation given to my wife to appear at anything
social was from this First Lady, and it included the
prescription that ladies were to appear without
hats and with gloves. I remember how I felt a
slight tremor when the delicate proffer was made
to lend my wife anything she might need to wear.
Later, I found that borrowing and lending with the
old thoroughbred officers of the army went on
with but little limitation. My big coffee pot did
service whenever and wherever needed. The
272 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
friendly helpfulness of the old officers of the
Twenty-fifth, I speak from experience, was abun¬
dant yet delicate. When my great afflictions came,
men said to me: "Do not embarrass yourself; here
are ample funds. You have our sympathy and our
aid to the full." Captain Glenn, now Major-Gen¬
eral ; Captain Edwards; Captain Loughboro; Cap¬
tain Wilson, all of whom attained honorable careers
and due promotion, and Major Chambers McKib-
hin, whose generosity endeared him to me for
life—these were some of the men who made the
Twenty-fifth so highly esteemed by me. Of course
there were others. Of the younger men, I could
not forget young Lieutenant McCorkle and his en¬
gaging wife, the daughter of Major Ritzius; Mc¬
Corkle who sang so sweetly: "Flee as a bird to
your mountain"; and who traveled with the pall
of death hanging over him from Missoula to Chat¬
tanooga when our regiment was called into the
war with Spain; McCorkle who fell pierced to the
heart by a Mauser bullet while bravely command¬
ing his company before El Kaney. Then I recall
the many virtues of Lieutenant Vernon Caldwell,
.and recall also the many pleasant evenings spent
in his bachelor's quarters while he related the story
of a recent hunt or a fishing trip. And later there
came Lieutenant Colonel A. S. Daggett, a prince
among men.
But if we had noble officers we also had men of
CHAPLAIN T. G. STEWARD
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 273
high character in the ranks. Men, six feet tall,
soldierly from top to toe. Men with no guard¬
house record; men whose word was everywhere
good. Sergeants, corporals and privates by the
score, who obtained excellent discharges—soldiers
worthy of the Nation. Thus I might go on and
fill pages, but space will not permit and I must
return to my story.
Soon after arriving at the headquarters of the
regiment I remarked to Mrs. Andrews that I had
not expected any such treatment as I had received ;
I had expected merely to be shown the quarters I
was to occupy. With all earnestness she replied:
"Well, that would not have been very Christ-like."
Her religion was of the practical sort, seeking to
contribute to the comfort and happiness of others.
I arrived at my post in August and in the follow¬
ing April Colonel Andrews took formal leave of the
regiment going into retirement. The parting scene
was deeply affecting. Many an old soldier wept
as he shook hands with his old commander. Nor
was the Colonel himself entirely unmoved. Indeed
real tears were shed by both officers and soldiers.
It was a beautiful sight to see these men, clad in
the paraphernalia of war, hardened by years of
service and discipline, giving way to the finer feel¬
ings of their nature, and manifesting a friendship as
tender and rich as can be found anywhere in Amer¬
ican life—officers and soldiers, white and black, all
274 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
swayed by a common emotion and mingling their
tears in a common regret. Colonel Andrews had
been with the regiment over twenty-one years and
as he now received the final salute of the officers
on parade with choked utterance and voice shak¬
ing with emotion he remarked: "That is all, gentle¬
men." Colonel Andrews, a typical American gen¬
tleman and soldier, a useful object lesson for the
youth of the Nation with his noble consort. May
their virtues long live in their descendents and
their memories be green for generations!
My work among the soldiers grew more inter¬
esting daily. I became possessed of the army spirit
and identified myself with its discipline and training
as well as with its out-door life. I learned how to
camp out, and to hunt. In Western Montana we
were in the region of the deer, the bear and the
coyote and bob cat. I have seen both coyote and
bear within the limits of our post. I never hunted
big game, however, although bear and deer were
often killed by members of the garrison and not
infrequently venison and bear meat was served to
us as compliments. I limited my ambition to phea¬
sants, prairie chickens, and grouse. Of these I
shot many. My sons developed into disciples of
Walton and kept us well supplied with fish. The
clear mountain streams which ran down into the
rich valleys of that region were then, and I pre¬
sume are now, stocked with beautiful, gamey,
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 275
speckled trout: and their waters soft, cool and ex¬
cellent for drinking.
For my readers I must condense an account of
one out of several interesting hunting trips. Our
party consisted of myself and four sons, a corporal
and three privates. We were furnished with one
four-mule team, one spring wagon with two mules,
and we had one saddle pony. We had also tent
-equipage, rations and camp furniture. Our leave
was for fifteen days, during which we traveled
about 320 miles, shot 28 grouse, and caught 327
trout, not counting other game and fish. We went
through the Flathead Indian Reservation, stopping
at the famous St. Ignatius Mission (Catholic) ; we
crossed the beautiful Flathead Lake and made our
way northward as far as to the little town of Kalis-
pel, passing through the settlements of the Flat¬
head Indians, and also of the Kootenai Tribe. We
returned by nearly the same route that we had
taken in our outward journey. We left on the 8th
of August and returned on the 23rd, just before the
time for the rains to begin. During our whole trip
we had no rain whatever. In that part of Montana
one could count on dry days from about July 1st
to August 24th.
There were disturbances in the mines in Idaho,
in the Coeur de Lene region which became so se¬
rious that our troops were ordered there to pro¬
tect life and property. Then came the Coxey
276 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
craze, when a large disorderly mass of the so-
called Coxey Army was moving through our
neighborhood creating alarm, and some of our
troops were ordered out to enclose these and hold
them in check temporarily. They were corraled
and guarded and taught something of camp life,
until the fever by which they were infected sub¬
sided—I mean until the mental hallucination by
which they were affected had passed away, and
they could be trusted to go on their way as ration¬
al being. But most serious of all during that pe¬
riod was the Pullman railroad sympathetic strike
in 1894. This cut us out of mail for about eigh¬
teen days. It came just as the berry crop of the
Bitter Root Valley was reaching its full harvest
and for eighteen days not a car moved from Mis¬
soula, the 'outlet for the ivalley. The cities of
Butte, Helena and Phillipsburg, which would have
taken all of these berries at a fine price, were cut
off; as a consequence I saw the finest berries
going at five cents a box, with crates offered as
low as fifty cents. This was a serious loss to the
farmers of that section, and a loss which they
were illy prepared to stand. Also there were
trains delayed on the railroads filled with pas¬
sengers who were suffering all sorts of incon¬
veniences. Bridges were set on fire and dyna¬
mite was used. Again our small but efficient reg¬
ular army came to the rescue. Our regiment
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 277
guarded the high trestles, and the threatening tun¬
nels, leaving their comfortable barraks and camp¬
ing along that great trans-continental highway,
the Northern Pacific Railroad. I preached to our
men while they were so encamped.
Finally the Government took charge of the road'
and trains were run by the military, the soldiers
from one department guarding the trains and pat¬
rolling the road until they were relieved by sol¬
diers from another department. Thus at great,
risk and amid real dangers, traffic was slowly re¬
stored by the ever-ready American soldier.
On the return of our troops to the post after-
their service along the railroad the following or¬
der of appreciation was issued:
"Fort Missoula, Mont., August 9, 1894.
"ORDER NO. 81:—In view of the return of the1
troops who were detached from this post to pre¬
vent obstruction and resistance to the laws of the
United States by railroad strikers and their sym¬
pathizers, the Commanding Officer deems it just
and proper to convey to the officers and men so
engaged his keen appreciation of the satisfactory
manner in which they have conducted themselves,
not only as well-disciplined soldiers but as patri¬
otic citizens of this country. Their fidelity, pa¬
tience and courage under trying circumstances
278 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
are a lasting credit to themselves and to the serv¬
ice of the United States.
"By order of Colonel Burt.
"H. A. LEONHAEUSER, Adjutant."
In this work the Twenty-fifth Infantry took its
full share and won fine complimentary orders from
its commanding officer: And—That Is All. This
service valuable and heroic as it really was, was the
soldier's matter of course duty, for which no medals
are given no reward or recognition placed to his
credit. The whole nation reaped the benefit of the
fidelity of our soldiers of the West at that time,
and the Northern Pacific Railroad especially, but so
far as I observed no increased consideration was
given to the men in blue who delivered them.
While on duty in Fort Missoula, I occasionally
preached in the churches in the city, and up the
valley, especially at a place called Lolo, and it is
remarkable that while many of the settlers through
this region were men who had served in the Con¬
federate Army or their relatives and children, or
as some described them, "'The left wing of Price's
army who had escaped the surrender," they were
very cordial to me. I have eaten in their homes
and at their general tables in basket meetings in
the woods. Many of them seemed devoutly pious.
It is also proper to remark for the credit of the
men of the Twenty-fifth that although they were
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 279
stationed here for ten years and women traveled
these mountain roads on horseback or in buggies,
these mountain women always regarded the sol¬
diers of the regiment as their protectors. They
were always relieved to see our men in blue.
My usual work on Sunday was to visit the hos¬
pital and guard house in the morning after guard-
mounting; to visit any in the garrison who might
be sick, as well as any soldiers who might be sick
in quarters, to distribute any reading matter I
might have to the men in the barracks, visiting
the companies for that purpose. Afternoon we
would hold Sunday school for both children and
adults; at night we would have general service
for both officers and men. The officers and their,
families attended quite generally and their fam¬
ilies, with the wives of some of the soldiers> took
special interest in the singing. Beside the little;
cabinet organ we frequently employed some of
the band instruments. I also, while here, gave
two courses of lectures on European history to
the ladies of the garrison.
The year 1893 must stand in my history as the
year of deep and harrowing grief; for in it I was
forced to give up my oldest son, the one who
graduated, from the Institute for Colored Youth in
Philadelphia in 1896. Not long before his death
he wrote these pathetic and forecasting lines;
280 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
"'Tis death. And what is death? Canst thou tell?
A separation. Well, of what, and why?
Is it the soul has loosed its carnal bounds
And gone to nobler, broader realms on high?
If so, 'tis well. But why? That there for aye
It may its powers employ. Sensations which
On earth it could not feel, in heaven it kens,
And knowing grows; and man—'that soul—be¬
comes
xAlike to His creator. This is death!
"And this its reason clear. Then it is not
A dreadful termination, but of hope.
And joy. Yet Nature ever fears a step
Which disenthrones her; ever hopes that she
May claim man's homage undivided. She
Th' inevitable dreads."
He passed away and was buried in the Gould-
town Cemetery, Rev. Francis J. Grimke, of Wash¬
ington, D. C., officiating on the occasion, and de¬
livering a most comforting discourse.
Only a few months after the death of our son,
the mother, who had nursed him in his illness as
only a mother could, heard the summons from the
Land of Peace and Rest. Quietly submitting she
gave up her children, saying she hoped to be
"Only remembered by what she had done," and
calmly entered into rest sending out her last mes-
MRS. ELIZABETH G. STEWARD
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 281
sage to the absent ones of her household in the
words: "Tell them to look to Jesus!"
My son Theophilus Bolden, who was then four¬
teen years old, expressed the feelings and describ¬
ed the sad event in the following lines:
"I turn once more to look upon her,
Fading now away so fast;
Her work is done, her race is run,
She sweetly sleeps at last.
"She was indeed, my only friend;
In time of grief or joy.
Her voice of music had no end,
For she loved her merry boy."
About the time our soldiers were concluding
their tour of duty in guarding railroad property
as I have mentioned in the railroad strike and as
traffic was slowly becoming normal, Chaplain I.
Newton Ritner, who was stationed at Fort Keogh,
Mont., was passing through our section and took
occasion to stop over in Missoula principally that
he might have an interview with me. He had in¬
formed me, by telegraph of his coming and where
I might find him. Accordingly, at the proper
time I called at the Florence Hotel, where he was
staying for a short time, and was invited by him
to take dinner with him in the dining room of
282 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
that hotel. What followed will be better under¬
stood by the reader from the correspondence here
inserted. The first letter is to the Helena paper,
which perhaps might be regarded as the represen¬
tative paper of Montana; the second was pub¬
lished in the Missoulian local daily and headed
"An Able Protest." Both articles appeared about
the same time, August 10, 1894. To the Helena
Journal I wrote:
"To the Editor:
"While the soldiers of my regiment were per¬
forming the most trying duties in the highest pos¬
sible manner, protecting the lives and property of
citizens and preserving the peace generally, es¬
pecially in and near the town of Missoula, I re¬
ceived a telegram from Chaplain I. Newton Rit-
ner, of Fort Keogh, that he would arrive in Mis¬
soula on the evening July 25. He did so, and took
rooms at the Florence Hotel, whither I went to
call on him at my earliest convenience.
"As he had but a few hours to stay in the town
and particularly wished to converse with me, as
I did also with him, he kindly invited me to stay
and take the evening meal with him. I consented
and dismissed the conveyance I had, expecting to
remain with him some time. As we left his room
to supper, or dinner as it seems to have been, he
left me to go to the office to make the necessary
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 283
arrangements, and what immediately followed I
will allow him to tell in his own words.
"He says: 'Upon reaching the desk, I said to
the gentleman in charge 'Will it be necessary to
register the name of my friend, Chaplain Steward,
before we go to the dining room? He will take
dinner with me.' He replied that he (the chap¬
lain) could not be admitted to the dining room,
as it is contrary to the rules of the hotel to admit
a colored man there. I said to him: 'I'm aston¬
ished beyond measure that such a state of affairs
exists here.' He replied: 'I'm sorry; but if a col¬
ored man *s allowed in the dining rooms bur
patrons would all leave us.' I told him that I did
not care to discuss the rules of the house, but
that my friend who is a clergyman and an army
officer should not be allowed to accompany me to
the table was a new experience to me. It had
never occurred before. He then proposed to send
your dinner to my room if I so desired. I re¬
plied: 'No, not without previous consultation with
my friend, and with his assent,' and left the office
and returned to you.'
"I did not allow myself to talk or even to think
of the matter while Chaplain Ritner was with me
because I was anxious that his visit should not
be further marred, and the above statement was
obtained from him after his return to the station,
and of it he says: 'The above is taken from the
284 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
notes I made of the occurrence at the time for
transfer to my diary.'
"After waiting five days I addressed the pro¬
prietors of the hotel the following note to which
they have not at this writing seen fit to reply:
"Proprietors of The Florence Ho;el, Missoula,
Mont.
"Gentlemen: On last Wednesday, July 23, about
6:30 p. m., I called at the Florence Hotel to see my
friend Chaplain I. Newton Ritner, U. S. A., who
then occupied Room 27, therein. Soon after meet¬
ing him he invited me to take dinner with him,
and as this was my only opportunity of conversing
with him and as he seemed so urgent to have me
stay, I consented and allowed the ambulance to
drive off, leaving me there. Coming down from
his room to the dining room he asked me to ex¬
cuse him while he went down to make necessary
arrangements. On his return he informed me with
much apparent chagrin that he had been forbidden
to take me into the dining room. Hence there was
nothing left for me to do but to turn away and
thus free my friend from his embarrassment as
quickly as possible. Up to the present I have not
mentioned the affair, because I have indulged the
hope that so unusual and, to my mind, so rude a
proceeding would not be left to go unexplained;
but as no word has yet come, it seems not only
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 285
my right but my duty to ask of the proprietors of
this respectable public house some explanation of
this very strange conduct. I cannot consent to
the gratuitous outraging of my friend's feelings,
and the apparent very, very cruel indignity per¬
petrated upon myself, without at least asking the
reason why. Being entirely unconscious of any
reason why I should be thus treated anywhere
Upon this broad earth, much less in this my own
country of more than a half dozen generations, I
respectfully but anxiously await your reply.
"That the churches do not share in such a feel¬
ing is evidenced by the fact that they have been
very free to call upon me for service, and have
again and again born testimony to the satisfactory
character of the service rendered. At the time of
the refusal I was supplying the only Presbyterian
pulpit in the city Sunday mornings. And only
a few days before, I had taken dinner and supper
at the Rankin House, a popular hotel of the city.
I had not the slightest idea that there was objec¬
tion lurking for me at. the Florence, or I should
have kept well out of the way; and I publish this
in order that all others of like character as my¬
self being forewarned with respect to it, may be
forearmed, and so avoid running against a dis¬
agreeable snag.
"T. G. STEWARD."
286 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
To the Local Paper I wrote as follows:
"Editor of the Missoulian:
"Some days ago it was my misfortune to be in¬
vited to take dinner at a public hotel, only to have
the proprietor tell my kind friend that I, because
of my color, could not be admitted to the dining
room, assigning as a reason for this prohibition
that all the patrons of the hotel would leave in
case a colored man should enter the dining room.
Now this may or may not be true; but that there
is enough of probability in it for it to arise to the
mind as a reason, entitles it to some considera¬
tion. If what the proprietor says is true gener¬
ally, then it is impossible to carry on the hotel
business under the laws of our land. If it is mere¬
ly true locally, then it argues the need of something
to be done for its correction. As to my own ex¬
perience, I will say that I have stopped, or eaten,
in good hotels in New England, New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, Illinois and
Montana; and have never seen any disaster fol¬
low, so I cannot believe the reason assigned is
one of general application. I have also taken
meals at a respectable house in Missoula, and no
unpleasantness whatever was noticeable. I in¬
cline therefore to the opinion that the majority of
Americans are sufficiently advanced in intelligence
to distinguish between so-called privileges, and
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 287
business transactions—between private prejudice
and public rights.
"With regard to social matters, I have not the
least concern. I happen to belong to no social 'set,'
hence in that world I am, and have been for years,
practically a 'free lance,' associating with individ¬
uals whom I fmd agreeable and avoiding those who
affect me otherwise. This privilege I freely ac¬
cord to every human being, far or near. If a man
finds any comfort in cultivating what he supposes
is. a 'race prejudice,' I have no quarrel with him;
only he ought to treat his prejudices just as he
would his curs—keep them on his own premises or
muzzle them when he takes them in public. Per¬
sonally I have never been conscious of anything
signified by the term colored. I can feel my indiv¬
iduality and my responsibility, but my conscious¬
ness fails to give any response to the adjective that
unreasoning prejudice attaches to my person. As
a physical fact, I freely admit it, as a thing neither
to be ashamed of nor proud of; as of no more
moral, intellectual or social worth than height or
weight. It is physical, and that is all. As to all
other ideas of whatever sort or kind that are
sought to be pressed into the word "colored," as
applied to people, I have all my life-long failed to
find any verification of them either in my own
consciousness, or in my actual intercourse with
other human beings.
288 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Would anything be lost if the custom of class¬
ing people as colored should be dropped? I do not
think the colored people themselves care anything
about it, one way or the other; but would it not
be better to allow all those words which make
distinctions in our citizenship to fall into innocuous
desuetude?
Let me add one thing more: There is no more
loyal element in the country than the African ele¬
ment. It is thoroughly American, is physically
powerful and enthusiasticly loyal to the national
government. This element could furnish one mil¬
lion of soldiers. Let the nation treat them welL
No element in the land is advancing so rapidly in
the accumulation of property, in the acquisition
of intelligence and in the development of strong
character. They are rapidly winning places in the
front rank of scholarship.
I again beg to add that in social manners and
matters, the cultivated colored people of Washing¬
ton, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, to speak
of those only that I know, are not only the equals
of any of their own financial standing, but as a
rule, in musical and literary taste, in conversa¬
tional ability, and in refinement generally are far
superior. This is the uniform testimony of
foreigners and even of unprejudiced white Ameri¬
cans.
T. G. STEWARD.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 289
My commanding officer, Colonel Andrew S.
Burt, backed me squarely in my protest and went
with me to consult the most prominent lawyer of
the place. The next day the proprietor came out
to the post to see me, apologized and begged and
requested that no action be taken against his
house. I demanded that he put his apology in
writing, which he did, and also extended to me
the freedom of his hotel, with the pledge that
thereafter colored persons would be accommo¬
dated therein on the same conditions as others.
And so ended the matter, with what after results
I never learned.
In the years 1894-95-96 and 97, especially 94 and
95, I did considerable newspaper and magazine
writing. My contributions to the daily papers
included papers from New York to New Orleans,,
for all of which work I was paid merely space
rates. Several important magazines also received
and published my contributions, among which I
may name Harper's, Leslie's, The Independent and
the military magazines. In a list of army writers
made up during that period and published in The
Californian. five names were given with cuts and
sketches and among them was my own.
The article immediately following was written
in defense of the army in general and in answer
290 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
to the feeling which was aroused in our garrison
by the circumstance which it relates:
(The "United Service," October, 1895)
Starving Laborers and "the "Hired Soldier"
Senator Allen, of Nebraska, in a speech deliv¬
ered in Butte on Labor Day, in depicting the sad
state of the country caused by ill advised silver
legislation, said: "While I speak to you, four
million men, women, and children are in enforced
idleness in this country and without enough to
eat. And when they arise, as such people must
airse, they are met by the baton of the hired
policeman, or the bayonet of the hired soldiery."
I do not think it out of place to call attention
to a question of taste in this remark. Why should
the soldier and the policeman be singled out and
described as "hired?" Would it not be manifestly
improper for soldiers to speak publicly of senators
as "hired?" And yet senators are paid from the
United States Treasury as are soldiers. Military
manners will not permit soldiers thus to speak of
people intrusted with the powers of city, state or
nation; and this fact alone ought to protect chem
from such remarks as the above, especially from
the lips of men who occupy so exalted a position
as membership in the American Senate.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 291
But, aside from matters of taste, this statement
of fact is made to bear witness on the wrong side
of a prodigious question. The fact that in the
ever changeful conditions of industry in this age
and in this country, receiving as it does thousands
of workmen annually from other countries, there
are but four million persons necessarily unem¬
ployed, is a marvel. And when in order to make
up this "four million," even in these times of de¬
pression, it is necessary to include "women and
children," the "calamity howler's" occupation is
well nigh gone. The "four million men, women
and children" amount to less than six per cent of
the whole population; and not a single industry is
suffering for want of workmen.
That there are laborers in plenty is proved from
the facts that great, crops have been harvested,
and that we are sending away about thirteen dol¬
lars worth of goods for every man, woman, and
child in the country; and that three-fourths of this
amount exported comes from the fields. We have
enough and to spare; and the fact that those who
say the worst, can speak of but four million un¬
employed is greatly in our favor.
It is also to be noted that the policy of our city>
state and national government is, in the main,
against child-labor; and that a powerful senti¬
ment, and in some instances positive law, are in
favor of child-education. The general opinion of
292 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Americans—to the glory of the country be it said
—is that the best work children can do is to go to
school.
Nor are women to be regarded, too generally,
as wage-earners. Wives and mothers are largely
housekeepers and home-makers; and, as such, are
not to be too largely included in those who live
in "enforced idleness." Wives and mothers do not
enjoy the blessings of "enforced dileness" to any
alarming degree. The "women and children,"
then, who are in " enforced idleness," are to be
found atnong those who work in factories, and
stores, and such like places; and who are now
forced out of employment.
The senator all through his speech proceeds
upon the assumption that the legislation on the
silver question is responsible for the non-employ¬
ment of these millions. Upon this subject I will
not enter ; but is there not some significance in
the fact that more machinery is now used than
ever before? Was it silver legislation or elec¬
tricity that drove the horse from the street rail¬
ways in our large cities? Was it silver legisla¬
tion or electricity that reduced the demand and
prices of horses, and probably prompted the can¬
ning of horse-flesh? Production increases, while
hand-labor diminishes ; and the marvel to my mind
is that with workers coming all the time, and
with the constant advance in the application of
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 293
other than man-power, the margin of unemployed
labor is so small.
But there is one remark made by the senator in
this connection that deserves the deepest thought.
He says these willing workers have "not enough
to eat." This ought not to be. There is plenty
in the land for all; and the willing worker ought
to be supported in a way not to degrade and un¬
man him. He should not be involved with the
criminal, the imbecile, or the invalid. The man
who is willing and able to work ought not to be
placed upon charity: the man who is able and not
willing, ought not to be indulged with charity. If
the state can do something for the criminal and
the lazy, can it not do something for the willing
and able? The state should not follow in the foot¬
steps of that charity which drives away the poor,
good woman, in order to make room for the poor
""abandoned" woman. With regard to the crimi¬
nals and unfortunates, and the attention the state
.gives them, it can well be said, "These things
ought ye to have done;" and in regard to the four
million unemployed who have "not enough to eat,"
and who are entirely neglected by the state, it can
be added, "and not to leave the other undone."
How are the worthy poor to be furnished with
"enough to eat"—with the necessities of life? I
answer, by the only way in which it can be done
consistently with the common good, their own
294 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
included—i. e., through the medium of work..
These four million of enforced idlers ought to be-
furnished with work, and furnished it by the gov¬
ernment, at such rates as would not draw unneces¬
sarily from other channels. Let work be given>
at wages not high enough to interfere seriously
with those employed, and men would come and"
go according as the times rose and fell around
them. Plain work for unskilled labor is the thing
needed. It need not, ought not, be a great un¬
necessary work such as the building of the fort
at Dry Tortugas was, which was said to have been
built "for the sake of making profitable employ¬
ment for slaves," and which cost the government
in the whole during its existence not less than
twenty million dollars.
What was done for slavery, should in a sense
be done for freedom; what was done for slave¬
holders, should be done for the free-men with this
provision: that it should be work really necessary,
or at least decidedly beneficial.
What then are the things that could now be
done under state or government control that would
supplement the ordinary demand for labor, and
distribute the products of the land so that all would
have enough to eat? In the light of what has
been done in other countries and in other civiliza¬
tions, including the ancient civilizations on this
continent, it seems to me two subjects force them-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 295
"selves upon our attention—irrigation and roadways.
The men who are pressing these measures upon
public attention, are not only employing the
■qualities of genuine statesmanship, but it seems
to me are obeying the dictates of the purest phil¬
anthropy. These two fields of labor alone, promise
not only relief to the labor problem but immense
gain to the country at large.
The questions as to how this should be done
•can be readily left to the practical judgment of
the people whose hearts are in favor of it. Cities
•and counties can usually keep their own highways
in order if they will, under general supervision,
exercised by the state. So with local irrigation;
T)ut on a large scale these subjects should be placed
alongside of rivers and harbors, under national con¬
trol, as doubtless they will be some time.
I would favor, however, as much government
aid as possible in the building of good roads with¬
in the new states, and the consequent drawing of
"the unemployed to the less crowded portions of
the country, where every encouragement should
be given to induce them to settle.
Labor's margin is now a small and manageable
matter; but with the increase of population and
of machinery, and the decrease of labor and other
irritating causes, it is liable within a very brief
period to become a question of great moment.
Men, women and children who do not have enough
296
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
to eat, and who are willing to labor for their
bread, are not the kind to sit quietly down and
starve. "Rise they must," says the senator, but
such people are not usually rioters. They will
rise, and they will demand; but they are not likely
to destroy.
Should even these worthy people, however, be
so far misled as to become law-breakers, the army
can be relied upon to perform its duty, painful as
it may be; and yet it is safe that the worthy
poor have nowhere warmer and stronger friends
than in the United States Army. Scores of poor
people who have been helped by our soldiers and
officers, are ready to bear witness to what I say.
Many a poor family has been fed and clothed by
Uncle Sam's soldiers; and there are men, women
and children today who speak of their kindness
with tears in their eyes. The soldier may be re¬
lied upon to do his duty, even to bringing the
bayonet against the breast of his own country¬
men; but he will do it as a patriot, true to his
oath and loyal to his flag, and not merely as a
"hired" instrument.
Negro Mortality
(The Social Economist, October, 1895)
Every now and then we hear a great wail from
Southern writers about Negro shiftlessness and
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 297
mortality. The two latest utterances of impor¬
tance of this sort have been given out by Dr. De
Sausseau of Charleston, and by the Rev. Dr. Hoss,
editor of the Christian Advocate of the M. E,
Church, South. Dr. De Sausseau says the Negro
deaths in the city of Charleston exceed the births
in the ratio of three to two; and that in Savannah
and New Orleans the death rate is even greater.
The question is even raised, whether the Negroes
can live in towns. Dr. De Susseau explains this
alarming death-rate, "By the Negro tendency to¬
ward immorality and vice; and the disposition to
consumption which is carrying them off by the
thousands." The Rev. Dr. Hoss explains it by,
"Poor food, poor houses, and ill conditions of liv¬
ing generally." Dr. De Sausseau, however, admits
that there is but little difference in the death-rate
of the whites and blacks in the country districts.
Here, then, we have one side of a picture, and
it amounts to this: The Negroes are submerged
in poverty and vice, and as a consequence are rap¬
idly dying off—and dying especially by consump¬
tion. Here is the social, moral and sanitary prob¬
lem confronting the cities of Charleston, Savannah
and New Orleans; as also other Southern cities.
It is a problem especially addressing itself to the
minister and the physician.
To assist them in the solution of it, I will offer
them a little testimony. That Negroes can live in
298 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
cities is abundantly proven. But I will present one
striking case. The city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti*
is certainly not more favorably situated than
Charleston. I was there in '73, and its population
was less than 30,000; and here is what is said of
it now. Hon. Henry M. Smythe says of himself,
"I am a Southern Bourbon;" hence his testimony
ought to pass in South Carolina or Georgia, and
he says: "Port-au-Prince is a fine city of 60,000'
people, and I venture to say that in the intelligence,
wealth and refinement of its population, it will
compare favorably with any place of its size in
this country." The Negro population has not only
held its own, but has doubled itself in twenty
years in that city. Hence, it is plain that it is not
merely the city that kills.
Let us look at another fact. It is admitted that
the mere number of homes is an important element
in determining the tendencies of a people. Now,
by the census of 1890, homes among whites are as-
1 to 4.0 of the population; and among the blacks,
as 1 to 4.8 of the population. In the occupation
of homes there is an almost exact similarity. But
the homes of the blacks were vastly inferior ta
those of the whites. They were, as Dr. Hoss says,
"poor houses," and furnished "ill conditions of liv¬
ing generally." How do we account for this great
difference in condition. ^Plainly in this way: the
whites inherit the results of ages of freedom; the-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 299
-Ngroes are trying to throw off the heritage of
.slavery, and have had but thirty years in which to
-do it.
Again, 88:58 per cent of the homes owned by
Negroes are held without incumbrance. The col-
• ored people started with nothing, and are kept
-quite rigidly to the cash system: they must pay
.as they go; while all around them others obtain
large and long credits. The colored people of the
country in 1890 owned 234,747 homes, free from
•debt, mostly in the late slave states. Will the
reader just sit down and reflect over this fact and
ask himself: How have these people been able to
feed and clothe themselves, to pay doctors' bills
and bury their dead, and yet pay for these homes ?
Oh, it is said, they have received abundant help
from the North. They have—thank God for it—
and to the Northern people who have helped them
they are ever grateful; but this help has come in
^he way of schools almost altogether. The North
has done marvels for them in the way of instruc¬
tion, and it is because of this superior instruction
that they have advanced so rapidly. But some¬
thing must be credited to the industry and thrift
•of the Negro himself. His hands have earned the
money to pay for the homes and the funerals—
funerals that might in many cases have been post¬
poned.
Now, the doctor says, that the enormous death-
300 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
rate among colored children in the cities is to be
attributed to the Negro tendency to immorality
and vice. If the doctor would strike out Negro
and insert slave he would then be nearer the
truth: but it would not be the whole truth. The
same law that prevents children being born in
some cities, puts them to death among the colored
people of Charleston and Savannah. More intel¬
ligent people look out on their surrounding and
say the child cannot live; it shall not be born. The
poor colored people have either too much con¬
science, or too little knowledge to do this; and as
a consequence more than half of their babes die
before they have completed their first year. To
my mind this isolated fact does not furnish proof
of immorality; but it does furnish proof of a
severe condition. Infants cannot live without
care; and care cannot be had where extreme pov¬
erty is the rule. Again, the doctor says consump¬
tion is "carrying them off by the thousands." But
why should consumption be allowed to sweep such
cities as Charleston and Savannah?"
As there were strictures from time to time
finding their way into the public press as 'fo the
physical hardiness of the colored troops in the
services compared with that of the whites, and
usually coupled 'with 'these strictures upon the
physique would be some insinuations as to the
moral short-comings of the colored soldier, I
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 301
took occasion to study carefully the surgeon-
general's reports for several years and made the
following statements which obtained wide circula¬
tion.
(Fort Missoula, Montana, Special)
"Much has been said of late years concerning
the utility of the Africo-American and the opin¬
ion has gained considerable support that as a rule
they are less hardy than the whites, and there is.
much in favor of this belief, since statistics from
cities where the colored population is large show
that the colored death rate is larger pro rata than
the whites; but it is also worthy of note that the
highest death rate is not found in the Northern,
cities where the Negro is unopposed, but in the
South the supposed home of the Negro. In like
manner it is officially reported by the surgeon-
general that the colored troops "suffered a much
greater degree of constant impairment of force
in the hot climate of the southern division than
in the colder climate of either the northern or
middle division." Army reports show that the col¬
ored troops stand the cold just as well as white
troops. In 1884 the death rate among wfaite
troops was 9 to the 1000, and among colored troops
7.2; but this was unusual. The general average is
11.1 to the 1000 for whites and 13.4 for the col¬
ored. It will be seen that there is but little dif-
302 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ference in the death rate, and this difference I
presume would be made up were the conditions
and encouragements brought to exactly the same
level. The average above given is made up from
reports covering the ten years from 1878 to 1888.
Please note the wide difference between these fig¬
ures as they bear upon the two races, and those
coming from the vital statistics of almost any
Southern city. As hard as the army is, colored
inen do not die in the services as fast relatively, as
they do in their Southern home. Again, during
the same period the discharges for disability among
the whites was 32.1 to the 1000, and for the colored
30.7, so that the losses from death and disability
taken together, are just about equal as to the two
races. The blacks lost more by two per 1000 than the
whites by death, and two less per 1000 by disabil¬
ity. Another fact of importance is the following:
From 1866 to 1885 alcholism claimed 54.04 per
cent of the sickness among the whites, while among
the colored troops it counted only 2.18 per cent.
A larger per centage of white men are rejected
than of colored men; and few colored men are
rejected for evident marks of intemperance. The
colored soldier's sin is not intemperance, and I
think a few more years will show him as hardy as
any who bear arms."
In 1896 after three years of widowed life I mar¬
ried a second time, taking as my wife Doctor
DR. S. M. STEWARD
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 303
Susan S. McKinney of Brooklyn, N. Y. Doctor
McKinney was a member of an old Long Island
family of Indian extraction, descended from the
Montauk tribe, original owners of the northern
part of the island. 'She was the first colored
woman 'to graduate in meidicine, known to be
colored; and at the time of her marriage to me
enjoyed a good practice in her native city. She
was also an accomplished organist, having studied
under Zundell of Beecher's church, and Brown of
Talmage's church. She was the widow of Rev.
W. S. McKinney, an Episcopal minister, native of
Charleston, S. C, and was the mother of two chil¬
dren, the present Rev. W. S. McKinney, rector of
a church in Jamaica, L. I., and Mrs. Annie M.
Carty, teacher in the New York public schools.
Both of these children were grown and married
at the time of our marriage. She entered heartily
into the work among the soldiers and became an
excellent step-mother to my children.
In 1898 our regiment was ordered to Cuba; I
was detached by no wish of my own, and sent out
upon recruiting duty accompanied by Corporal
Baskervill, now the Rev. E. S. Baskervill, arch¬
deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church at
Charleston, S. C. While in the service Mr. Bas¬
kervill rose to be First Sergeant and was nomi¬
nated for a commission because of efficiency and
304 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
bravery on the field. I remained on recruiting
duty until after the battles of El Kaney and San
Juan, when I asked to be sent to the regiment.
After the usual delays my request was granted
and I was ordered to proceed by way of Tampa,
Fla. I started at once, and actually reached Tampa,
only to find that the famous "Round Robin" had
started all the fighting troops for Montauk Point,
Long Island. In consequence of this change, my
■order was countermanded and I was later directed
to proceed by rail to Montauk Point.
The watermelon season was on in New Jersey,
and I conceived the idea while on the train of
calling upon my old friends of Bridgeton, N. J.,
to send me a carload of fresh and good Jersey
melons that I might have them to distribute among
the men when they arrived. The Bridgeton friends
responded nobly and my melons were the cynosure
of the great camp. I was offered any price for
them; but they were not for sale. The surgeon
of our regiment feared ill results should the melons
be given to the men. Perhaps because of my ig¬
norance, perhaps otherwise, I had no fears; and
the commanding officer took my view and the
surgeon was over-ruled in that instance. I dis¬
tributed the melons so that each man should have
a half of a melon, with the instruction that, "If
the melon tastes at all sour, do not eat it at all;
throw it way and another piece will be given; if
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 305
it is fibrous but sweet, swallow the juice, but do
not swallow the pulp." The melons were distrib¬
uted and eaten with the happiest results.
All four of the colored regiments were here en¬
camped, accompanied by three of their chaplains:
Chaplain Prioleau of the 9th Calvary, Chaplain
Anderson of the 10th Calvary, and I of the 25th
Infantry. Chaplain Allensworth of the 24th In¬
fantry was in the West.
After recuperating here a few weeks, our regi¬
ment was ordered to Fort Logan, Colorado, near
Denver, and remained there until it entrained for
-San Francisco to embark for the Philippines.
When we reached Fort Logan the regiment was
in command of Major Hooton, and was so very
short in officers that the following orders were
graciously handed me by the commanding officer's
orderly, for which I gave the accustomed receipt
and prepared myself to carry them out: "Chap¬
lain T. G. Steward, 25th Infantry, is hereby de¬
tailed as Ordnance Officer, Signal Officer, Engineer
Officer and Exchange Officer."
I. was to get instruction as to these various
offices from one Captain Cotter of the 15th In¬
fantry. These four offices combined in one per¬
son, gave me no little trouble, especially the
Ordnance Officer. It was not until August 12,
1902, that I finally got loose from bayonets, scab¬
bards, ramrods and gunslings. I was at last pilot-
306 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ed to the exit of my difficulty by one of our excel¬
lent old-time First Sergeants. It was indeed a
relief when long after we had reached the Philip¬
pines I received from the Chief of Ordnance of
the U. S. Army, Washington, D. C., a statement
showing that all the stores had been accounted
for, that my "return" had been compared with
those .of other officers with whom I had had trans¬
actions and the same was found to be correct;
"all the property issued to you was found to be
properly accounted for. It will therefore be un¬
necessary for you to render further returns in
view of the facts stated, your accountability at
Fort Logan having been closed in this office June
25, 1901."
On our arrival at Denver the people showed
their appreciation by giving to the men a colla¬
tion at the depot, coffee and sandwiches, of course;
the cigarette craze had not captured the country
at that time; the tobacco interest was less stalwart
than in 1918. I found the schools of Denver ex¬
cellent. The superintendent also advised me so
that I might get the most benefit from them dur¬
ing my temporary stay.
I was relieved from duty at Fort Logan on the
special request of Bishop B. W. Arnett and as¬
signed to the honorable task of writing the history
of the Colored Regulars, dealing particularly with
their work in Cuba. I may quote from the letter
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 307
of the Adjutant General of the Army to Bishop
Arnett of date of March 1, 1899, in which he says:
"The Secretary of War desires me to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 23rd, ultimo, re¬
questing that Chaplain T. G. Steward be allowed
the necessary time to write a history of the col¬
ored regiments in the United States Army, and to
inform you that the Chaplain is regarded by the
War Department as a very suitable man to write
the proposed history, and that every facility will
be accorded him for the prosecution of this task."
This letter was signed by H. C. Corbin, Adjutant
General.
No limit was fixed as to the character of the
work or the time I should occupy in writing. All
details were left to my judgment and conscience.
The book published under the title of "The Colored
Regulars" was the result of my efforts. Mean¬
while our regiment had sailed for the Philippines,
and as early as I could conscientiously consider
my work accomplished, I reported to the War
Department and asked to be sent to the regi¬
ment. Promptly I received from San Francisco
an order relieveing me from special duty and
directing me to proceed to Manila by the trans¬
port Newport which would sail from that port on
or about October 23, 1899.
CHAPTER X.
VOYAGE TO THE PHILLIPINOS:
Meet with a fall—Services on board—Report to the regiment at
Bamban—Stay in Manila—My first social dinner with Filippinos..
Close 1899 with a "Personal." School work in Zambales Prov¬
ince. Devout Catholics—Letter to Archbishop Chapelle. Filip-
pinos: Mabini; Poblete; Aguinaldo. Color on the transports-
Color Line World-Wide Thoughts written in 1900.
The steamer Newport on which I sailed be¬
longed to the Pacific Mail Company of which C,
P. Huntington was then president ; had been built
in the John Roach shipyard at Chester and fitted
up with engines in San Francisco in 1897. Her
length was 326 feet with 32 feet beam—an iron
or steel vessel. On board I found facilities for
advancing myself in both French and Spanish.
One of the cabin boys was from Martinique and
spoke Spanish well, and there was also a French¬
man on board who had travelled extensively in
South America, and he also spoke Spanish well.
We started off on our long trip on the morning of
October 26, 1899, about 11 o'clock, with delightful
weather, and I soon found the ship was a mag¬
nificent roller. The sea was smooth with just a
little swell, but as I wrote in my note book, "she
rolled sweetly for those who like that sort of
motion." I can't say whether it is the Dutch roll
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 309
or the American ; but it is the kind that might
suit a bow-legged man, but is not well adapted
to the infantryman."
After a monotonous run of seven days we reach¬
ed Honolulu where we spent about thirty hours.
I went ashore and passed the night with Honor¬
able T. McCants Stewart, baptizing his infant
child while in his residence on the evening of No¬
vember 3rd. I there met a fine Hawaiian family,.
Mr. Fernandez and his two daughters. The young-
ladies were clad in Hawaiian style, pure white
dresses with no girdles or bands. They sang a.
number of the Queen's songs and also sang "Sweet:
Alice, Ben Bolt" for me, very sweetly.
Leaving Honolulu we took a course a little south',
of the 21st parallel of north latitude and sailed.
due west at an average rate of 285 miles per day,
and on November 8th we reached the 180th merid¬
ian or the extreme of western longitude. We ran:
up to this line Wednesday night and consequently
we had no Thursday, but awcfke the next morn¬
ing to find it Friday, November 10th. Consequent¬
ly in 1899 I had only 364 days. I failed to catch
November 9th. On the night of the 17th we pass¬
ed the Ladrone Islands. I was able to see two
small mountain islands as the moon shone very
brightly.
Unfortunately I had met with a severe fall and
had been partly disabled; so of November 17th I
310 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
record the following: "Sunday, November 17th,
the fourth Sunday on board the transport and the
second on which I held service. On the other
two Sundays my arm pained me so much as to
unfit me for any such public duty. This morning
the troops assembled midships and we began serv¬
ices by singing "My Faith looks up to Thee.'"' In
leading the hymn I was assisted by a young man
from Omaha with his violin. He is an excellent
performer and willingly rendered his services. He
is a government clerk. Another clerk, Mr. Car¬
son of Chicago, also aided in leading. He pos¬
sesses a fine bass voice and is a trained vocalist,
and enjoys singing. After singing the opening
hymn and offering prayer we followed with "My
Jesus I love Thee," "Showers of Blessings," "Bless¬
ed Assurance," "My Country 'Tis of Thee." The
soldiers took hold and sang heartily and I felt
within me the spirit of praise. I gave them a
brief address, but did not preach a sermon. The
weather has been quite cool today and a good
breeze has been going although the sea is not
rough."
We had some very hot days, but it was always
possible to find a cool place. I have lost the exact
date of my arrival in Manila, but it was about
November 24th, or one month from the time we
went on board in San Francisco. We went on
board the transport in October 25th, and sailed
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 311
the next day, and landed in Manila the 24th or
25th. The cabin crew of our ship was something
of a curiosity. The chief steward was a black
man from Nantucket, R. I.; the assistant or second
steward was a Dutchman, Hollander; the waiters
were about one half white, and one half colored.
Soon after arriving- in Manila I reported to my
regiment at Bamban. Later the regiment moved
to the Zambales province along the shores of the
China Sea, and continued its work here until or¬
dered home in 1902. The colonel in taking leave
of the regiment on April 17. 1902, spoke of the
work done by the men in Zambales as follows:
"That you are as gallant as the best, remember
El Caney, O'Donnel, Arayat and numbers of lesser
fights in Zambales. Zambales! One province in
Luzon that was absolutely cleaned up of ladrones
and insurrectos, this, by your marching and fight¬
ing, in and out of the rainy season. Oh, that was
a grand piece of soldiering."
There occurred quite an interval when by direc¬
tion of the commanding officer of my regiment
I remained in Manila during which I became ac¬
quainted with many Filippino families. Hitherto,
under Spanish and Roman Catholic rule, it had
been quite difficult for people to marry. When it
was found that I could perform marriage I had
many applications. It was the performance of
one of these marriage ceremonies which secured
312 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
me an invitation to the first social dinner among
the Filippinos, which is here described.
My First Social Dinner with Filippinos
Today, January 29, 1900, I have taken my first
social dinner with a Filippino family and I cannot
better refer to it than by saying it was to me a
great surprise. The family with whom I dined
does not belong to the high class, but represents
the plain, common people. My invitation came as
a result of a marriage ceremony uniting Louis and
Sabina for life. I give their first names only, be¬
cause I am unable to give the other names, my
book of records not being just now available,
Louis and Sabina are both operatives in a to¬
bacco factory and although the feast today was
held in their honor, neither could attend. The
mother of Louis, really his step-mother, and an
elderly relative of Sabina prepared and managed
the dinner, which I must now describe.
I will begin with the guests. I was the chief
guest; but fearing to enter upon such an under¬
taking alone, I managed to work in Chaplain Al-
lensworth, and by accident there was brought in
also a German-American protestant. There were
several ladies whose names I cannot give, and
several gentlemen. There was also an orchestra
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 313
of ten or a dozen pieces. All told there were over
fifty persons present, including the family.
The dinner took place at one o'clock and was
served in good style. It consisted of chicken in
two forms; beef, rice, soup, potatoe croquets and
sweet-meats. The soup was not served as a course,
but put in nice bowls to pour over your rice in
soup plates if you so wished. While the utmost
good cheer prevailed there was no effort to make
you eat more than you would, or to complain be¬
cause you did not eat.
After dinner three ladies sang songs accom¬
panied by the instruments, all being good singers,
one an actress. Toward the close of the enter¬
tainment the actress sang a little love song which
I could not understand at all; but which required
effective acting. I may explain that while it is
difficult to acquire the art of understanding Span¬
ish when spoken, it is much more difficult to learn
to understand it when sung. The former difficulty
I have to some extent overcome; but have made
no headway in regard to the latter. (I had been
in the islands about two months then.) But to
return to the story.
To render the piece it was necessary to have one
man sit in the chair in the center of the room to
personate the lover; while the girl walked around
him keeping time to the music, and then stopping
at the proper place: singing to him in a most pas-
314 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
sionate style and then come up to him coquettish-
ly and throw herself beside him in a very graceful
attitude, leaning upon his shoulder. A young Fil-
ippino was chosen. The lady marched, and sang,
and threw herself upon his shoulder. He stood
this, and she withdrew and made her second at¬
tack, this time putting her arm around his neck.
This was more than the Filippino could stand, as
the people laughed so; he then, all embarrassed,
left the chair, and no one else of the natives would
accept the place. Being anxious to see the play
finished, I suggested to Chaplain Allensworth to
take the part, and suggested the same to the ac¬
tress, but she replied, "No, he is a minister." This
pleased me much. She did not think it becoming
in a minister to do such a thing, nor was she will¬
ing to perform with him as a companion. Finally
our German-American friend consented to act the
lover, and she finished the play which consisted
of three movements: the first in which she stands
beside her lover ; the second in which she puts her
arm around his neck loosely, and rests upon his
shoulder; the third in which she brings her face
down to his, draws her arm more tightly about
his neck, and makes use of her fan—all the time
keeping up her song. The voice was rich and
sympathetic and the acting effective.
While these people are tropical and Spanish, yet
they are not at all like the Haitians in the treat-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 315
ment of their women. I noticed that the women
guests took their places in the room with great
freedom, and that they were seated at the table
with the men and treated with marked ceremony.
After dinner, instead of the men withdrawing
to smoke, the men and women all sat down and
smoked together. The lady who had sat beside
me at the table, and who opened the way for me
to have soup for my rice, and who carved chicken
for me, soon after dinner smoked one cigarette,
and then was preparing to light a genuine man-
cigar, which out of respect to me she put aside.
Nearly all women here smoke, and I hear that
many English and American women are taking
to the practice. Of this, however, I cannot say,
as I have never seen an American woman with a
cigar in her mouth.
Experience has proven that English and Ameri¬
can white men are ever against the elevation of
others. They corrupt, deprave and degrade where-
ever they go; not, because they do not have good
men among them, but because they have so many
bad men among them, and because their bad men
are so bad. The Filippinos have learned much of
sin within the past year ; and vice and immorality
have increased greatly, as I believe, since the
country has been overrun with American soldiers
and sailors and their English cousins.
316 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
In my note book I find the following marked
"A Personal."
Today completes the year of our Lord eighteen
hundred and ninety-nine, and I awake on its morn¬
ing thankful for health, vigor and peace of mind.
I stop somewhat as the navigator does to look
around me, take my bearings, and determine my
position. Like the sailor, it is only myself that
stops; all else on the ship goes on. The engines
are puffing, the sailors are washing the decks, the
cooks are at work on the food and the cabin boys
are preparing tables and dishes for dinner; but the
navigator stands looking over the rail. He has a
line from the stern measuring the rate of speed,
he gets the temperature of the water, he gets the
sun's altitude with watch in hand, he figures out
the ship's position by latitude and longitude and
tells us how far we have gone since yesterday.
Some such work as the navigator does I have
been doing this morning. I have taken the sun—
the Sun of my soul—and have found the position
of my bark and I know its course. I have taken
the temperature of the water and compared it with
my Chart, God's Holy Book, and my soul has Good
Cheer. I know where I am.
On this day I baptized my first Chinaman.
Meantime two colored volunteer infantry regi¬
ments, the 48th and 49th, arrived; the former
commanded by Colonel Duvall. the latter by Col-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 317
onel Beck. In this latter regiment my son Frank
R., who had recently graduated from Harvard
University, and the Harvard Law School, served
as captain. Three men in our own regiment, to-
wit: Macon Russell, W. R. McBryr and Wyatt
Hoffman, had received commissions as second lieu¬
tenants to serve in these regiments. For several
months prveious to the arrival of the volunteer
regiments, these new officers had been on duty in
the 25th Infantry and had commanded with re¬
spect the enlisted men with whom they had but
recently served in the ranks. Soon after the ar¬
rival of the contingent of troops which included
the regiments above mentioned, manifestations of
a desire for peace became evident.
Military government is rarely acceptable to any
people except as a defense against anarchy, and
the Filippino leaders soon tired of it as adminis¬
tered by the Americans. The rule of the military
was intended to be fair and just, but at that time
there were insurgents in the field armed and ac¬
tive, and it was difficult to determine how far
these hostilities were supported by the apparently
peaceable natives of the towns. Those who were
"amigos" in the day might be "enemigos" at night;
so that it was necessary for the military to use
considerable vigilance even over those who were
quietly pursuing their daily (occupations. The
pacification of the country went on slowly, ac-
318 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
companied with much difficulty and some loss of
life.
When the Civil Commission arrived with Hon¬
orable William H. Taft at its head, there was a
tendency manifested 011 the part of some of the
Filippino leaders to join in heartily in the work
of constructing- a government of laws. A cele¬
bration of peace was carried out in Manila and an
effort made by means of an elaborate banquet to
inferentially commit the Commission to a policy
which looked toward the establishment of auton¬
omy with the United States exercising a protec¬
torate over the country. The arrangement failed
however, although very skillfully planned by able
politicians. The Commissioners declined to com¬
mit themselves in any way.
The Commission did busy itself heartily, how¬
ever, in the work of organizing civil government
in the various provinces, in establishing schools,
and in promoting the common industries and seek¬
ing to establish good feelings between the natives
and the American occupants. Mr. Taft particular¬
ly left no means untried to assure the people of
the good will of the United States toward those
who had so lately come under its care. My school
work was done altogether in co-operation with
the civil authorities.
Anticipating the work of the Commission, the
colonel of our regiment, Andrew S. Burt, appoint-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 319
ed me military superintendent of education in the
province over which he had jurisdiction as military-
governor. The regiment was extended through¬
out the province, and the commanding officer was
responsible for not only the conduct of the mili¬
tary, but also for the peace and good order of the
province. The work of Americanizing the schools
was therefore begun and was well under way be¬
fore the civil educational agents were on the
ground. The following quotations from my diary
will exhibit the early steps taken in this work:
Wednesday, November 21—Called upon the
president of the town and on the ex-governor of
the province, and arranged for a meeting to be
held at the president's house the next day at 10
o'clock A. M.
Thursday, November 22—Meeting assembled at
the house of the president at the hour appointed.
I. delivered an address on the subject of education
in general and on the importance of studying Eng¬
lish. Also I explained the liberal purpose of the
U. S. Government in this respect.
Friday, November 23—The ex-governor, Senior
Camara, reported to me that arrangements had
been made to open the schools—one for boys and
one for girls—on the first of the month; that a
building had been rented for the boys' school for
$6.00 monthly (Mexican money) ; that the girls'
schools would be taught in the house of the teach-
■320 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
er, for which no rent would be charged. The
teachers were to receive respectively $12.00 and
$10.00 per month. The same day I sent off the
following letter:
Iba, Zambales Province,
November, 1900.
The Supt. of Public Instruction,
Manila, P. I.
Sir:
I have the honor to report that on the 22nd of
this month, at 10 A. M., a meeting was held in
the house of the president of this town to con¬
sider the question of establishing public schools.
The meeting was attended by the ex-governor
of the provine, and by all the principal men of the
town, and was earnest, if not enthusiastic I de¬
livered an address setting forth the advantages of
education in general, and the special necessity
of acquiring a knowledge of English; also show¬
ing the liberal purpose of the government on the
subject of education. The address was well re¬
ceived and work was begun at once.
The next morning (23rd) the governor reported
to me that the work of organization was so far
along that he could say that the schools, one for
boys and one for girls, would begin on the first
of the coming month. Funds have been raised to
pay the salaries of the native teachers and the rent
of one building. The girls' school will be taught
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 321
in the house of the teacher for which no rent will
be charged.
The salaries provided for the teachers are ridic¬
ulously small: the man to receive $12.00 (Mex.)
monthly, the woman $10.00. I shall labor to have
this pay increased as conditions improve.
I respectfully ask for supplies to be used here
and throughout the provinces, as follows:
100 Lecciones de Lenguaje.
100 Baldwin's Readers.
100 Copy books.
Ink, pens, slates and pencils, inkstands, sponges,
etc., according to the supply on hand.
Respectfully,
T. G. STEWARD,
Chaplain 25th Infantry.
Supt. of Schools for Zambales Province (Milit).
Saturday, November 24—Sent the following
telegram to the commanding officers at Santa
Cruz, Masniloc and Botolen:
"Is there a prospect of opening a school in your
town the first of next month to be supported
from funds of the town? Government will fur¬
nish books, and probably give further aid.
"(Signed) * STEWARD, Chaplain."
Sunday, November 25—Held services at 9 A. M.
in H Company barracks; about 50 men present
■322 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
-who took part heartily. First Sergeant Basker-
vill came right to the front as a natural leader.
The subject dwelt upon was, "How to be Righte-
eous and How secure Righteous people are." Text,
"He shall never suffer the righteous to be re¬
moved."
Monday, November 26—Visited the ex-governor
and suggested to him the propriety of a formal
opening of the schools on Saturday by a speech
and music. Afterward visited the hospital; found
several sick ; among them Corporal Jerry Wright,
an old soldier.
November 28—Visited Botolen and found schools
in operation, two teachers employed, ^nan and
Avoman, each at a salary of $12.00 a month.
November 30—The teacher of the boys' school
called early this morning to inform me that the
municipal school would open tomorrow at 8 A. M.
December 1, Saturday—The boys' school opened
this morning with 31 on the register. There were
special exercises. A representative of the highest
class in arithmetic performed the operation of re¬
ducing fractions to a common denominator and
adding them. One of the next lower grade per¬
formed an example in division. Some of the boys
read and some spelled They sang "Jesu Cristo
Tia Unido,"'although they had never seen it before
but didn't make out much with it."
Returned to Iba.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 323
December 3—Left Iba at 8 A.M. in company
with Lieutenant Arrowsmith and a large mounted
detachment, about thirty men with twenty-one led
horses besides; arrived at Botolen without inci¬
dent. At 9 o'clock visited both schools merely to
announce my intended visit on the next day. I am
stopping at the officers' quarters which are occu¬
pied now solely by Lieutenant Straat.and his wife.
He commands his company well and is liked by the
men.
December 5—Visited the boys' school 'taught by
Jose Oruzco. who continued smoking cigarettes
all the time of the session. The school was divid¬
ed into three sections and is following the old
methods of teaching, using the "Monitor," and
committing everything to memory. The teacher
is bright, and some of the writing of the boys,
was very fine considering their ages. Four or five
little boys sang two religious songs in Spanish
and one in Tagalog—a barber's song; and then
the teacher told me they could sing an American
song and asked if I would like to hear them. Of
course I said; "Yes." One little fellow then stood
out on the floor and two other little fellows got
in front of him about four feet from him with
their faces toward him—all barefoot with shirts
outside: none over eight years; as I suppose. The
leader then put out his foot and began to clap his
hands and sang out, "Hello ma honey, hello ma
324 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
baby, hello ma ragtime gal," while the others struck
the most lively minstrel dance. This was their
idea of American song and music, and yet these
little boys had just sung elevated music almost
startlingly refined that they had learned from the
Spanish, imitating the instrumental interludes. In
Manila I saw a well educated Spanish lady sing¬
ing, "A hot time in the old town," etc., supposing
it to be our national air.
December 5 (afternoon)—Visited the girls'
school taught by Sra Agapita Empeno. The girls
all had on clean clothes and were well instructed
in the words of the church. They recited the mys¬
teries, prayers, etc., with precision, pronouncing
both in Spanish and in Latin; little tots pronounc¬
ing correctly such words as "bienaventuranza,"
without probably the slightest idea of their sig¬
nificance. I catechised some and found thern per¬
fect in the book, so far as a knowledge of the
word goes. How much time and labor have been
lost in teaching learning what can be of but little
profit.
There are buildings sufficient at Botolen, but
books are greatly needed; unless there is some
wa)'- of supplying English teachers, there should
be text books in either Spanish or dialect. The
teachers at hand can teach Spanish and the chil-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
325
<dren can get considerable help in that language.
Telegram:
Botolen, December 5, 1900.
The Adjutant,
Iba.
Found schools in operation here. Two teachers,
two schoolhouses, and 143 pupils enrolled. Great
scarcity of books. I wish to hold services with
the company Sunday, and then will need transpor¬
tation to next station. Will prepare a complete
deport with photographs as far as possible.
STEWARD.
December 5—The teacher Agapita Empeno
brought me her register and asked from me a
•certificate as to her work. I gave her the follow¬
ing : "He visitado la escuela de ninas de esto pueblo
registrado par la Sra Agapita Empeno; he exam-
inado en parte las ninas quienes yo he encuentrado
foien instruido en las libros religiosos. Ellas se
manifiestaban mucho de urbanidad y buen orden.
Yo creo que la Sra Agapita Empeno is buen cali-
ficada a fuerza de esperiencia y de buen corazon
para su posicun honorada de maestra de escuela."
The register she presented me was very neat
indeed.
Reply to my telegram:
Iba, December 5, 1900.
326 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Chaplain Steward:
You are authorized to hold services at Botolen:
next Sunday. On the 10th, inst., proceed to Ca-
bangan, applying to C. O. Botolen for escort and:'
transportation.
By order of
COLONEL BURT, LEONHAUSER,
Adjutant.
December 7—The teacher of the girls' school1
called on me at 12 o'clock, and in writing made
the following request: "Tengo el honor de suplicar
a V. que me dara licencia de devertir los dias de
vacacion, Domingo y fiestas para jugar panguin-
gue." (I have the honor to request of you per¬
mission to engage in the diversion of "panguingue"
days when school is not in session—Sundays and.
feast days.) "Panguingue" is a species of small
gambling engaged in largely by women.
I could not act on such application. Evening of
same day the teacher of boys' school brought me
his completed report.
Sunday, December 9, 10 o'clock—Held service
with F Company, men generally assembling. After
the meeting the following men met me in confer¬
ence : Samuel Wheldon, Lewis A. Ellison, Robert
F. Coates and Aaron Yelverton, all of whom are
Methodists.
1 afterward saw John Henry, formerly private-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 327
of F Company, now carrying on a laundry here.
It is reported that he was in debt to the men and
is now working- it out. Several bodies of the
4th Cavalry passed through here today. There
seems to be a movement on foot to round up a
•:band of insurrectos near Subig. The weather has
been cloudy and cool all day and some soldiers
.are out in "United States" (blue) uniforms.
Monday, December 10—Left Botolen this morn¬
ing with an escort of eight men under charge of
Corporal Burton, and with my man Keen of H
Company and Hospital Corps man, Atkins. I rode
a. little pony and had my effects in a bull cart. On
the way we forded two rivers in one of which I
got wet. When about two-thirds of the way to
Cabangan we met a detachment from that place
consisting of twelve men. Arrived at Cabangan
bout 11 A. M. Met the president of the town and
-lieutenant of police and arranged to visit schools
tomorrow. The lieutenant of police had been
teacher and his wife is teacher of girls now.
December 12—In the morning met the boys'
school in the president's house and examined it.
There were very few books, and the methods of
instruction of the usual kind. The boys were well
behaved. Afternoon met the girls' school in the
same place.
December 13—Journeyed by wagon from Cab¬
angan to San Felipe, arriving there about 11 A. M.
328 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
On arrival at headquarters orders were given for
my baggage to remain in the wagon, and for them
to 4}e taken over to the company quarters, and for
me to go there and occupy a room adjoining the
first sergeant's room. I went and examined the
place. I then went directly to headquarters, and
said to the commanding officer that the place would
not suit. The first sergeant was also to have my
meals served me. It did not take ten minutes to*
convince the officers of the importance of provid¬
ing me a house, and a seat at the officers' mess.
A house complete was put at my disposal, the
Filippino family vacating it for my convenience.
At five o'clock I received a visit from the president
of the town and the four school teachers and an¬
other gentleman accompanying them. They talk¬
ed freely and listened attentively to what I had to
say. The things I spoke of related to the study
of English; increased pay for the teachers; an
institute to be held in Iba; and the prospect of
establishing a high school in Iba, the capital of
the province.
December 13—The two male teachers called at
my quarters soon after 5 P. M., and presented
their complete reports. They had done their work
with much taste. They asked me to celebrate
mass for them in the church (I could not accede
to their wish in this respect, of course). At 7
P. M. I held services with the troops at the close
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 329
of which several enlisted men came up to speak
with me. One man said his father was a minis¬
ter. He asked me to hold services the next night.
Frank Williams of M Company made this state¬
ment: "I can say truthfully that I have taken up
no bad habits since I have been here. My father
and mother are both dead, but I have followed
their counsel and advice." He was from George¬
town, Ky. The meetings here were very well at¬
tended.
December 14—This morning the two male teach¬
ers and also one lady teacher called, she to bring
iher report. The two male teachers were to ac¬
company me on my visits to the schools. The
first school visited was the girls' school, taught
by Senorita Maxima. This school was supplied
with desks and in good condition, although some¬
what crowded for room. The religious books were
partly printed in Ilocano; and I found here an
.Ilocano grammar, the first I had seen. The teach¬
ing was in substance that which I had seen in all
the other girls' school, but the supply of books
here was better. The needle work was fine so
far as I was capable of judging. From this school
I went to the boys' school of the pueblo and found
it the best I had seen so far; benches, desks and
books were on hand in plentiful supply. The school
had been left without the teacher for an hour or
Jtnore, but on entering the room everything was
330 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
in order, every boy in his proper place and all gave-
out in chorus a ringing "Buenos dias, Padre." I
examined the highest class in ,arithmetic and
Spanish grammar and found them quite bright.
From this school we passed to the Barrio del Santo
Nino and visited first the boys' school. The teacher
of this school had been absent with me for nearly
two hours, but the order was perfect when we-
entered the room, with every boy in his place..
This school was primary; although organized on
the one general plan of all these schools. The last
school visited was the girls' school, taught by
Seniorita Timotea. This was also a primary
school, but appeared to be well taught. In all the-
schools the children were remarkably well be¬
haved ; and in all I found no others but Ilocanos;
not a single Zambalese or Tagalog child or teacher..
The language used in imparting instruction was,
the Ilocano. The Spanish is used in the books,,
but it is a foreign language. What are needed
especially are school books in native language-
Concluded my visits about 11 A. M.
In the afternoon I left for San Narcisa and the
next morning, December 15th, the president of
that town accompanied by the teachers of schools
called on me and received instruction as to the
preparation of reports. In the afternoon I visited
three schools. In one I found a large English'
Bible translated from the Latin Vulgate and pub-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 331
Jished by Potter, 617 Sansom Street, Philadelphia.
I found a class of boys here well advanced in the
•elements of Spanish grammar and in arithmetic.
As a rule the Filippinos are good in writing.
Sunday, December 16—At 9:30 I held service
~with the men, which was well attended.
A Singular Experience—Sunday afternoon I
visited the president of the town and was engaged
in conversation with him seated in the shade of a
bamboo tree. With him were seated also his wife
and two very modest daughters. In the course
of the conversation the president referred to the
VII Commandment, and also the injunction: "Be
fruitful and multiply." The question confused me,
and leading him to a further development of his
thought, he said he had been told by Americans
that this meant only, "Thou shalt not commit adul¬
tery." 1 told him that fornication was equally
prohibited by it; 'that all was contrary to the
Divine law. All this time the wife and daughters
were eager listeners, and the wife put direct ques¬
tions. At length I was made to understand that
in their minds the Commandment applied to per¬
sons in wedlock also. They had been all their
life-long in a bondage, believing they were vio¬
lators of God's law and consequently compelled to
do penance. I never saw a happier and brighter
face than was that of the good wife and mother
when I explained to her that the Commandment
332 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
had no reference to married people. And when,
the truth burst upon her and she said, "Entonces.
es puro" (then, it is pure), the thing she had al¬
ways regarded as sin, father, mother and daughters,
were all happy together.
When the Filippinos arose in insurrection against
the Spanish government, one of their first steps,
was to compel the priests in the provincial towns,
to quit their charges and take refuge in Manila.
The hostility on the part of the militaristic men
toward the "frailes" was intense. As a conse¬
quence the people were left without religious care,,
much to the grief of many pious Catholic women.
It was this situation that led the president's wife
to ask me among other things this question, "Can
a Christian dying pray directly to God? or can
Christians under any circumstances pray directly
to God without," as she put it, "the protection of
some saint or of the Virgin?" In answer I read
the account of the thief on the cross and of the
martyr, St. Stephen; and assured her she could
pray directly to God for herself or for her friends.
The family appeared to derive much comfort
from the thought that there was nothing on earth,
or in heaven to prevent them from going directly
to God with the desires of their hearts.
On another occasion I visited a woman appar¬
ently near death who was in deep distress because
she could not make confession and receive abso--
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 333
lution and extreme unction. There was no priest
near, nor was it possible to get one. I was by
her side a "Padre," not a Roman Catholic. It was
a short first step to have her mind brought to the
state where she would recognize me as a "Padre."'
This done, I led her to admit her willingness to
comply with all the rules of the church. This she
heartily granted. Then I induced her to believe
that God knew the state of heart and would not
hold her responsible for what she could not do;
and that He would accept her just as if these
things were done. Her mind was thus relieved
and I left her in a state of peace.
My visitation carried on throughout the prov¬
ince was about the same character and attended
by about the same conditions and circumstances
as have beer^ recounted. I need mention but one
meeting quite different from all the others. This
was a meeting of mothers which I held in Iba at
6 o'clock on the evening of December 30, 1901. It
was a mothers' meeting, the first of its kind the
women of that section had ever seen. The meet¬
ing was held in the house of the Alcalde, or mayor,,
as we would say. The mothers were all Zambalese,
and in order to talk to them I was compelled ta
use an interpreter to whom I spoke in Spanish
and he rendered my message in their tongue. The
women were by no means expressive but the meet¬
ing appeared to affect them favorably. The only
334 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
object of the meeting was to encourage these
mothers to send their children to school.
Space will not permit me to detail more of my
experiences among these interesting people whose
ways were in many respects so different from
ours. Beside the laws which had been established
by the Spanish government, and the important
and the ever-present and ever-effective -rules of
the church, the people had their own minute "cos-
tumbres" (customs) to which they adhered with
a life-and-death tenacity. The following letter
which I wrote for the purpose of conveying truth
to the highest authority of the Roman Catholic
Church within reach, but which it was not possible
after writing it to get to him, will show the exact
state of my mind at that time with regard to the
religious situation of the Philippines.
Iba, Zambales, February 3, 1901.
Archbishop Chappelle, Apostolic Delegate,
Manila, P. I.
Most Reverend Sir:
I have visited all the pueblos of this province
with the exception of three, and it pains my heart
to see in so 2?iany places the ever faithful sheep
without the watchful shepherd. I am a Protestant,
but I do see the crying need of ministers of God
in these towns. Especially is their power needed
to encourage fathers and mothers in guarding their
daughters from the trying temptations of the hour.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 335
I observe a difference in the towns where there
are curates.
It has been my pleasure to encourage the people:
in every convenient way to hold fast to their re¬
ligious faith, and to observe good conduct.
Although outside of your communion, which I
learn daily to respect more and more, I neverthe¬
less delight to see "Thy children walking in truth
as we have received commandment from the Fa¬
ther."
Very respectfully yours,
(Signed) T. G. STEWARD.
Among the most noted of the men of the Filip-
pino race whose acquaintance I formed I may
mention Don Pedro A. Paterno. He had been,
president of Aguinaldo's cabinet, was a man of
wealth and culture, an extensive traveller; edu¬
cated in Spain, an accomplished writer; in every
way a well-bred gentleman. His writings em¬
braced historical, legal, poetical and controversial
works, and at least one interesting story intended
to illustrate the geography and people of the coun¬
try. Paterno had performed an important part
in bringing to a termination an earlier struggle'
between Spain and the dissatisfied Filippinos
through the peace of Biac-na-Bato. Just what the
terms of this peace were I never learned; but the
Filippino leaders claimed the Spanish government
failed to live up to them: and it was on this ac-
336 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
count that the Filippinos were in arms again when
the Spanish-American War broke out. In con¬
nection with Paterno one could name Mabini, who
was what might be called Aguinaldo's secretary
of state. He appeared to be a man of lofty as¬
pirations and purity of thought. I met him only
while he was in prison, and although a paralytic
and threatened with deportation to Guam, which
purpose was later carried out, at the time I met
him he appeared unmoved and resolute and de¬
clared to me that an enlightened man could not
live without freedom. I may mention also Pascual
Poblete, editor of El Grito Del Pueblo, and his bril¬
liant daughter. Poblete had been an old time
agitator and had been banished under Spanish rule,
being regarded as a filibustero. And there were
women in Manila who dared to talk and to pro¬
test. I saw much in the Filippino to complain of,
it is true, but also much to appreciate and approve.
Being in the army I was not expected to know
anything, or ever to learn anything, about th(;:
Dewy-Aguinaldo agreement, if any agreement in¬
deed, were entered into when the two met in
Hongkong. But I do know of the activity which
sprang up among the Filippino insurgents soon
after the event of the meeting. From a thorough¬
ly reliable source it can be stated that Aguinaldo
began operations May 27, 1898, and immediately
attacked with vigor the various Spanish garrisons,
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 337
with the results that Imus surrendered May 30th;
Dasmarinas June 1st; San Francisco de Malabon
June 3rd : Bacalor June 4th : Calumpit June 10th;
Batangas June 24th; Bulacan June 24th; Lipa
June 28th. This much was done before the
Americans landed. Following the landing, Tarlac
surrendered July 11th; Dagupan July 22nd; Iba
July 25th ; Romblon July 27th; San Fernando del
Union July 31st; Bangor August 7th; Tagudan
August 11th; Loag August 17th; Vigan August
17th; Ilocos Norte August 17th; Tanay August
19th; Isabella August 20th; LalLoc August 25th;
Appari August 26th; Calvaria August 27th; Santa
Cruz de Laguna September 2nd; Morong Septem¬
ber 4th ; Daet September 25th.
In this campaign the Filippinos captured in all
9159 Spanish soldiers and were holding them when
American occupation began. Many of these pris¬
oners I saw and conversed with after their release.
I had the opportunity of meeting Aguinaldo
while he was a captive, and got from him only
two statements. I found him courteous but not
given to talk. In answer to my questions he as¬
sured me that he had suffered very little during
the revolution. My question was about in this
form: "I suppose you have suffered a great deal
■during the revolution." His answer was, "No,
senor; muy poco" (no, sir; very little). To my
question as to his hopes for the future of his peo-
338 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
pie he replied with becoming calmness, "The future
of the Filippinos is in the hands of the American
people," and went no further.
The presence of a so-called colored man is the
acid test of American culture. On a transport on
which I and my son were travelling, some slight
discrimination was observed. We had a separate
table, and a very attentive white waiter, and long
before the voyage was over we had others who
were glad to get to our table, and I had a class of
these "white folks" teaching them Spanish; and
had more confidences from men and women on
the ship than I desired. Here was a bride to be,,
going to meet her husband; here a man and his
wife at outs; here women flirting, and other
women informing me of their behavior and of
their relations in life. But enough of this;
the Spanish have a proverb equivalent to "Every¬
where people cook beans," meaning people are
quite alike everywhere. Thousands of people
there are in the world whose hearts are cry¬
ing for sympathy; and many of these, high
and low, white and colored, have confided their
griefs to me. Heartsick wives, mothers of way¬
ward sons, and disobedient and shameless daugh¬
ters—for many such I have been a trustee for God,
burning the letters they have written and sealing
my lips to the world.
And here I recall a case in Manila. I was board-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 339
ing with Dona Maria Torrent on Calle San
Sebastian and Lieutenant Ballard visited me. This
Lieutenant later served with Colonel Young in
Africa and is now a dentist in Louisville, Ky. Mr.
Ballard was placed in a room to sleep, which was
very large, and was occupied in part by white
Americans, one being from California whose only
name I can recall was "Dick." He was a fellow
without significance, holding a minor job in the
customs house of the port. He objected to the
presence of Mr. Ballard and threatened to leave.
He s'aid it was not the custom in the United States
to put Negroes in a room occupied by white men.
He was informed that Mr. Ballard was a friend
of the "Padre/' and would not be disturbed or
interferred with. He made some ugly remarks
in the little Spanish he knew and left the house.
J remarked to Mrs. Torrent that Mr. Ballard was
a gentleman and worthy of good treatment. She
replied, "I do not need to be told that; I know a
gentleman when I see him." Later "Dick" came
back after his trunk, but as there was some board
money due, the young woman in the house put
her back against the door of the room in which
was his trunk, and that ended the matter; for in
that country to put his hand upon her would have
been unpardonable offense. Madame Torrent call¬
ed her carriage and went down to the customs
house and made her report of the affair, and soon
3+0 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
"Dick" found himself an Othello without occupa¬
tion.
(From My Diary)
I am living in a Spanish boarding house kept by
Dona Maria Torrent, No. 269 Calle San Sebastian.
My fellows are Californians of doubtful social
grade, clerks in different branches of government
employ, and such like folks. Among them is a
fellow whose name is not worth writing who was
behind in his board bill ; and whose manners were
of hoodlum order—'although a; government em¬
ployee. A few days ago Lieutenant Ballard came
to the city and I invited him to board and lodge
with me.
Now, Mr. Ballard is a gentleman of good ap¬
pearance, modest ways, pleasant manners, and a
good degree of intelligence. Dona Maria pro¬
nounced him a "cabellero" at once, saying that
she needed no one to tell her that he was a gentle¬
man of good heart and good training. The "boor"1
to whom I have already alluded protested against
the presence of the "Negro" and made a pretext
for leaving without paying his board. Dona Maria,
told him he could leave in welcome only paying
what he owed; that he was a person without breed¬
ing and without shame; that Mr. Ballard was a
gentleman and would be treated as such. The
"boor" walked out and the other "boor-lets" pres-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 341
«nt were taught a lesson by this fiery Spanish
lady.
The other events described took place after I
had made this entry.
T. G. S.
In this connection I may relate another occur¬
rence. On my trip from Manila to California on
the government transport Crook, as I was enter¬
ing the dining room for the first meal, I was met
by the uniformed steward who said to me in a
tone which appeared to settle the matter, "You
and your son will take seats over there at that
side table." I replied that we would not; and that
he would send my dinner, at once, to my state¬
room. This was complied with; and I set about-
preparing a written report to submit to our col¬
onel. Colonel Bowman was a stranger, he havings
just come to the regiment: was an old line Vir¬
ginian, but he appeared a thorough soldier; yet I
did not know how he would stand in this matter-
Knowledge of the affair, I presume, had reached
him through some channel before I had submitted
my report ; and before the next meal the steward
came to inform me with the following mes¬
sage: "You will take a seat at the Colonel's table;
and your son will be seated at the table with the
lieutenants." And thus the matter ended. The
colonel never spoke to me of it nor did I ever
mention it to him. Pie had done his duty; I did
342 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
not think him entitled to any thanks; did not think
I had received any favor; although I fully appre¬
ciated the character of the deed and of the man.
It was a noble deed only by contrast with the
outrageous background of contemptibilities in
which it is set; otherwise it is most plain and
commonplace.
Before leaving the islands I made a careful ex¬
amination of all the trials of soldiers by court-
martial with a view to determining the standing
of the colored troops with regard to offenses
against women and children. The following re¬
sults were obtained:
25th Infantry—No offenses charged.
24th Infantry—One man convicted of laying
violent hands on a woman, sentenced to four
months confinement and $40.00 fine.
48th Infantry—No offenses charged.
49th Infantry—Two charged, but acquitted.
The time for us to embark for the States was
drawing nigh, and the appearance of the cholera
in our midst made us anxious to depart. We had
some noble colored school teachers in our prov¬
ince: Mr. Bonner and wife from New HaveS,
Conn., Mr. Holder from Kansas City, Mo., and
Mr. Hart from somewhere in the States. The
last named lent especially valuable service in com¬
batting the cholera, both in the province and also
in Manila.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 343
The problem of getting our property and per¬
sonnel on board a tramp English steamer which
arrived, was solved principally through the energy
and ability of First Sergeant E. S. BaskervilL
Gathering up the various companies of the regi¬
ment we were finally embarked at Manila on the
transport Crook, meeting there for the first time
our new Colonel A. W. Bowman. Our trip home,
was long and tedious. We were held up nine days,
at Marivelos, the quarantine station of Manila, be¬
cause of a case of cholera on board. Unfortunately
the soldier died in the station. He was a member'
of the 24th Infantry and had taken the disease
only a day before embarking. By the most rigid
precautionary system the 25th escaped the dis¬
ease altogether. From the quarantine station, as.
soon as released, we sailed to Nagasaki, Japan,,
where we were again held up for three days and'
most thoroughly disinfected and fumigated, after
which we were given a clean bill of health andi
swung out of the harbor to enter upon our long^
course across the Pacific to where the Golden Gate
invitex to California's sunkissed fruits and her
cascades of jasamines and rambling roses.
344 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
THE COLOR PROBLEM WORLD WIDE
What is here recorded was written in the Phil¬
ippines in 1900 and the views here expressed are
the same that others have discovered within the
past two years. I quote from my note book liter¬
ally.
"We are accustomed to think the color question
an American question, and to regard the Negro race
as the only race affected disadvantageously by it;
but a residence of nearly a year in the Orient has
taught me that it is a world-wide question, and es¬
tablishes the most important cleavage among men.
A very intelligent Eurasian came to Manila some
months ago and obtained first-class employment
with an American firm. He was a master of his
business, possessed the manners of an English gen¬
tleman, and was a most enjoyable companion. He
had left a most responsible and lucrative place in
Singapore, because his very little color shade, he
said, had prevented his advancement. He had been
led to believe that Americans were more liberal in
this respect than the English, and his reception by
the American firm here seemed to sustain that view.
In Honolulu, I observed the color line drawn hard
and fast; much as one might find it in Charleston
or Savannah; and it was there that I first heard
other than American Negroes denouncing the as¬
sault made by white men on persons of other color.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 345
It was from a well-educated Hawaian that I heard
the remark that Hawaii had been visited by three
plagues: the leprosy, the mosquitoes and the mis¬
sionaries. The battle in Hawaii is the old "White
and Black" issue.
Arriving in Manila as among the first colored
men wearing the sign of office on my uniform, I
was almost embarrassed by the attentions shown
me by the common people. I soon found that color
meant something to them. I saw many times Fil-
ippinos place their hand along side of the hands of
colored soldiers and say "igual," equivalent to "All
the same." Men high in position and finely educat¬
ed have done the same to me, pointing to their faces.
In conversation with the ablest Filippinos, I have
observed that same frankness and ease that obtains
among colored people of the United States.
Entering their literature I found the same color
question which prevails in the United States, and
the same earnest, manly protest against it. Rizal,
the reformer and martyr, recognized and fought
the color prejudice. In 1897 he was judicially mur¬
dered by the Spaniards; to-day he is recognized as
the greatest character in the Philippines.
Opening a book written by Don Pedro A. Pater-
no, the most prominent Filippino statesman, I find
the same question. The book was published in
Madrid in 1893. Its author is a man of wide learn¬
ing and has lived more than a score of years in
346 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Europe, marrying a daughter of one of Spain's
noblemen, of extensive wealth and great experience.
He was the president of Aguinaldo's cabinet and is
a most accomplished diplomat, as well as industrious
author. The book I open is on "Municipal Govern¬
ment in the Philippines," and consists of a review
of the laws upon that subject, with important notes
and comments, for Don Pedro is a lawyer of ability.
In this book I read: "This divers naming of
races, these distinctions of color, these separations
and exclusions, are the cause of serious distur¬
bances, and of the profound hatred and disgust
latent in the hearts of the people. Already three
centuries have passed since the immortal Legaspi
planted the banner of Castile on Filippino soil and
yet there are thousands, if not one million, of Fil-
ippinos still independent in the interior of Minda¬
nao, I.uzon and the larger islands of the Visayas.
And three centuries and more will yet pass if the
same rule is fiollowed and the Archipelago will not
be entirely Spanish. On the contrary, with the
policy of the great Legaspi, who made generals and
bishops of the natives a half century was enough
to establish that brilliant beginning which has con¬
tinued to the present. Since that policy has been
displaced by the present policy classed as High
Politics, which excludes the natives from all ele¬
vated positions there has been no sensible change,
no visible progress. As long as these separations
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 347
continue and the indigenous race is excluded from
administrative and political positions—this race
which knows the country, appreciates the obsta¬
cles and understands the hidden things of the sit¬
uation—this Archipelago will never become entire¬
ly subject to Spain. And even more we will say—
to speak sincerely and frankly to the nation we
have so much loved in return for generous hos¬
pitality and maternal love received—that if the
government does not destroy these profound hates,
these great separations of races, distinctions and ex¬
clusions, soon will dawn the day in which all the
races of color will unite against the Spanish race,
as always unite against the race favored and dom¬
inant, the disfavored, the excluded, the subjugated,
the oppressed. And even now in the Philippines,
although it is denied by those who cannot see, the
leaders are coming together, fraternities are form¬
ing, societies organizing, and a spark is sufficient
to bring into life a union."
This was the talk of a Filippino, not against Amer¬
icans, but against Spaniards; not in behalf of Ne¬
groes but in behalf of Filippinos. Yet the Spanish
make very little of race or color socially as com¬
pared with the Americans. If the Filippinos had
this complaint to make in 189-3 what are they likely
to have in 1903? Color prejudice is unquestionably
stronger among Americans than among Spaniards.
The Filippino papers say: "The most joyous par-
348 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ties take on at once a serious and sad character the
moment that one arrives who is recognized as an
American," and they say; "One of the principal
causes of the evil we have pointed out consists in
the difference which has been established between
the race of color and that calling itself superior."
The last writer from whom I have quoted was a
lieutenantlcolonel in the insurrection against Spain,
but did not fight the Americans. He is a strong
writer and an author. It is to be noted that he
groups all the pigmented peoples here under the
"race of color."
Nothing is clearer than the fact that the great
color question is dividing the world Just as it is
wicked to be black in America, I fear the day will
dawn when it will be wicked to be white. Three
fourths of mankind are surely awakening. The
World's Negro Congress is but a straw. The com¬
ing people are those of Asia and Africa. Japan
has already shown what can be done; and the Fil-
ippinos, Chinese, and people of India are sure to
emerge, sooner or later.
It is not Christianity that is dividing the world
but COLOR. The color line is an awful fact; and
on it the world's great battle is to come, either
economically or with the sword. Tt is a most happy
thing for the American Negro that he has been
kicked, cuffed and shot out of the white race. This
excludes him from the destiny of that race and
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 349
allots him a portion with the age to come.
THE TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY IN THE
PHILIPPINES
When I had concluded my book on The Colored
Regulars and there was consequently no longer a
reason for my remaining in Wilberforce, I report¬
ed by letter to the War Department and soon re¬
ceived orders to proceed to San Francisco and em¬
bark for the Philippines to join my regiment which
was already there. I have told the reader of my
passage, of my stop in Hawaii, where I met the
Honorable T. McCants Stewart, and where I bap¬
tized his infant child. I should have mentioned more
in detail, perhaps the passengers who traveled on
that ever-rolling ship, the Newport. Three es¬
pecially deserve to be named: John Biddle, then a
captain, now major-general; John Biddle Porter,
then a major of volunteers, at present holding rank
of colonel in the Judge Advocates Department; and
E. A. Garlington. then a colonel in the Inspector-
General's Department, and who figured later so
conspicuously in the Brownsville affair. The two
former were from Philadelphia, reprsenting old fam¬
ilies of that city; the latter was from the South
Carolina country.
On arriving in Manila, I found Lieut. H. Kin-
nison, of the Twenty-fifth, as the harbor quarter¬
master and was soon able to locate my regiment.
350 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
It was encamped at a place called Bamban, about
ten miles from Tarlac, at which place the army of
Aguinaldo dissolved, and resolved itself into small
bands for the purpose of keeping up a harrassing
guerillo warfare. Later three companies of the
Twenty-fifth marched from Bamban over the moun¬
tains and through the forests of that region to the
coast of the China Sea, establishing themselves at
Iba, the capital of the province of Zambales. Thith¬
er later came the headquarters with the remaining
companies of the regiment. From this point, by
order of General Bell, the companies were distrib¬
uted throughout the province from Subig very
nearly to Bolanao, their farthest nothern point of
occupation being Bani. Their chief work at first
was to keep the roads open and to establish tele¬
graphic connection between their stations. They
had pretty sharp fights at Santa Cruz and at Iba,
but most of their encounters were with small bands
who would attack from ambush and then flee. In
one of such attacks Lieutenant Schenck was killed
and several men of his command killed and wound¬
ed. The leading Filippinos in this section were
evidently growing tired of the war and were ready
to consider terms. Gradually they were won over
and the practically worthless arms of their bands
were purchased by the Government authorities.
In the Twenty-fifth at this time we had only one
colored officer, Second Lieutenant John E. Green,.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 351
who was from Tennessee and had served as an en¬
listed man in the Twenty-fourth Infantry. As an
officer he had been placed in command of a de¬
tachment and stationed at the pretty town of Ag-
neau. The three sergeants of our regiment—Hoff¬
man, Russell and McBryer-—who had been made
lieutenants of volunteers and who served in the
Twenty-fifth as officers until the arrival of their
regiment, the Forty-ninth Volunteers, now left us
and beside myself and Lieutenant Green there were
no other colored persons of commissioned rank.
There were many efficient non-commissioned of¬
ficers whose ability to handle men and inspire con¬
fidence and to get things done was surpassed by
few if by any of the men who were commissioned.
Notable among these was Sergeant E. L. Basker-
ville, first sergeant of Company H, at one time rec ■
ommended by the commanding officer for a com¬
mission because of bravery and cool judgment. An
inspector said of him that he was the best non¬
commissioned officer he had seen in the army.
Sergeant Baskerville was a native of Virgina, ap¬
parently a pure blooded Negro, over six feet in
height, built on an athletic plan, strong and capa¬
ble of long endurance, perfect in morals, of bright
and cheerful disposition, a devout Christian, thor¬
oughly subordinate as a soldier, but kind, exacting
and firm in command. He is now an arch-deacon
in the Episcopal Church in Charleston. S. C. Be-
352 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
side Sergeant Baskerville, I might mention for ef¬
ficiency Sergeant Broadus, Sergent Saunders, Ser¬
geant Haynes. Sergeant-Major Morrow and many
others.
The conduct of the regiment as a whole was cred~
itable, although they were not engaged in any im¬
portant battles. In fact while there were many
small encounters in which casualties occurred there
were very few engagements which deserve to be
classed as battles during all the troubles with the
Filippinos after the first few months of hostilities.
The Twenty-fifth suffered casualties in about the
average proportion.
CHAPTER XI.
COMING HOME:
"Hail, Columbia, Happy Land"—Stay in Fort Niobrara—Good
reception by the people—No good hunting or fishing. Transfer
to Texas—Brownsville; Did the soldier shoot up the town? Re¬
tired—Settled in Wilberforce—Employed in the college—Continued
to write—Published "Gouldtown" in collaboration with my brother
—Published "The Haitian Revolution." Summing up.
It wua a proud day when the transport Cook sail¬
ed through the Golden Gate into San Francisco
Bay bearing the Twenty-fifth U. S. Infantry, our
superb band playing "Hail, Columbia, Happy Land."
I had never liked either the words or the tune be¬
fore, but I confess it awakened a thrill of gladness
in my heart as I heard it then after a siege of over
forty days on ship board. But after all is Columbia
altogether a happy land to me? Ought Columbia,
with its race phobia be in all respects a Happy
Land to me? This, I leave the reader to judge. I
will say, however, that keenly sensible as I am to
the ills which my people have suffered here, I nev¬
ertheless appreciate the opportunities into which
they have been thrown. They have been, at it were,.
pitched into a civilization stimulating to the highest
development. And although opportunities are be-
grudgingly allowed to descend to their aspiring
354 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
liands, nevertheless as by a law as persistent as the
gravity of matter these opportunities come.
It was in August, 1992, and after a short delay
in the Presidio we were assigned to our station in
Fort Niobrara in Nebraska. This fort was located
along the Niobrara River, about four miles from
Valentine. It had been vacant for some time, was
well supplied with good frame quarters and as an
item of interest I may remark at that time was
-overrun with snakes. For the first few weeks of our
stay despatching these reptiles was a good part of
our garrison employment. It was in many respects
a dreary post; no woods near, no good hunting
grounds compared with what we had found in Mon¬
tana, and no fishing at all. When you take away
hunting and fishing from the old-time soldier's life,
it is like taking away beans from Boston.
On September 21, 1902, the Commanding Officer,
Colonel Bowman issued the following circular:
"The Regimental Commander is gratified to in¬
vite attention to the complimentary remarks ap¬
pearing in the Valentine Republican: 'A more gen¬
tlemanly, or better behaved lot of men never gar¬
risoned Fort Niobrara, than they have thus far
proven themselves to be, and may it be said to their
credit, they show a disposition to create less dis¬
turbance and noise than did many white soldiers
who have been stationed here. They are evidently
from the better class of their race, and so long
Fifty Years in the Gospel. Ministry 355
as they conduct themselves in the commendable way-
set out they will have the confidence and good will
of our people as a whole. If they could know the.
many compliments paid them on their conduct by
Valentine citizens, they certainly would feel proud,
and the Republican wants them to know that this,
good feeling exists toward them."
This kindly welcome home we have enjoyed from,
the public press everywhere in our journey across
the Continent and at San Francisco. It rests with
the enlisted soldiers of the regiment to proudly
maintain their well-earned reputation for gallantry
in their sober, quiet, self-respecting, manly conduct
among our Nebraska friends."
The reader may ask: Why lay all this responsi¬
bility upon the enlisted men? Why should not the
colonel lay some of the responsibility of maintaining
the high reputation of the regiment, upon the
shoulders of his subordinate officers? The read¬
er who never had the opportunity to know Colonel
Bowman, may well ask such a question; but any
one who had ever come in contact with him would
know that behind this appeal to the men was the
unexpressed but wrought-iron reserve: "As to the
officers, I will see after them." And he did. The
officer who went wrong got no mercy from Colonel
Bowman. Everybody knew he was in the garrison.
Our stay in Fort Niobrara covered a period of
about four years and was occupied in a military
356 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
way by the usual practice marches and target firing.
One battalion of the regiment had been sent to
Fort Reno in Oklahoma and in addition to the two
"battalions left in Fort Niobrara came one company
of wrhite soldiers, making thus a garrison of nine
companies, eight colored, one white. Colonel Bow¬
man retired not long after we had got settled in
our barracks and was succeeded by an affable gen¬
tleman who had served many years in the army
without becoming a soldier. He remained with us
long enough to command the regiment during the
moneuvres of 1903. which I shall describe present¬
ly. Soon after this he passed to the retired list and
Colonel R. W. Hovt took command and under him
I finished my term of active service going on the
unlimited retired list by operation of law, April 17th,
1907, being then 64 years of age.
Our relations with the town people of Valentine
were friendly and we often shared the Christian
Tiospitality of the good Methodist families. My
wife, Doctor Steward, was very useful among the
ladies of the Women's Christian Temperance Union,
lier skill in music and knowledge of medicine mak¬
ing her of important service to them.
On September 24th, 1903, our regiment started
upon its march of 109 miles from Fort Niobrara to
Norfolk arriving at the latter place on October 10th.
The march was leisurely made and our men enjoy¬
ed it. All along the route base ball games were
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 357
played by our teams with the local teams of the
towns we passed through. The band also frequent¬
ly gave concerts in the towns in the evenings. I
rode the distance on horseback, slept in a tent every
night, and although we had frost and ice, I did not
come near the fire but once on the trip. Only on
one morning did I find it necessary to warm my
feet before mounting. From Norfolk to Fort Riley
we traveled by train. We loaded on the cars in
Norfolk in the midst of a drenching rain the whole
command, with its property, including mules, horses
and wagons in just two hours and ten minutes. We
were ordered to Fort Riley for manouvres and we
remained there about three weeks. The camp was
muddy, and we had much rain during our stay. In
my notes I wrote the following: "It is wonderful
"how soon one can get used to living in tents in
moderate weather without fire; and how quickly
one hardens to the air. Although unaccustomed to
such exposure, I do not take cold out-doors in a
tent nearly so readily as I do while living in a city
house." The work done by the division was very
interesting as were also the lectures given. There
were several chaplains on the ground, three ot whom
called on me soon after our arrival. Services were
held in the several commands. Our band received
marked attention and the soldierly conduct of our
men elicited much praise. Texas was there, how-
sever, with a regiment that soon became the butt of
358 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
the camp because of its attempt to belittle the col¬
ored soldiers who were so far their superiors in all.
that pertained to soldiering-. Coming back to our
station by train, I saw one man put oft* the cars
two or three times, yet when we detrained at our
destination he was there also.
Again came the terrible death angel. This time
my youngest, my bright son Walter was carried
away. To live is to suffer. If I have had great
joys, I have also seen these joys outweighed, per¬
haps, with sorrows. Sometimes when my heart
has been overwhelmed I could cry with the Psalm¬
ist : "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy
waterspouts: all thy waves, and thy billows are
gone over me !" and with the wise man, I said of
laughter, "It is mad!" When this stroke came, I
said: "The All-Merciful God will surely stay His
hand now." We who were left looked at one an¬
other and asked in muffled speech: "What does it
mean?" And the answer is not yet.
While we had not the ideal hunting grounds-
which we had roamed in Western Montana, we were
not entirely deprived of that kind of pastime; within,
camping distance were several lakes.which afford¬
ed good duck shooting, and on the prairies there
were occasional spots where grouse and prairie
chicken could be found. Rosebud was about forty
miles away, with its large reservation ; but game
was scarce. We were in the neighborhood of the
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 359
Sioux Indians and bands of them came into the gar¬
rison occasionally. I remember the visits of Two
Strikes and of Picket Pin. They were generally
.good horsemen, and had a drill of their own by
which they could mount and start off at a gallop
at a given signal, although one could not see any
preparation going on until the signal was given,
nDr was the signal noticeable to a stranger.
In 1906 we were ordered to Texas, the maelstrom
for colored regulars. The regiment was divided:
one battalion was sent to Fort Bliss near El Paso;
another to Fort Macintosh near Laredo; and a
third to Fort Brown at Brownsville. Before leav¬
ing for Texas I was asked by the colonel to put in
writing confidentially my opinion as to the effect
•our advent into Texas would have upon the people
of that region. In reply to this request I wrote a
letter setting forth what I thought on the subject,
citing some of the things I had seen during the
manouvres in 1903. I said in my leter that I fear¬
ed we would meet with active hostility. Some
years later, when the Brownsville affair was pro¬
ducing many and various investigations and trials,
I was called as a witness before a court-martial and
this letter was read by the judge-advocate and I
was asked to identify and explain it, which I did in
accordance with the facts.
On our way to our stations I preferred to take
the middle battalion which was stationed at Laredo,
360 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
commanded by Captain O'Neil, not being in good:
health at the time. On our way down the officers
of the train had their meals prepared and served
by their own men, so that we had no difficulty with
the eating houses or at the stations: but signs of
hostility were everywhere evident. At one station-
where we were delayed, I got the non-commission¬
ed officers together and counseled them to use all
sorts of patience and circumspection in order to
avoid occasions for offense. Still I found among
those who had faced Spanish bullets at El Kaney a
feeling that there were limitations to a soldier's,
submission to insults and outrages, although all
were willing to endure much for the good name of
the regiment. One sergeant whom the men called;
"Crazy Horse," an excellent soldier, when told by an
officer that even if spit upon, they must not retaliate,,
replied with more force than elegance: "Lieutenant,
what you say I will try to do; but if any man spits
on me, I shall certainly present it." I suppose he
meant resent.
We found Laredo about ninety per cent. Mexi¬
can and the ten per cent. Texan was composed of
people whose description would be better left un¬
written, speaking in a general way. We arrived
there in August and although our soldiers had serv¬
ed in Cuba and in the Philippines, it was in Laredo
at Fort Mcintosh that they complained most of
the heat. An open by-road leading out from one
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 361
•corner of the garrison into a thicket was soon
marked out by a sign board on which a soldier had
■daubed the words "Four miles to hell." For nine¬
teen days in succession the mercury climbed up to
and leaped over the century mark. It was hot day
and night. Practice marches were required and
■these were performed by starting out very early
in the morning, thus tramping the twelve miles re¬
quired and getting back to post between eight and
aiine o'clock. Still the men would come in wringing
wet with sweat, loaded with their packs, dusty with
a touch-me-not humor. The newspaper reporter
would say as a matter of course, they came in with
the usual good humor of their race, but I know the
men better.
The Brownsville affair took place of which the
whole country was apprised, and various opinions
were formed and expressed. While three com¬
panies of enlisted men were dishonorably dis¬
charged from the service of the United States and
branded as assassins, and murderers because of a
shooting affair in the town of Brownsville, I have
yet to find one officer who was connected with
"that battalion or indeed with the regiment who
expresses the belief that our men were guilty. Of
course these officers were not at liberty to criticise
the action of the president as he was the command-
-er in chief of the army, but they had their con¬
victions. Major Penrose who commanded the post
362 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
at Brownsville when the occurrence took place was
led to believe at first that the soldiers had done
the shooting; later he was convinced to the con¬
trary and affirmed to me that he did not believe
a soldier had fired a shot on that occasion beyond
the shots fired by the sentries to give alarm. The
grand jury at Brownsville failed to find any grounds
for holding the men whom the people charged with
the offense.
When the battalion was ordered away from
Brownsville the men charged were conveyed to
Fort Sam Houston as military prisoners and left
there under guard. There were about a dozen of
them. Soon after their arrival in Fort Sam Hous¬
ton, I obtained permission to visit them. I found
them properly treated, under guard of course, but
in comfortable quarters and receiving the ordinary
soldiers' rations with ample opportunity for exer¬
cise, I knew them all and talked freely with them,
and was not shaken in my belief that they were
victims of Texan hate. I found the sentiment in
the garrison at Fort Sam Houston so far as I
could gather from intercourse with officers and
men, decidedly in favor of the prisoners. The
president, however, acting upon such information
as had been brought to him, decided to make short
work of the matter by dismissing from the service
all the men of the three companies. Among those
thus dismissed were soldiers of long service, un-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 363
impeachable records, and excellent character. .In¬
vestigations, courts of inquiry, and court-martial
trials followed, but the guilt of the soldiers was
never established. Senator Foraker's noble espou¬
sal of the cause of these unfortunate men, and his
able efforts to secure for them a proper hearing
before an unbiased court, places him in the ranks
■of America's most worthy statesmen and patriots,
and entitles him to an exalted place among the
lovers of justice among mankind.
Our quarters in Fort Mcintosh were built of
adobe and were as cool as any material could make
them: but they were only cool relatively to the
"hot sun outside. Next door to us as servant in
an officer's family, lived a remarkable young wom¬
an, and as she furnished my first experience at
close range with matters connected with occult
science, I must relate the circumstances which
brought us into contact- We had a good woman
in our employ, the wife of a soldier who had seen
some of the wonderful things the girl could do and
wished my wife to have her come into our house
and there exhibit her power. Doctor Steward was
not a believer in magic, but had the usual degree
of curiosity and had the girl invited. After some
formalities she put the question: "How many
grand-children have I?" After a brief pause the
young woman replied: "You have six." My wife
said, "Are you sure?" She replied, "Yes." Then
364 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
shaking her head and smiling, my wife rejoined,.
"No; you are mistaken; I have only five grand¬
children." The young woman replied with the
same degree of positiveness, "But I see six." Then,
my wife remembered that in one instance there
were twins born and one died immediately after
birth, and that this one would make the number
of grand-children six. I was then called and after
a few moments asked her to give a description
of my son whom she had never seen and who was
then in Pittsburgh, Pa. In a few moments she:
said: "He appears to be in the cars." Then cor¬
recting herself, she said, "No; he is in an office;
I see books, etc." Then turning to me she asked,
abruptly, "Is he a lawyer?" "Why do you ask
that?" I said. "Because he has just now said to
a man, 'I am a lawyer.'" I admitted that he-
was a lawyer, and that she had been correct in
her description. I then asked her to describe my
sister. She began by saying, "She is a large wom¬
an with a full and pleasant face, and has a lump
on her lower lip on the right side of her mouth
about the size of a cherry." A few more tests,
enabled me to discover that she could read the-
contents of my mind and it was in this way that
she obtained the mental picture of the person she
would describe. In the case of the forgotten grand¬
child, I suppose she was able to discover the record-
that had been made on the mind of the number
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 365
six, or the impression made of six grand-children,
at an earlier date and had ceased to be in the con¬
scious mind.
At length the order came for my retirement and
I selected for my residence a house that had been
built a few years before near Wilberforce Uni¬
versity, and thus became a resident of that com¬
munity. On establishing my family there I found-
congenial surroundings and a healthy location, and
a most interesting school. I gave myself to the
cultivation of my plot of ground and to writing..
I had become so inured to the uniform and as T
found here a military organization, I found it con-
venient to keep up the life of the garrison in my
own surroundings for some time. When school
opened in the fall I entered upon the work of
teaching. I was given charge of the department
of history.
I say department; but as history had been taught
there only in the form of grade school work, there
was nothing in the university that could properly
be called a department of history. It was the
custom to take all first year academic students*
or college preparatory students as they really were,,
and place them in a General History class, with
Myer's for text book, and keep them in that class
for half of the school year with such teaching as
circumstances should afford—oftimes with a stud¬
ent for teacher: and then for the remainder of the
366 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
year the class would take Botany under a profes¬
sor. Beyond this there was no history work, as
such done in the school. I started in w.ith this one
history class and taking that as a foundation or¬
ganized four courses with appropriate text books.
In mapping- out my courses I consulted the best
.authorities and accepted such suggestions as our
case would admit. From the foundation laid b}'
me, largely through Professor L. F. Palmer, has
been developed a respectable department of his¬
tory in the college.
I set out as soon as I had obtained clear views
of the school, to rescue the college department
from its subordinate position and bring it into the
commanding sphere its scholastic standing deserv¬
ed. In this work I was admirably seconded by
the late Professor Farl Finch, as also by others ;
"but it was not without opposition that we sep¬
arated the college class from the domination of
academic and normal seniors, the majority of
whom had had no college training at all. On com¬
mencement it was not uncommon to see college
students sit at attention, while a student graduat¬
ing from the academy (or preparatory department)
delivered the class oration. When the first sep¬
arate college class came up to the commencement
there were some severe animadversions. But the
impetus had been given; and the work went quietly
on until caps and gowns were limited to those who
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 367
were candidates for degrees; a college league was-
formed; fraternities and sororities have come; and
actual college life has been engendered with a be¬
fitting college spirit.
The debating club came into existence while we
were engaged in separating the college activities
from those of the other departments. It was or¬
ganized by Professor Finch, Professor Thomas of
the Seminary and myself. The number of college
young men was so small that it was necessary to
have the young men of the seminary join with
them, and in our early inter-collegiate debates,,
some divinity students took part in the debates,
with credit to themselves and the school. Later,
rules were introduced among the colleges exclud¬
ing theological students from debating teams. The
result was to limit the membership of the club to
college students. The teams that have gone out
from this club have distinguished themselves as.
able, honorable and conscientious debaters, and
many of those who composed them have developed,
into useful public men; as for example, L. F_
Palmer, Principal of High School at Newport
News, Va.; Abram Simpson, teacher in Louisville*
Kv.: George David, Professor in Wilberforce Uni¬
versity: Charles David, teacher; Caswell Crews,
teacher and newspaper writer; Charles Eaton
Burch, Professor of English at Wilberforce Uni¬
versity; Philip A. Burch, student of medicine; D„
368
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
K. Cherry, professor.
In the year 1913 in collaboration with my broth¬
er, William Steward, he doing by far the greater
part of the work, the important volume of "Gould-
town" was brought out by the J. P. Lippincott
Company of Philadelphia. It was a work of his¬
toric value and was well received by the press and
public. The local papers said of it, '"'The Stewards,
authors, have made of ordinarily dry genealogical
matter, a story almost romantic without departing
from facts, studiously avoiding the sensational."
The Ledger of Philadelphia says, "Besides its local
interest, it should prove invaluable to the anthro¬
pologist." Of the mechanical aspect of the book
one paper says, "Typographically, the book is in
the advanced class, and in style of paper and bind¬
ing, as well as in illustration it will compare fav¬
orably with any book published in 1913." The
year following, 1914, my Hatian Revolution came
out from the press of the Thomas Y. Crowell Com¬
pany of New York. It also was well received by
the press, especially by the Haitian press.
And here ends my fifty years in the ministry.
The world is at peace; but for thirty years I have
been watching for the great European war that
should involve the world. Six years have passed,
and now in 1921 while I am writing these closing
lines we can say the war has come and not far
away lingers its awful cloud. Will it return? Dis-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 369
tant thunders proclaim that the war god is still
unappeased. Will he return to us, for more bones
to crush; more blood to drink? God knows.
I must close my recital, trusting what I have
here presented to those who are to come after
me; and I do so with the following reflections:
1. I have written of the ministry; ,the most
glorious calling on earth; the highest work man
ever undertook; and to the reader I will say:
Humble as my endowments have been, I am con¬
fident God chose me for the ministry, and positive¬
ly called me to the work.
2. I desire here to acknowledge not only His
great mercy in forgiving my sins, but also His
tender love in keeping me so often from outward
sin, even when the sin has sprung up in my heart.
3. For what I have been enabled to do I thank
Him; and for all my short-comings, neglect and
unfaithfulness, I can only pray for forgiveness,
and trust .n God's all bounteous grace which thus
far has a^vays been sufficient for me.
Reflections on Retirement
(Written April 23, 1907)
On April 17, 1907, the War Department issued
an order announcing the retirement of Chaplain
Theophilus G. Steward. Chaplain of the 25th In¬
fantry; and hence his name goes on the retired
370 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
list of the army as "retired by the operation of
the law."
Thus ends my active career in the army, and
thus begins the closing chapter of my life. I am
now a "has been," and a "back number," so far
as the army is concerned. Many persons ask:
What will you do now? Won't you be lost? and
questions of like character. My general answer
to all th ;se questions is, that I am very busy, have
work enough before me for three men today and
while strength lasts I shall continue to work with
my might.
According to Osier, I should now wholly retire,
drink hemlock or take chloroform, or else quietly
await the summons to lie down amid pleasant
dreams: according to Steward, I shall do none of
these things. I enjoy life too much to be in haste
about patting it off, and when I keep still I get
sick. How delightful it is to work until one is
really tired and then fall in bed and sleep like a
log to be awakened, as I was this morning, by the
exuberant song of the brown thrasher; to pass
the day in company with the larks, the robbins,
the yellow-hammers, the grosbeaks and the blue-
jays, witnessing their swift and graceful move¬
ments, c.nd listening to their varied songs and con¬
versations. Then one forgets his age, his ills, and
himself, as he sees all nature clothing herself in
her beautiful garments preparatory to the trim-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 371
ming with flowers soon to come. Ah, nature's
dressmaking and milinery; »wrho can sufficiently
admire them?
All things earthly move in cycles, and to this
law mar's life is no exception. Released from the
army ai.d temporarily discharged from "foreign
obligations," I revert to youth as normally as the
rabbit c.oubles to his "form." I start out again
as I di\i at first over forty years ago. Amid a
thousand reminiscences this second beginning is
not less interesting than the first. Then, behind
me were fond parents, around me loving brothers
and sisters, and before me an inviting prospect;
now, I have in my possession all the reminiscences
of by-gone years, with all the bitterness sifted out
and only the sweet remaining; and around me
still are moving brothers and sisters and friends
of my early days, with hearts yet young and gay.
To compensate for that bounding joy of youth
when, "I could run and slide" I have now the
immense ^olden capital of tried and proved friend¬
ship.
No; I ,„dve not retired to pass the days in vain
regrets, >.or merely to "learn to labor and to wait
but to 1 *e, labor and enjoy; and to preach Jesus
t>y exhibiting the peace and joy of His service,
and to \ t ready to give the helping and the glad
liand to my fellowman.
I accept the cordial congratulations which have
come to me with profound thankfulness; and I
372
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
desire to send out to all my friends and well wish¬
ers my most hearty good cheer accompanied with
the motto: Labor on till the close of the day.
PART TWO
CHAPTER I.
EARLY DREAMS AND THEIR FULFILLMENT:
Crossing the Atlantic—Landing in Glasgow—A hard bed—The
University—Art Gallery, etc.
Early Dreams and Their Fulfillment
I was born in 1843 and hence passed my child¬
hood in the days of the Mexican War when peo¬
ple were talking of Santa Anna and his cork leg,
and of General Taylor, "Rough and Ready," and
of General Scott: when the mispronounced names
of Mexican battlefields were passing from tongue
to tongue; when to be a soldier, to go to war, and
to go to Mexico were terms of equal import in
common speech in the neighborhood where I dwelt;
where it was common for my grandfather to enter
the house with the paper fresh from town and
addressing my mother, say "Come, Beck, come
read me the news; let us see What old Santa Anna
is doing."
Under such circumstances it was entirely nat¬
ural that a fragmentary picture of that country
should take permanent lodgment in my mind at a
very early period in my life, and that within me
also should be engendered a dreamy desire to see
those places whose names so awakened my boyish
376 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
enthusiasm. The romantic descriptions given by
our primary geographies, and above all the soldier
stories told by the men who had been transformed
into veterans by one short campaign enlarged and
enriched my conception, and simultaneously in¬
creased my desire to see this land of the cactus
and the agave until what was first but a dream
formed itself into little short of a purpose. It was
my hope, to say the least, some day to visit Mexico.
The dream was formed early, the opportunity
to fulfill it did not come however until after I had
passed my sixty-third birthday, in 1906. At this
time being stationed with my regiment in Texas,
on going away from my post, Laredo, I arranged
to go to New York by way of the City of Mexico
and Vera Cruz, taking steamer from the last named
place. In company with Mrs. Steward, I left
Laredo on the evening train and after a ride of
about thirty-six hours arrived in the City of Mex¬
ico and soon found a good hotel near the Zocalo
•or central square of the city. A brief visit was
made indeed, nevertheless I found great pleasure
in going over the city and suburbs especially
Guadaloupe and Chepultapec; and in observing the
varied costumes and manners of the people, the
stores and markets, the soldiers, notably the
"rurales," those picturesque cavalrymen with their
many buttons and pagoda hats.
From the capital city to Vera Cruz, a night ride
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 377
about twelve hours, over most appalling' stretches
of mountain road good part of the way, in chilly
cars, was accomplished, and then with tickets and
stateroom which had been secured in Mexico, we
went on board the steamer Esperanza of the Ward
line. Our room was among the most eligible, and
we found crew and passengers very agreeable.
Especially was this the case with a party of Cubans
who came on board at Yucatan. We made a short
stop in the harbor of Havana, but were not per¬
mitted to land owing to quarrantine regulations.
From this point our trip northward to New
York was pleasant notwihstanding it was in No¬
vember. Three naval vessels passed us going in
the opposite direction, when we were near Cape
Hatteras, carrying and convoying the then, Presi¬
dent Roosevelt, on his way to inspect the Panama
Canal. Although the day was bright, the sea calm,
the time about three P. M., and salutes were ex¬
changed, yet I knew nothing of it until I heard
the event spoken of by passengers at the dinner
table. At the time of passing I was in blissful
sleep. I was not sorry; for at that time my feel¬
ings toward the President were loyal, but not
gushing: I belonged to the 25th /Infantry, and
Brownsville was too recent to be only a memory.
This was to be my sixth time to pass Cape Hat¬
teras, and heretofore I had always met fine
weather at that point. I now had some appre-
378 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
hension that this trip might furnish an exception
or signalize the beginning of a change of fortune,
but my fears were groundless. The ocean off
the Cape greeted us with its most gracious smile,
its rippled surface beaming with benignity, and
wavelets stirred by a feather-breeze chanting the
most cheerful melody. Over this calm blue sea,
on this still most motionless air, floated out from
the megaphone of the lightship that sentried the
shoals: "Hughes is elected with fifty thousand
majority." This 'announcement exploded in a
cheer, for on our ship all were Republicans (?)
for the occasion. Arriving at New York, my
dream, earliest born, was fulfilled; I had been to
Mexico.
Another dream of my boyhood arising later than
that of Mexico was of the island of Saint Domin¬
go, or Hayti. Among the books first placed in my
reach after I had become old enough to read them,
was one giving a graphic account of the struggles
of the blacks of that island for their freedom and
independence. The plumes and drums, swords and
guns, lace and gilt, fine sayings and thrilling move¬
ments enamored my soul, and I pictured the island
as the theatre upon whose stage those matchless
actors, Toussaint, Dessalines, Christophe, Petion
and Boyer enacted their sublime drama. Then,
too, the grandmother whom I had never seen, had
emigrated to that country. This dream was
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 379
earthed in 1874 when I visited the island of the
pine and the palm, and trod the streets of its War¬
worn capital.
It was not the fulfilling of dreams that led me
across our own continent several times and four
times across the Pacific. It was stern duty tem¬
pered by kind destiny that gave me a glimpse of
Hawaii, of Guam, of Japan, adding also the priv¬
ilege of a sojourn in the Philippines. None of this
was in my programme of life; but the divinity that
shapes our ends put this in as in one sense the
overplus, and in another, as the preparatory ex¬
perience necessary to the fulfillment of my most
engrossing dream of travel.
At the age of six I began the reading of Burns'
poems, and his "Willie Wassel dwelt on Tweed"
was learned before I knew much of its meaning;
his "Twa Dogs," "Tam O'Shanter" and others,
were familiar to me before I was seven years of
age. My study of English history began about
as early; and my blood was stirred as I saw the
masked and armored knights portrayed; or saw
Henry VIII carrying away Anne Boleyn on horse
back; or Elizabeth harrangueing her troops at
Torbay, as these scenes were exhibited in the rude
wood cuts that were found in the books of a cen¬
tury ago. This interest kept up as the years came,
until England, Scotland, France, Spain and Italy
all figured in my dream and with their several
380 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
voices delicately whispered their call from abroad.
Extensive travel in my own country, some travel
in foreign countries had prepared me for the ful¬
fillment of this most rational of all my dreams.
I was not to see Europe until the automobile had
come ; until wireless telegraphy had joined the con¬
tinents ; until 1 should see ships of the air sailing
over Italian valleys; until by my relation to the
army of the United States, and my acquaintance
with men and letters, I might be able to command
some attention and at the same time place some
intelligent estimate upon the things which Europe
had to present. My views were hastily taken, my
time and means limited, and I am sure another
with more time and means could see more and
describe better than I have done; but this thought
does not deter me from offering the results of my
own observations. They may be humble; they
are honest.
In the pages which follow the reader is invited
to see what I have seen abroad, and the effort is
made to present the narrative in such form as will
interest and please. I have tried to make the
recital as exact as possible and to put into it as
much information as possible without rendering
my story tedious. If I shall succeed in giving to
my readers a tithe of the pleasure I enjoyed in
gathering the story I shall regard the time and
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 381
labor put forth in the writing as profitably ex¬
pended.
The opportunity came, arrangements were rap¬
idly made and myself and wife embarked on the
Anchor Line steamer Caledonia for Glasgow, Scot¬
land, with return tickets by the Hamburg-Ameri¬
can Line steamer Moltke, sailing Ifrom Naples,
Italy. This accomplished, the dream was crystal-
ized into a memory and is here partially repro¬
duced in the pages which the reader is now, invited
to peruse.
CHAPTER II.
EDINBOROUGH:
A religious family—The University—The lnrsd question—Palaces
—Castle—Churches—Elevated civilization.
We had engaged passage on the steamer Cale¬
donia, the largest of the Anchor Line fleet now
consolidated with the Cunard, sailing from New
York to Glasgow. We found this a fine, compara¬
tively new, steel vessel of nearly 10,000 tonnage,
beautifully and comfortably fitted up and supplied
with all modern improvements, including wireless
telegraph.
The crew numbered over 250 men, divided as
follows: engineers' department about 100 men, in¬
cluding 15 engineers and as many petty officers;
stewards' department, about 120 men, including 18
stewards and 6 stewardesses; deck department,
45 men, including 6 boatswains. The executive
staff of the ship consisted of the first, second, third
and fourth officers, the chief engineer, surgeon,
purser, chief steward and the stewardesses. The
whole crew drilled as a unit in preparation for
fire. The ship's length was 515 feet and a prome¬
nade of one-fifth of a mile could be had by making
the circuit of the deck.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 383
We went on board Saturday, July 24th, and soon
after twelve o'clock were steaming" down the bay
headed for the open sea. The weather was very
warm and our cabin somewhat central although
well ventilated, was not comfortable at first; but
it became more than cool enough before we reach¬
ed our first landing on the far side of the Atlantic.
We had about the usual experiences in getting ad¬
justed to our new conditions.
Sunday came on with pleasant weather and the
notice in the cabin soon attracted my attention.
It was a fixture and read thus: "Divine service
may be held in this room on Sundays from 11 to
12 o'clock." The room was provided with an organ
and an ample supply of hymnals all under the
charge of the deck steward who cared also for the
circulating library with which the ship was fur¬
nished. The services this day were conducted by
a presbyterian minister, Rev. James A. Reed, a
graduate of the Xenia Seminary, assisted by an
episcopalian minister, a Cambridge man, as Eng¬
lish as man could be. He smoked a corn-cob pipe,
was near seventy, or at least over sixty years old,
was something of a pugilist, and sported a fresh
scar on his nose which he said he obtained in a
scrap with a man for abusing a horse. He said
he knocked the man down, but did not report ulti-
timate results; the scar on the nose however was
convincing proof that the knocking had been part
384 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
of a general process of action and reaction, in
which the motion of masses finally dissipated itself
in the motion of atoms or less. There were sev¬
eral ministers, and school teachers on board.
The entire passage was delightfully smooth, the
weather fine, the indicator of the barometer never
once leaving the word "Fair." The passengers
were generally agreeable, the captain approachable
and genial. A lady instructor from Mount Holy-
oke College: a judge from Illinois; an archdeacon
from Missouri; a contractor from New York; and
others more or less interesting, interchanged cour¬
tesies and engaged with us in various periods of
conversation.
On Friday night, July 30th, a fine concert was
held, Miss Nancy I,aw accompanying at the piano.
Mr. Law, the father, sang two good Scotch songs;
while Dr. Alexander, the ship's surgeon, proved
himself a very pleasing singer. Possessed of a
fine baritone voice and a cordial manner, he won
the favor of all. Sir Samuel Ohisholm, former
lord provost of Glasgow, presided on the occasion,
himself giving one effective recitation; and during
the interlude delivering a very appropriate ad¬
dress in which there breathed a deeply pious spirit.
It was noticeable however, that in singing "Auld
Lang Svne," in the chorus of which hands were
interlocked in obedience to a Scotch custom, my¬
self and wife found ourselves very carefully ex-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 385
eluded from the circle, though standing in its line-
No one of these highly cultured people seemed to*
be aware that both a rudeness and a wrong had
been committed; an act of rudeness and a wrong
for which no reasonable excuse or circumstance
of palliation could be assigned. I do not believe
there was in the whole circle one person capable
of a blush for what they did, nor one who would
deny that we were Christians, and sufficiently mod¬
ified in manner to enjoy what others of the circle
were enjoying. On this basis we had been solicited
to purchase tickets, and it was taken for granted
that we could enjoy, and had enjoyed, the concert.
Here then were Christians refusing a very simple
courtesy to other Christians for what? The pro¬
ceeds of the concert amounting to $50.00, and the
collection that had been taken up during the Sun¬
day services previous, were turned over to the
fund for the relief of the widows and orphans of
sailors.
Sunday morning, August 1st, found us steaming
slowly up the Clyde, enjoying the beautiful scen¬
ery afforded by either bank. Far away to our left
could be seen Lomond, celebrated in song and
story, while near, rose Dunbarton castle, perched
upon a height well nigh inaccessable. It was to
this refuge that Mary, Queen of Scots, the en¬
chantress of her century, directed her efforts, only
to fail. Yonder is the seat of the Argyle whose
386 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
earle was the leader of Mary's army, and who in
common with her devoted admirers and followers,
fought valiantly in her cause, though all in vain.
About noon we reached the wharf and were
soon away to private quarters on Sauchiehall
Street, Charing Cross, one of the most popular
parts of the city. Here we secured lodgings and
breakfast at reasonable rates, deciding to take
other meals wherever we might happen to be at
the time. The room assigned us was pleasant and
well furnished excepting the bed. This was of
the folding variety and the case all that could be
desired, fine wood and elegantly polished. The
bed itself if not of hard-wood finish was one of
the "just as good" kind. We found it much better
adapted to giving impressions than to receiving
such; and we were not long in discovering that
on rising in the morning it was the people rather
than the bed that needed "making up." I fancy
the bed must have been made of that poetic down
known as Scotch "heather;" and it is my opinion
that after lying on it one week we left its surface
in parting as calm and unruffled as we had found
it.
But leaving our interesting place of abode,
something must be said of Glasgow. This is a
city of about one million inhabitants, Scotch al¬
most to an individual, to judge by appearance. One
sees but one language on all the signs, and hears
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 387
only the one language on the streets, to wit: Eng¬
lish, boiled down in strong Scotch. The people
are energetic and healthy-looking, and although
business here is much depressed, they appear
cheerful. I should judge they are great meat
eaters, as the city is well supplied with meat shops
and the meat is of fine quality.
The city is largely of stone; is well laid out, the
streets are clean, the stores exceedingly well kept,
and the street railway system, with its graded
fares, is very convenient. The cars are two
stories; some of them carrying 28 passengers on
top and 34 within. Automobiles are not so abun¬
dant as in our cities. Horses are very plentiful,
are of good size, well harnessed, and the wagons
on the street generally smart looking. Many of
the horses are fine looking, but the close fitting
blinds on their bridles, and the universal custom
of cutting off their tails, detracts from their ap¬
pearance.
On August 2nd we made a trip to Loch Lomond,
going the 17^4 miles on the trolley cars, passing
through many villagees, and a succession of fields
of hay, oats, wheat, turnips and potatoes. All of
these crops are much thicker on the ground than
at home. I should judge in all cases they would
give very nearly double the results per acre of an
Ohio farm. TJie cows are of good size, and retain
their sharp horns. Butter and milk, ham and
388 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
bacon, are of excellent quality; eggs are plentiful,
and the mutton and lamb are very fine, quite like
our Rocky Mountain mutton. It is now the sea¬
son of strawberries and green peas. The weather
is cool and thick clothing is in demand.
I saw girls and women in the hay fields, perfect
in form and free of movement, handling the pitch
fork with graceful dexterity. The whole land
seems to breathe poetry, and to bring forth art as
by spontaneous generation. The air is full of
song, and the people are musical, yet plain. So
far, I have seen nothing to mar the impression
made upon me at first as to their high degree of
civilization.
We visited the Botanic Garden which contains
about what may be expected of such a place, and
then passed some time in the Glasgow Art Gallery,
giving special attention to sculpture and painting,
although there is a large exhibit from 'natural
science, and from the mechanical arts. We saw
there a very striking picture representing Queen
Victoria's visit of state to the city, and prominent
among the figures on the canvas stands the like¬
ness of the genial Sir Samuel Chisolm, at that time
Lord Provost of the city and Lord Sentinel of the
county. Strangely enough, on our first walk in
Glasgow we were fortunate enough to meet Sir
Samuel, on a busy street, who immediately made
way to us and halted us before we recognized hina,
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 389
•greeting us most cordially.
In the gallery I saw two pictures painted by
George Moreland, 1763-1804, which were very im¬
pressive, One bore the title, "The African Slave
Trade," and showed a brutal kidnapping of blacks
by whites on the coast of Africa; the other was
called "African Hospitality," and showed black
men, women and children extending kindness to
white people who were in 'distress on African
shores.
Our next visit was paid to the great university,
"which of course, was not in operation. The num¬
ber of students last year, we were told, was over
12,800, of whom 600 were females. The professors
number, however, but 34, thirteen of whom were
on the grounds. We were shown through various
class rooms and given particular information as
to the discipline and ceremonies of graduation, etc.
I noticed that the seats and desks contained not a
^single scratch or mark; this immaculateiess was
-explained by a notice which was posted stating
that any student cutting or defacing any bench or
other piece of furniture would be compelled to re¬
place the injured piece with a new one. I was told
that in each class room the student takes the seat
that he is obliged to keep during the term; and
at the end of each semi-circular bench is seated a
censor who is responsible for the conduct of all on
that bench; and such is the discipline that during
390 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
lecture periods not a murmur will be heard. The
seats in all the rooms are arranged in amphitheatre
form.
In case of misconduct on the part of a student
he is warned; if this does not cure him, he is "rus¬
ticated" for a period; if the misconduct becomes
serious, he is "rusticated" permanently, which
means that he can never re-enter any college in
the British Empire. If the girls show a tendency
to flirt, they are warned by the lady censor; if this
tendency is persisted in, their parents are informed
and they are sent away. No students lodge at the
university; but all must lodge under the direction
of the faculty. The Senate controls all matters
of education and discipline. The Principal and his
immediate associates control all matters of finance.
Great halls were shown us, the gifts of noble
friends; and many beautiful memorial windows
presented by alumni of the university. Promi¬
nent among these gifts stands the great organ pre¬
sented by Andrew Carnegie as a recognition of the
degree conferred upon him by the university. We
were gratuitously shown how the ceremony of con¬
ferring degrees is performed. First in order, come
the Divinity candidates, that department being the
oldest in the university; then follow as next in
seniority, the candidates in Medicine; then those
in Arts; then Laiw, Science, etc., .according to
seniority. The candidate kneels and receives the
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 391
•cap, then faces the audience while he receives the
hood. We were shown the spots where each of
these acts is performed.
We were informed that while the Universities of
Cambridge and Oxford do not exact regularity in
attendance, it is otherwise at Glasgow. Daily at¬
tendance is compulsory, excuses being granted upon
;good reasons; excuses for non-preparation are not
granted at all. The student must be prepared.
Students may enter the Department of Arts at any
^ge, but can not enter Medicine under 16. Ladies
•enter all department except Law and Divinity; from
these they are debarred by statute.
In the evening, we attended a missionary meet¬
ing in the Y. M. C. A. building, and listened to an
address delivered by a missionary who had spent
25 years in China. In introducing him, not a com¬
plimentary word was used and not one remark
was made in reference to his work. The announce¬
ment was quietly made: "Mr. will now ad¬
dress us."
The most remarkable thing about the meeting
was the long time spent in prayer and the calling,
while on their knees, (for everyone kneels) of a
long list of names of their missionaries in all parts
of the world, and commending them severally to
God. They called their names before the Lord
while all were in silent prayer, and concluded with
an audible prayer embracing them all.
CHAPTER III.
EDINBOROUGH
YORK:
Its history—Minster—St. Mary's Abbey—Roman remains—Sir
Theodore Martin—A great life.
Right opposite where we are staying1 is a lecture-
room of the University where the vivsection of
animals takes place. We are in the atmosphere, so
to speak of this great seat of learning and in the
house where we lodge the lady tells us that many
Canadians have lodged before us, while seeking
degrees here. The old gentleman who is proprietor
of the house is an earnest Christian who conducts
family worship in a most reverential manner and
is very familiar with the Scriptures.
The prevalence of religion is most striking. In
one of the finest hotels, near the office, I saw the
notice, "Family worship is held in the Drawing
Room every evening at 10 o'clock; all are invited
to join." The Scotch people are neither too modest
nor too cowardly to stand up and stand out as
Christians. In Glasgow I met the Apostolic Cath¬
olic Church, holding firmly to the Creed of Athan-
asius.
Land is still held in feu and the landed Dukes
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 393
•and Lords, Earls and Sirs are thus brought into
possession of a vast unearned increment which
manages to very nearly escape taxation, while the
wage-earners and feu holders are taxed almost to
the breaking point. In expressing my view of the
.situation to a bright Scotchman this morning, he
replied that I had grasped it exactly. It was to
the effect that there is too much of the traditional
and sentimental in the affairs of the Government.
Primogeniture and entail, play too large a part
for the common good.
While Scotland is the richest country in the
-world, vast numbers of its people are much poorer
than they ought to be. Its cities are admirably
governed and sanitary. The deat'h rate in Glasgow,
a city nearly equal to New York, last week was
only 12 to the 1,000. To-day's Evening Dispatch
(Edinburgh), appearing since the above was writ¬
ten, contains the following statement:
SCOTTISH DEATH-RATE
The Registrar-General for Scotland reports that
during the week ending 7th of August 1900, there
were registered in eight of the principal towns of
Scotland the births of 874 living children and the
deaths of 429 persons. The equivalent annual
birth-rate per thousand of the estimated aggregate
•population of 24.4, and the death-rate of 12.0. The
394 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
death-rate for the week is 0.2 above that for the
previous week, but is 0.3 below the mean of the
rates for the three preceding weeks, and 0.8 below
that for the corresponding week of last year. The
death-rate for the week ranged from 14.4 in Green¬
ock to 9.8 in Aberdeen. In Dundee it was 13.2,.
in Leith 12.8, in Edinburgh 12.5, in Glasgow 11,9.
in Paisley 11.4, and in Perth 9.9.
It will be interesting to read the following re¬
port of arrests made in Glasgow during Fair week
as affording another glimpse into Scottish muni¬
cipality life:
A GRATIFYING REDUCTION
Statistics have been prepared by Chief-Constable-
Stevenson regarding misdemeanours in Glasgow
during Fair Week. The figures show a splendid
record, being the lowest during the past ten years.
There were 483 "drunks," 433 "disorderly conduct/*'
260 "contraventions," and 115 under the heading
"crime." Of the total of 1300, "drunks" show a
decrease of nearly 200 as compared with the three
preceding years, and the "crime" cases even great¬
er reduction.
Daily I see more colored students here, but can¬
not tell the countries they belong to. Yesterday,.
I saw two little colored girls out with a white
maid, but as yet I have not seen a colored person;
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 395
"in business or at work. To-day, August 12th, we
received our first invitation to dine, and also to
make a call in the evening-.
The weather hovers around 70, yet it is spoken
-of as a heat wave. Singularly enough, the people
are clad in costumes running all the way from mid¬
winter to mid-summer—bare knees for boys being
very prominent. I meet a few Highland soldiers,
who still wear the kilt and the bare knees; the
Royal Scots wear red coats and plaid trousers. I
Tiear much complaint among the Scotch themselves
about the drink habit; I can bear witness that pipe-
smoking prevails very generally.
To return to the land question, which, under the
•name of the "Budget," is agitating all Britain, I
may give an instance. The section of the city
where I live belongs to the estate of Sir George
Wanderer. A few years ago it was forests and
fields, as was the case with many parts of our
own cities. It is now covered with solid stone
mansions. But to change forest and field to city
'blocks in our own country, the land itself must
undergo vicissitude and pass from owner to
-owner within the reach of the assessor, so that
the increasing value of the land bears its share of
taxation. In this case, however, the land still re¬
mains in the estate of Sir George, and those who
ibuild upon it have it only in feu ; they are his
vassals in a modified sense, and the buildings are
396 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
taxed and conditioned while the landholder's tax-
does not increase. This great increase which has.
taken place in the value of the land, and which en¬
ables the holder to extract large sums in feu, is
what is called here "unearned increment," and
which the people are now demanding s'hall bear itff.
share of taxation. The landholders, of course, are
like Jeshurun, they have already waxed fat and
they kick high.
The Suffragettes, though noisy, are a mere ripple
beside the mighty roar of the "Budget." Let the^
rich bear their share is the cry. The rich make
large gifts to the towns and do much in a benev¬
olent way—their gifts are enormous—but How are
they able to make such gifts? and Why should
they be so able? are underlying questions. Social¬
ism must be reckoned with ere long in all this land..
Sociology, socialism, reform or revolution is the
program of destiny.
A visit to Holyrood Palace revealed so many in¬
teresting historic items, which I was unable to-
study, that I can speak of but few. The palace is
described in the Encyclopaedias, but within, the bed¬
room and bed of Lord Darnley are still preserved
with many other interesting relics.
I was interested in seeing the house on the spot
where Darnley was blown up; in the church and
house of John Knox; in the home where Walter
Scott was born; where Robert Burns lodged while-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 397
in Edinburgh; where David Hume wrote his his¬
tory ; and the house in which Mary Queen of Scots
passed her last night in Scotland. Perhaps the
most strikingly Scottish thing was the equestrian
statue of Charles II. It is a fine model, but the
canny Scotch have shown their estimate of his
character by finding a face on his breast and a face
on his back, and the cabman called our attention
to these as he mentioned him as the two-faced
King. The spot where John Knox is buried is
marked, though it is no longer kept as a tomb;
near it, marked in stone, is the heart of Mid-
Lothian.
A great Carnegie library adorns this city, but
there are so" many great buildings that it cuts but
small figure. Churches, the oldest Parliamentary
buildings, castles and the university and art build¬
ings, infirmaries, hospitals, great hotels, railway
stations, one might say, speaking hyperbolically,
there is no end to great buildings.
We had the pleasure of going into Edingurgh
Castle, perched on a rock almost precipitous on
three sides, 300 feet above the surrounding valley,
a most ancient castle fortified before the days of
Roman subjugation. After the Kingdom of North-
umbria had been extended over this land, this cas¬
tle and the settlement received the name of Ed¬
win sborough, after King Edwin." The castle is
garrisoned now by one company of regulars; but
398 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
I was told that within a few days the regiment of
300 men would be stationed there. From this cas¬
tle perfect views of the city can be obtained. Re¬
tired non-commissioned officers serve as guides. A
striking thing on the castle grounds is the ceme¬
tery for the dogs of the soldiers and sailors, and
many a dog with a history lies buried there with
suitable headstone. Soldiers who will carry their
dogs through all kinds of hardship can under¬
stand and appreciate the feeling that gives a sol¬
dier dog a grave akin to that of the soldier himself.
I have known a dog to be buried with partial
military honors.
. A VISIT TO YORK
A few paragraphs relating to the history of
York cannot fail to be of interest to the reader, and
may serve to awaken sufficient sympathy to enable
him to picture something of the city as it now is
as he reads such descriptions as my pen may af¬
ford, assisted by the few illustrations which are
here found. The district in which the city of York
stands was subduel by Agricola, father-in-law of
Tacitus, who at one time commanded the 20th
Legion, and, 74-76 A. D. was governor of Acqui-
tania. From 78 to 84 he governed the province
of Southern Britain and prosecuted therein sev¬
en energetic campaigns by means of which
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 399
he extended the sway northward so far as
the northern boundaries of Perth and Ar-
gyle. He made York a military station under
the Roman name of Eboracum, the district being
called Valentia. .The city was the headquarters
of the Victorious (VI) Legion, and became the
residence of Roman emperors. Septimus Severus
and Constantius died here, and it was in York that
Constantine was born in 306, and later, in the same
city he was proclaimed emperor. It was in York
that the Danish king Guthrum was baptized. Wil¬
liam the Conqueror reached here in 1068, two years
after his landing, and built Clifford Tower which
is still standing. Henry II. held a parliament here
in 1156. Other parliaments were held here during
the reigns of the Plantagenets.
In the War of the Roses, York took the side of
Lancaster, and the head of Richard Duke of York
who was slain in the battle of Wakefield, was ex¬
posed on Micklegate Bar. The city retained its
prominence under the Tudors and the Stuarts, and
still merits the attention of the student of history
or the lover of what is interesting and picturesque.
Of it has been said: "The City of York is one of
the most ancient and interesting places in England
which the visitor whether in search of pleasure
or knowledge of history and antiquities can pos¬
sibly find—nay it may truly be said that in no other
city or town will be seen so many relics of past
400 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ages as in York. Whether historic, civic, or social,
York has ever, from Roman to Mediaeval times
played an important part in the history of this
country."
York is situated on the Ouse River about forty
miles from sea; it is the seat of an archbishopric,
the second in England and contains the famous
Minster. This church is next in size to Saint Paul
in London and is regarded as the foremost of Eng¬
land's cathedrals. It is 524 feet in length, 250 feet
across the transept, and 103 feet across the nave.
It was to see this building, and also to examine as
far as my limited time would permit the ruins and
relics which this city contains which induced me to
make my short stop over. Two weeks spent here
would not be sufficient to enable even a trained and
vigorous observer to master the great collections
of antique articles stored up in this city, while for
me, inexperienced in examining the details which
I there found, and no longer in the enjoyment of
that vigor pertaining to the earlier stages of life,
my stay of twenty-four hours could only impart to
me a more or less confused idea of the vast store
of historical material there treasured. The story
of my visit must be short : and this chapter will
l>e occupied to a considerable extent with observa¬
tions and reflections dealing with the country at
large. The reader will find them useful in enlarg-
CLIFFORD'S TOWER
Built by William the Conqueror
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 401
ing and clearing the general view of English
life presented throughout these pages.
YORK, ENGLAND.
We left Edinburgh at 10 o'clock on the East
Coast Route, and at exactly 2.14 were running into
the station at York, having covered a distance of
179 miles in the four hours and sixteen minutes,
with no jolts, swinging from side to side, and but
little noise. And as myself and wife occupied the
whole of a compartment, where we could not see
another person on the train, nor be seen by other
passengers, it was very much like being at home.
The porter, on taking our baggage and opening
the door of the compartment, asked us if it would
suit us, and on being assured that it was satisfac¬
tory, placed our baggage within and helped us in.
I had heard that the British method of handling
baggage was much inferior to the American. This
I will not discuss, but will relate a case. On leav¬
ing Edinburgh en route for London, with a stop¬
over at York, I shipped by baggage (3 pieces)
addressed to my hotel in London, paying a six¬
pence, or about twelve cents on each. When I
reached London I found my baggage in my room
at the hotel without further charge. I could not
liave had the same service at the same cost any¬
where in the United States.
402 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
In the matter of debarking and passing the Cus¬
tom House at Glasgow, I found the system very
nearly perfect. All the baggage was taken off and
arranged alphabetically before any passengers were
allowed to land, and within twenty minutes after
landing I was in a cab with my baggage on my
way to a hotel. How much American officials
might learn from Scotch and English officials in
the way of politeness.
But I want to tell my readers something about
York, but not too much, as I shall make two full
lectures to my history students on this city. Nor
is it worth while to mention my first experience
in a cheap English hotel. The bed was good, the
board execrable, the charges ghastly. I stopped in
York to see the "Minster" and the Roman remains.
The "Minster," the famous Cathedral, is a most
wonderful building, dating back to earliest Christian
times. Here we heard a most delightful service
and were treated with great courtesy by the min¬
ister in charge. We heard also those beautiful
chimes such as I have never heard before; the
Scripture reading, the prayers, the wonderful or¬
gan playing and the marvelously trained boy choir,
with men conducting the tenor and bass parts made
a most esthetic and inspiring service.
A gentleman, entirely a stranger to us, compli¬
mented us with an order giving us admission to
the grounds of St. Mary's Abby, where the Roman
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 403
remains are kept. I expected to see much, but my
expectations had not risen to the tenth part of the
reality I saw. Here had been the Roman Camp,
and here many soldiers and officers had been bur¬
ied. I myself read the stone of a standard-bearer
of the Ninth Legion; and there were soldiers'
graves of the Sixth Legion. Numerous heavy stone
coffins, with inscriptions, more or less distinct; and
one was marked: "Serene, honesta, femina, conju-
ga Consul Rafi." Pottery, ornaments, instruments
of great variety are here. In one stone coffin was
found a lead coffin, and within this lead coffin (I
saw both the stone and the lead coffins) was found
the dust of a human being and a beautiful coil of
brownish yellow hair still held in place by jet pins.
I saw this hair; it is kept in darkness still and ex¬
hibited only to visitors. Most of these discoveries
were made in excavating for a railway here, and
all are well attested. A part of the Roman wail
and its tower still stand.
But York is also rich in Danish and Norman ma¬
terial. It was a walled city under the Romans, it
became a walled city under the English, and this
later wall, with its gates, still remains. The gate
on which the head of Richard Duke of York was
exposed still stands, and it was within a few feet
of it that I stopped. While on the grounds of St.
Mary's Abby, I took the grass-cutter's scythe and
mowed a few strokes, causing him to say, "You've
404 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
cut grass before." He then asked of my country,
and when told that we came from the United
States, he, as many others have done, remarked:
''You do not talk like an American; you speak clear
English." Is it that the American tourists who
pour over this country belong too largely to a class
who dod not "speak clear English?" We have
been complimented on our English several times.
Taking the train at 2.30, we left York for Lon¬
don, King's Cross Station. Wheat, rye, and oats'
harvest is going on, and the crops appear very good.
The shocks of wheat on the fields are more than
three times as thick as ours, and the sheaves while
lying appear to be almost touching one another.
I am astonished at the amount of food stuff pro¬
duced by Scotland and England; so much more
than I had ever led myself to think. Agriculture
has reached a very high degree of development,
and the people are now urging that all land be em¬
ployed.
The spirit of "small holdings" is spreading and
receiving encouragement from some of England's
noblest nobility. Lord Carrington has recently put
out 2,000 acres of his estate in that way, and two
days ago prizes were distributed among the small
holders to those who had done the best.
As an example, Lady Carrington herself had
taken a small holding, paid the rent, has "now
seven cows in milk and supplies the family with
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 405
most excellent milk and butter. This shows
what a hard-working, intelligent woman could do
when she put her mind to it, and had a bit of land
to work." The words quoted above were uttered
by Earl Carrington to the meeting of small holders,
and were received with cheers. The Earl also
quoted Roosevelt quite generously, and emphasized
the following from him: "On the development of
country life rests ultimately our ability to supply
the cities with fresh blood, clean bodies and clear
brains, that can endure the terrific strain of mod¬
ern life. We need the development of men in the
open country, who will be, in the future as in the
past, the stay and strength of the nation in time
of war, and its guiding and controlling spirit irt
time of peace."
Reports of over 50,000 acres that have gone into*
small holdings, are given put, and it may be that
some of the landholders have seen what is coming
and are quietly stepping out from under. Mr,
Asquith's policy certainly will not interrupt fhis
movement, and there are now 50,000 vacant, houses,
in London.
The following from Sir Theodore Martin, who>
"has just died in his ninety-third year, may be of in¬
terest to my readers. Sir Theodore was a great law¬
yer and writer, having graduated in early life from
Edinburgh University:
406 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
SECRET OF A HEALTHY LIFE
"About a year ago a letter was published from
Sir Theodore in answer to some inquiry as to diet
and other matters affecting health. In reply, the
veteran of 92 wrote as under.—the noteworthy
feature being his natural and remarkable aversion
from tobacco. Having said that he paid little at¬
tention to diet, practiced moderation in all things,
and avoided rich dishes, he added:
As to wine and spirits, I never cared for them,
and drank little of either—always mixing my wine
with a large proportion of water. After middle-
age I began to care less and less for wine, and
for the last twenty years a glass of port wine,
largely tempered with water, satisfies all my wants.
A cup of coffee I have always found the best re¬
storative from brain exhaustion.
Of smoking I have all my life had an extreme
■dislike, and get out of the way of it whenever I
can. If forced to inhale it for even a few minutes,
by being in the company of smokers, it acts upon
me like poison, lowering the action of my heart,
and giving me a nervous headache that lasts for
hours.
During a long and abnormally busy life I have
never found occasion to resort to stimulus of any
kind during the longest spell of continuous mental
labour. That I have never broken down I attribute
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 407
to a naturally good constitution, hard work in
which I delighted, and temperate habits. "Vivere
convenienter nature," a maxim I early learned
from Horace, is the secret of a healthy and long
life, according to my experience and observation.
And here we may close our recollections of the
accomplished scholar, the brilliant litterateur, the
genial philosopher, the trusted counsellor of his
Sovereign. In him there has passed away a raaa
who ranked as one of the ornaments of his time.
It is pleasant to see such a life so prolonged."
Going back to my notes on Dumbarton Castle,
the reader will find the following note, published
yesterday furnishing additional light:
Lord Inverclyde is taking a great interest in the*
preservation of the venerable and famous Dum¬
barton Castle, which, it is feared, will soon become:
a derelict and abandoned fortress, if a recent de¬
cision of the authorities in charge of it becomes.;
effective. His lordship is Lord Lieutenant of the:
county, and chairman of the committee which is
moving in the matter. It appears that the formal
transference of the castle from the custody of
the War Office to his Majesty's Office of Works
has now taken place, and the one-man garrison,
in the person of Corporal Smith, has gone over
to the 22nd Company, R. G. A., Leith Fort. The
castle is now in charge of a caretaker, named Cor¬
poral Steele, who has received an appointment as.
408, Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
a park ranger under the Office of Works. Lord
Inverclyde's committee gave its consent recently
to a scheme by which it was expected that the
fortress, while being transferred to the Office of
Works for the preservation as a national monu¬
ment, would be utilized as a home for Scottish
soldiers, and in some other minor military capacity
which the War Office might sanction. It now trans¬
pires, however, that the castle has been found
unsuitable for the proposed soldiers' home. His
lordship has accordingly called a meeting of the
committees to consider the new situation which
has arisen.
Hall Caine is now writing interestingly on the
attitudue of England toward Egypt, and is empha¬
sizing John Stuart Mills' proposition: "Govern¬
ment by the dominant race is only legitimate when
it is government in harmony with the civilization
of the subject people," and quoting from Burke,
adds: "that the temper of the people among whom
he resides should be the first study of the states¬
men." Lord Morley is specially urging a more
liberal social policy with reference to the Indian
students here; and others are urging the claims of
the "coloured" people of South Africa. Altogether,
England has three important race problems on hand,
besides a tremendous land question and the suf¬
fragettes ; yet nobody seems much disturbed.
I wish our young men could read and ponder on
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 409
address I received to-day from Professor Simpson,
emeritus professor of Edinburgh University. Not
having the honor of meeting him, to whom we had
a letter of introduction from Miss Hallie Q. Brown,
whose name in Scotland is one to conjure with, we
received to-day his farewell address to the grad¬
uates of the University, July 28th, 1905. This great
scientist, the son and successor of the discoverer of
chloroform, whose monument stands along Princes
Street, Edinburgh, concludes his address with these
beautiful words:
"It may chance that some July day far down the
Century when I have long been in the ether, one or
another of you will talk with child or grandchild
of the years when the Century was young. Among
its unforgotten scenes there will be before your
mind the memory of the day when at last you burst
the chrysalis shell of pupilage to lift free wings
into the azure. You will recall the unusual con¬
currence of the simultaneous leave-taking of the
University by the graduates and their promoter.
'We came away,' you will say to the child, 'a goodly
company all together through the gateway that
leads to the rosy dawn. He passed out all alone
through the door that looks to the sunset and the
evening star. 'He was an old man like me,' I
forehear you say. 'Not in himself a great man, he
had been a friend of great men, and came out of a
great time in the Nineteenth Century when there
410 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
was a mid-sea and mighty things and it looked to
the men of his generation as if old things had all
passed away and a new world begun. And he told
us that the great lesson he had learned on his way
through life was the same that the disciple who
leaned on Jesus' breast at supper taught to the
fathers, the young men, and the little children of his
time when He said, 'The world passes away and the
lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God
abideth forever.' Farewell."
In a former part of his discourse, he had said:
"Brought up to believe that it (the earth) had
been in existence only some six thousand years, I
know to-day that its age is to be reckoned by thous¬
ands of thousands, not of years but of ages."
He had been a student of Virchow, yet he says:
"I do not know in what mood of pessimism I
might have stood before you to-day had it not been
that, ere the dew of youth had dried from off me,
I made friends with the Sinless Son of Man, who is
the well-head of the stream that vitalizes all ad¬
vancing civilization and who claims to be the First
and the Last, and the Living One who was dead,
and is alive forevermore, and has the Keys of
Death and the Unseen. My experience compels
me to own that claim. For to me, as to the Re¬
formers who founded this University, and to a
countless throng throughout the centuries of all
sorts and conditions of men. He has established
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 411
a vivid and vivifying correspondence with our super-
sensuous environment. He has made us 'see' that
at the heart of all things there is a Fathers' heart.
He has made us 'know' that in the complex play of
circumstances the reins of progress are in the hands
of a Circumstant who makes all things work to¬
gether for our good. Held by His pierced hand, I
have witnessed on my way through the 'shifting7
time (referring to Haggai) some tremendous trans¬
formations."
Thus spoke this aged man of science, of whom
it was said he had "added so much to the renown
of the University as to cause the name of Simpson
to rank worthily along side of Monro and Gregory,"
and that "his skill as an operator, had redounded to
the credit of our school, not only at home, but
everywhere abroad, and has not merely maintained,
but immensely added to the fame of our Alma
Mater."
In speaking of Professor Simpson on this occa¬
sion, the President of the Students' Union used the
following language:
"The students had experienced the kindliness and
courtesy of Professor Simpson at all times and
had enjoyed the hospitality of his house, and that
courtesy had been extended regardless of creed
or caste, race or color."
Our young men who get past the Christian re¬
ligion in a six months' course of biology might pon-
412
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
der the devout attitude of this great Doctor of
Medicine, not a minister, and at least postpone
their denouement. The glimpses into the remarks
of the students are also important.
CHAPTER IV.
LONDON
LONDON:
History—Westminster—London Bridge—Hyde Park—Plenty of
seats—Only a penny—Colored and white people walk streets to¬
gether—Dinners—Military—How easy to visit Parliament—Found¬
ling Home.
What a history has this city of so many centuries,
this city of staid customs and solid respectability;
this city of good government and good manners.
Whether London is of British or of Roman origin;
whether the romancer Geoffry of Monmouth had
any basis for his vision of a great British City
which he describes, are questions for the curious.
London is first mentioned by Tacitus, and in his
day (A. D. 61) it was a city of considerable com¬
mercial imDortance. When the early British pow¬
er was destroyed and Roman rule prevailed, London
became an embryo capital; it is mentioned by Ptol¬
emy, and was plundered during the days of Diocle¬
tian. Under the Romans it was given the title of
Augusta, Londinum Augusta. As a Roman city
London flourished for four centuries.
The Saxons coming after the withdrawel of the
Roman legions, made London, in the early part of
the seventh century the capital of Essex. Later
came the Danes, plundering and slaughtering, until
Alfred arose in Wessex and became strong enough
to curb their power and confine them within definite
portions of the realm. Extending his dominion over
414 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
all of lower England, Alfred repaired and beauti¬
fied London and made it the capital of his king¬
dom. The Norman conquest following, William the
Conqueror was crowned in London, which became
then the capital of all England. London is now
the capital of the United Kingdom of Great Bri¬
tain, and of the British Empire, whose dominions
extend the globe. Here kings more nearly rule in
righteousness, perhaps, than anywhere else on earth.
Great London itself, with its six million inhabi¬
tants, is a marvel of order, sobriety and honest gov¬
ernment : although within it may be seen much of
misery side by side with the most munificent foun¬
dations of benevolence and the most far reaching
measures of moral reform.
No general description of this city will be at¬
tempted. I could not describe it if I would, nor
would I if I could. I have seen Piccadilly, Pall Mall,
Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, etc., and shall
see more of London before I leave. On making my
first venture out in the city, while passing the square
in front of the building known as the Horse Guards'
Quarters, I heard unmistakable martial music. My
ears at once pricked up and on inquiry I learned
that guard mounting wras going on not far distant.
Rushing forward as fast as possible, I reached the
place time enough to see the Horse Guards march¬
ing to their quarters. I say marching, for although
they were mounted, their horses were of the same
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 415
size, same color (seal brown) and had the same
movement so that the horses actually marched.
The movement of the guard was as nearly in ab¬
solute step as possible for horses to make it. Go¬
ing farther we came upon the Royal Grenadiers,
infantry. The "old guard" was assembling, the
new guard moving around relieving them, mean¬
while the band was playing and an easy double pat¬
rol kept up to keep the crowd back. The old guard
all assembled then came the marching off which
began with slow time. I noticed that in marking
time the men lifted their feet much higher than our
soldiers do and in making a half step in slow time
the knee was brought to the horizontal line. The
marching was perfect, the men of admirable form,
and their uniforms resplendent with color and glit¬
ter. If there is any handsomer soldier than Tommy
Atkins I have not seen him. Shortly after getting
in line of march, the order: "Quick time!" v/as giv¬
en, and the showy, dazzling pageant soon disap¬
peared. I then turned attention to the new guard
with its numerous drums and trumpets. These
went to their quarters without music and all was
over.
On Tottenham Court Road I saw a smart looking
black man moving rapidly along with a well-dressed
white girl by his side attracting no attention. We
have seen several colored men here, but so far, no
colored women. The people in England appear to
416 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
be much freer socially than in the United States.
The same may be said of the people of Scotland.
There is not that cowardly slavery to a prevailing
sentiment. The women wear all kinds of fashions
and styles, summer, winter, spring or fall, and I
have yet to hear any criticism.
Since writing the above I have seen a white man
walking the street with a colored woman—of Af¬
rican descent plainly—on his arm, attracting no
unusual attention; and it is quite common here to
see colored men and white women, on the streets
together—-another striking illustration of the so¬
cial liberty enjoyed. But oh, the language of Lon¬
don. I said to a boy selling the Evening News, be¬
fore noon: "Is the evening paper out so soon?"
"Oh no, sir, D'ye see? That's the nime of the
piper." "Oh," said I in return, "That's the nime
of the piper I" The bus conductors tell the peo¬
ple a lot of things at every station, but as they
speak English I am not able to record what they
say. I have no doubt it is important to those who
understand it. At the. house where we are stop¬
ping the waiter is Swiss, and speaks but little Eng¬
lish, so that I have commenced brushing up my
French previous to crossing the channel.
Sunday morning, August 22d, we attended ser¬
vice in Westminister Abbey and found the place so
crowded on our arrival that we could get seats
only around in the far end of the transept. We
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 417
could not hear anything of the sermon, but the
service was grandly conducted and apeared thor¬
oughly devotional. The music was of a very high
order both as to the organ and the choir. The
building is too beautiful and too massive to be
described within my limits. I noticed to-day,
among the poets, the bust of our own Longfellow.
I shall make a visit later to see the building; to-day
I went to worship, and in spirit joined in with that
great congregation in singing:
"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son
And to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now,
And ever shall be, World without end, Amen."'
And how sweet to my soul were those re-iterated,
gradually vanishing musical Amens! I can still
feel the thrill of that thoroughly won assent of my
soul as it seemed to follow the music from the
material and sensuous into the spiritual and eter-
na. "And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great
multitude, and the voice of many waters, as the
voiee of mighty thunderings saying: Allelulia; for
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."
We are stopping in a private hotel on a beau¬
tiful street and although we are courteously treat¬
ed it is perhaps well for us that we had secured
our accommodations beforehand by a hard and fast
agreement. The accommodations are good, the
food well prepared and well served; but there is
418 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
an atmosphere of social coldness quite different
from what we experienced in Scotland. The weath¬
er is delightful; not so cold as we found it in Scot¬
land when overcoats were almost constantly in de¬
mand.
The Registrar-General for England and Wales
has just issued his report showing (1) the lowest
marriage rate for the first quarter in any year;
(2) the fewest births for the second quarter of any
year; (3) the lowest infant mortaliity recorded in
any quarter.
The births for the three months ending June 30th
were 237,142 in the proportion of 26.6 to the 1,000;
the death rate among the males was 15.1; among
the females, 13.1; the birth rate as will be seen is
nearly double that of the death rate, so that the
talk of dying out or wearing out must look else¬
where for facts. The marriage rate, however, is
only about 10 persons to the thousand.
The Board of Trade has just reported that: "No
railway passengers lost their lives in the United
Kingdom during 1908 as the result of accidents to
the trains in which they were traveling"; but there
were 102 passengers killed by accidents, "caused by
the movements of trains and railway vehicles ex¬
clusive of train accidents" ; and it is held that the
casualties in such cases occur largely "from the
carelessness of the pasengers themsselves." The
chances that passengers will be killed in any par-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 419
ticular journey are at the rate of 1 in 12,500,000;
and there is 1 chance in 570,049 that the passenger
will be injured.
A visit to Hyde Park on a cooL wet day did not
prove enjoyable. Near the Marble Arch which
spans its most popular gateway is an imposing-
statue of Achilles made of the bronze of the cannon
captured by Wellington and his brave companions
in the Battle of Waterloo, the contributions for
the work having been furnished by "their country¬
women," and the monument set up by George IV.
in 1822. A military band gave a good concert on
the occasion of our visit and I noticed the very ex¬
tensive provision the government has made for the
people. There were thousands of seats for the
weary; but I experienced a second great drop after
I had dropped into one. I had hardly drawn up
my feet and taken a satisfied inhalation before the
ever-present "hand stretched out" was before me
demanding the penny toll. If you sit in the park
you shall pay for it at the rate of a penny a day,
as your penny ticket will last you all day, or you
may pay five shillings ($1.25) and buy your right
to sit in Kensington Garden, St. James, the Green
and Hyde Park for the whole season subject to the
rules. Hyde Park is a beautiful place, and Oh, so
full of seats! .Seats everywhere; good ones, mag¬
nificent views, fresh air and good music, all for
: but apparently none for the penniless.
-420 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
London on a wet day is not a cheery city. The
streets narrow, crowded with motors, busses and
-other vehicles, muddy and dark, speak only in sad
and depressing tones. Chill and discomfort ruler
and smiles are excluded. It is what wet Philadel¬
phia is, only more expressive.
To an American the arguments of the land-hold¬
ers could furnish little but merriment. Lord Lon-
•donberry, in a speech Saturday in which he was be¬
wailing the things that are likely to happen said:
"His great interests and pleasures were the main¬
tenance of the shooting and the garden, and, be¬
sides affording pleasure to himseslf, they gave em¬
ployment to a large number of men. It could not
be said that those two pleasures were absolutely
selfish. By the employment of labor, the amuse¬
ment, so called, of the landowner was really bene¬
fitting the working classes; but in addition in his
own instance he was able to send out to the large
towns adjacent, heavy consignments of game in
times of distress to relieve those out of employ¬
ment."
On the same day Mr. Arthur Henderson, M. P.,
speaking in behalf of the Budget, said: "The land¬
lords had squealed as if they were having their life-
blood taken away. Squeal though this class might,
the fact remained that this was the most popular
and most democratic Budget ever introduced." On
the same evening another distinguished liberalist
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 421
said they "heard a great deal from noble Lords of
the excessive burdens which these new taxes would
place upon them * * * although he noticed that
they did not refrain from incerasing the number of
motor cars or racing studs: nor did they hear that
their forests and grouse moors were letting less
well in the Highlands at the present moment." To¬
day, the following appeared in the Star:
"WHY WE LAUGH.
"Day by day our hearts are thrilled by the bitter
cry of the distressed dukes, the indignant baron¬
ets, the landlords whose appropriation of unearned
increment is being taxed by the Budget. The
Daily News quotes from a local paper these two
delightful notices which apeared within a fortnight
■of one another:
"'August 7th—A notice, signed by Sir Spencer
Maryon Wilson, Bart, owner of the Rectory Field,
Blackheath, has been posted at the gates that in the
event of the land clauses of the Finance Bill being
passed he will be compelled, much against his wish,
to sell the Rectory Field, the Fairfield and the front¬
ages in Charlton Road for building purposes.'
" 'August 21st—Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson. Bart.
J. P., D. L., of Charlton House, has taken Kin-
veachev, Inverness-shire, an estate of some 30,000
•acres, belonging to the Dowager Countess of Sea-
422 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
field, for the shooting.'
"A horrid thought strikes us that if the Budget
is passed, Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson, Bart, J. P.,
D. L., may only be able to afford 20,000 acres of
shooting next year. 'A poor woman,' says Car¬
lisle, 'is gathering nettles for her children's dinner;
a perfumed seigneur delicately lounging in Oeil de
Boeuf hath an alchemy whereby he will extract the
third nettle from her and'call it rent.' And yet the
widow isn't grateful."
From grave political discussion to fleas is a long
leap, but I have noticed both in Scotland and here,
that the fleas are great jumpers as well as grave
humbugs. When you seek to make their acquain¬
tance they leap away and hide themselves with mock
modesty only to sneak back as soon as they are
forgotten and give you good reason to exclaim:
"Stung again!"
To-day I walked over London Bridge, and ob¬
served the crowds that pass. It needs no comment.
Every day the vastness of the city grows upon me.
It is massive, full, bustling and legitimately busy.
The streets are narrow, and literally swarm with
vehicles. Men are serving as horses, pulling carts;
as motors or engines, using their feet and legs to
push or pull carts; and as beasts of burden in many
ways. Uniforms are everywhere. The nurses and
maids are unformed, and a hotel porter might be
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 423
taken for a general or an admiral by a verdant;
while the chief waiter or steward would easily pass
for a bishop with us in some parts. It is reported
that the Spanish Queen made her husband, Alfonso,
shave off his recently-grown side whiskers, because
lie looked too much like an English hotel steward
with them on.
Daily, I pass the church erected by Whitfield,
where the late Joseph Parker preached, but as yet
I have not found the Methodist headquarters. In
Scotland everything was evangelical: here all relig¬
ion is of the churchly form. I notice the word
"speciality" which I always liked but which is con¬
demned by American usage, is in general use, both
in Scotland and in England on the signs. The word
"fruiterer" is also general as a name for a dealer in
fruit; and "poulterer" as a dealer in poultry; while
the words "top" and "bottom" are applied to streets
in a very puzzling way. I have discovered that
when the 'bus man cries out, "Hot Sea!" he means
Oxford Street.
August 26th—We visited, this morning, the great
Westminister Abbey and, strolling through it, I
named it England's Eleventh Chapter of Hebrews.
Shortly after this we passed the soldiers' barracks
and saw a large body of the royal troops, infantry,
as they were preparing to change the guard. Their
quick and precise step, and the perfect figures of
the men, again impressed me. Walking down to
424 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Buckingham Palace, we stood there until we saw
the new guard enter to go into its quarters within,
the palace yard. The palace itself is huge, sombre
and solid looking, but not beautiful or brilliant in
any way. The pillars at the entrance to the large
spaces in front are of marble and inscribed with,
the names of England's possessions; the fences are
of high iron railings painted and highly gilded.
The Palace Gardens are a delight to the eye, the
brilliant red geranium being the leading flower.
On the evening of this day, August 26th, we were
entertained at dinner by an excellent family living
in the Manor House at Hempstead, a suburb. The
building consisted of three parts: one three hun¬
dred years old, one two hundred years old, one a
century old. The dinner was excellent and the
people as cordial as possible. I found them just
as quick to see a fine point of wit as any Americans
I have ever met, and equally as free and hearty in
their approving laughter. A most delightful family
with a residence simply superb; the parlor opening
by folding doors directly into a large glass-covered
garden, within which were flowers of almost end¬
less variety and profusion. The mother (played
while the daughters sang very acceptably. Coming
home we rode in a hansom behind what the driver
called "a good 'orse," and I hope never to have such
a ride. Whew! He flew! Over the stones, down
hills, across tracks—a concentrated tempest on legs
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 425
and wheels. I don't like the "Tube." What is the
"Tube?" I fancy some reader will say. The Tube
is the underground railway that runs its snake-like
course in the dark and murky regions where no
human being should ever be permitted to enter.
You take the "lift" and go down, down, down, until
you strike this nether passage which from its cyl¬
indrical form is rightly named a tube. You enter
a car and go thundering along until you are per¬
mitted to step upon another "lift" which carries
you up until the light of day greets you with a glad¬
ness you never felt before. Tubing once will do me.
To-day I underwent an interviewing by a Scotch
representaive of a religious paper who asked me
questions such as I had not anticipated and succeed¬
ed in getting for his paper an article of considerable
To enable the reader to appreciate the political and social struggle
now going on in England, it is necessary to state that about one-
half the land of that country is owned by about 2,500 people.
Here is a list of some of the poor lords and dukes who are now
'bewailing the poverty which like an armed man is marching to
seize them and compel them to pay their share of taxes:
Duke of Sutherland 1,358,000 Acres
Duke of Devonshire 186,000 "
Duke of Westminster .... 30,600 "
Six hundred of these acres lie in the heart of London:
Duke of Richmond 286,500 Acres
Duke of Portland 183,200 "
Duke of Montrose 115,OCX) "
Duke of Manchester 70,000 "
Marquis of Bute 117,000 "
Here are nearly two and one-half million acres of land owned by
-eight individuals not especially renowned for eminent, services to
^mankind.
426 Fifty Y'ears in the Gospel Ministry
length. To-morrow we go to luncheon in another
city—Pangbourne.
How easy to get into the House of Parliament!
I called at the Embassy and found our Ambassador
absent on a visit home. I was welcomed very cor¬
dially by the Charge d'Affaires who in reply to my
request answered as follows: "Mrs. Steward can¬
not go into the session at all, as no women are
allowed admission now, owing to the suffragette
excitement. We are allowed but two tickets a day,,
and these are all booked ahead for two weeks; but
you call to see me Monday, and if there is any pos¬
sible way to secure you admission, I will do it."
Lifts, as they are called (elevators), are not
nearly so common here as with us, hence one gets,
plenty of step-climbing. A gentleman told me last
evening there were only two classes of people in-
London, "the quick, and the dead"; and I assured
him that it would take only ten seconds of self-
forgetfulness on one of these streets to causse one-
to pass from the former to the latter.
Today I returned to our embassy and again call¬
ed upon the Charge d'Affaires, and it is a great
pleasure to note that I found in this official a gen¬
tleman of fine presence, highly cultured of course,,
and of most engaging manners, evincing an interest
and sympathy so befitting his position. The cour¬
tesy of all in the office was in keeping with the
place. The office rooms were comfortable, com-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 427
.modious and respectable, but they might be a little
more representative. I should rather see larger
.rooms, decorations of a solid typical character, spec¬
ial furniture and a few life-size paintings of our
ilustrious men. Surely our walls might show por¬
traits of Washington and Lincoln or of Grant and
.Faragut, or some such worthy characters. It may
,be that all these demands are met in the residence of
the Ambassador, but I think the offices of the Amer¬
ican Embassy, where the common American usual-
.ly goes should be more emphatically representative
.in furniture and decorations than what I found our
offices to be in London. The Government would
be contributing to proper national dignity, I believe,
-should it expend a reasonable sum in having the
offices here so fitted up that when an American
steps into them he will at once feel to be within
the presence of his own nation. I observe in the
rooms only two portraits, with a number of en¬
gravings representing notable Americans; but
neither the pictures nor accessories were of any
special merit as works of art. Brother Jonathan
needs a little sprucing up here.
Obtaining a card from our embassy, I made my
way through sentries, gates and corridors, signing
pledges of good behavior twice, and was finally ad¬
mitted into the galleries of the quiet little House of
Commons. I expected to see something like our
House of Representatives, but instead I looked
428 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
down upon a small body of exceedingly orderly men'
seated on long benches after the order of the
churches here, with one man seated at the head of
a long table placed in the aisle who was the chair¬
man, but who had none of the difficulties to meet
that the Speaker of our House has to encounter.
Beside him sat a secretary, sometimes two, with
wigs; what other reporters were present I could
not see. The question of house inspection, or better
housing of the people was under consideration while
I was present and although several speeches were
delivered only one speaker arose to anything like
a parliamentary standard. Mr. John Burns discuss¬
ed the subject with thoroughness and a facility of
speech that was very marked. The cries of hear,,
hear, that we see marked in the papers are little
more than gutturly murmurs of "yaw, yaw." How¬
ever, the seriousness, patience and foresight of the
English people are reflected in their House of Com¬
mons.
Visiting the Tower of Londan and standing 011
the ghastly spot where Ann Bolevn, Lady Jane
Gray and others were beheaded, and looking over
this whole bloody field of eighteen acres covered
with the memorials of stately political crimes, one
can but be thankful that this part of the drama is
over and that we are permitted to live in better
times. In this tower are preserved the millions of
dollars worth of gold and diamonds belonging to
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 429
the royalty. Here I saw the crowns, the maces,
the plate and baptismal fonts of England's kings
and queen. But perhaps most typical of all as-
showing the essential warlike cast of British char¬
acter, was the plain gun carriage—I mean the actual
common cannon wheels—upon which the body of
Queen Victoria, one of the typical women of the
world as wife and mother, was carried on the occa¬
sion of her funeral in 1901. It was drill period-
while I was in the tower enclosure and I witnessed
with pleasure the drill of the garrison there, which,
for smartness and precision came up to the stand¬
ard already observed. The men are young, hand¬
somely set up and the drill is vigorous. Beside
the quick time, they also pay much attention to
the slow step. Beside the tube there is also a sys¬
tem of underground electric railways which are
very pleasant to travel on as I discovered on my re¬
turn from the tower.
One is struck here with the very large number of
ministers to be seen on the streets and elsewhere.
Policemen, uniformed servants, soldiers and minis¬
ters being taken out, the number of pedestrians
would be considerably reduced. It is remarkable
that with streets so crowded and vehicles rushing
hither and thither in all directions at a high rate of"
speed so few persons are killed. By horses and
vehicles the killed amounted to eight persons, and
by motors, ten persons ' during the yeai.
430 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
During my whole stay in London I did not see
one stret vehicle touch another in the way of col¬
lision, and yet the rate of speed was rather high.
Motor buses, as they are called, are allowed to go
twelve miles to the hour, and horses are driven
lively. The street system, however, is admirable.
All moving vehicles take the left so that on the
broader streets there are two currents of teams,
each occupying almost one-half of the width of the
street: one current will be going up the street
holding to the left side, the other coming down the
street in like manner. All teams pass each other
on the left. This enables the driver to see just
where his wheels are on the side likely to come in
contact with the vehicle passing and thus he can
save space by driving close and at the same time
avoid collision.
English civilization is an admirable thing, as it
nas appeared to me so far. Everywhere one meets
with courteous civility. Sunday, August 29th, we
went, in the morning, to a great foundling hospital
and home established by an old sea captain named
Thomas Goram, who died in 1753, age then eighty-
four years. We saw there about six hundred small
children, and saw the boys come in :to dinner. They
were furnished with a very substantial dinner of
meat and vegetables and the boys are well blessed
with appetite. Before dinner they had attended
service in a chapel grand enough for a cathedral,
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 431
and all of them had been banked around the choir
and great organ where we had heard their cheery
voices mingling in the services. The minister
preached a short, spirited sermon on St. Paul, using
as the text, "I am become all things to all men,"
putting stress particularly upon Paul's strength in
youth, in the home, at the feet of Gamaliel, and
with the Romans and Greeks.
This hospital was founded in the year 1739 by
charter of King George II., on the petition of Thom¬
as Goram, master of a trading vessel, and upon the
memorial of sundry persons of quality and dis¬
tinction. In October of the following year, 1740,,
the regulation was adopted: "That a proper house
being provided, there should be a court-yard before
it, walled in, at least six feet high, with a porter to
let in any person bringing a child, and to carry the
child to the proper officer; and while the circum¬
stances of the Corporation were such as to admit
only a limited number, each child should be inspect¬
ed; but no child should be returned who was not
above the age of two months, or who had not cer¬
tain diseases therein named; and in order to know
which were healthy certain officers should inspect
every child brought to the hospital and direct which
should be received and which 'at present' should
be returned and thereafter otherwise disposed of.'"
The organ in the chapel was presented by Handel
in 1749 and opened by him in May, 1750. Later an<
•432 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
arrangement was made by which a basket was hung
at the gate in which children might be deposited
after ringing a bell. The first day this basket was
liung out, June 2d, 1756, one hundred and seventeen
•children were received. At present the children of
married women are not received. The rules say:
"Children can only be received into this Hospital
upon personal application of the mothers. Peti¬
tioners must set forth the true state of the mother's
case; if any deception is usesd the Petition will be
rejected. No application can be received previous
to the birth of the child, nor after it is twelve
months' old.
"No child can be admitted unless the Committee
is satisfied, after due inquiry of the previous good
character and present necessity of the mother, that
the father of the child has deserted it and the
mother; also, that the reception of the child will, in
all probability, be the means of replacing the mother
in the course of virtue and the way of an honest
livelihood.
"Persons who present Petitions to the Commit¬
tee must not apply to any Governor, or to any of¬
ficer or servant belonging to the Hospital on the
subject, on any pretense whatever.
"No money is received for admission of children,
nor any fee or perquisite allowed to be taken by
any officer of the Hospital, on pain of dismissal, and
indeed any person who shall be known to offer the
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 433
same will subject her Petition to rejection."
The total number of children received in the
Hospital since its foundation up to December 31st,
1908, is 23,094, and there are now 630 inmates.
The schools taught in this Home, as we would
call it, are not under Government, but are inspected
annually by a government inspector in secular sub¬
jects and also by a London Diocesan inspector in
religious knowledge; the boys' school is also exam¬
ined in drawing. The boys are instructed in swim¬
ming, in tailoring and in music; and many of them
.go from there into the army bands or into the Royal
Naval School of Music to prepare for naval bands.
The girls are also taught swimming under a mis¬
tress engaged for the purpose and are instructed
in domestic science. Boys enlist in military bands
to enter the navy at 15 years, and girls are placed
■out under four-year indentures at 16 years. On
coming of age, if good conduct has been maintained
a further gratuity amounting to about one hundred
dollars is given to each inmate. Children are never
.given to people in adoption, the desire of the insti¬
tution being to restore all children to their mothers
so far as possible.
The fare of the institution can be seen from the
following table
Diet for children at and above 8:
Breakfast—Bread 4ozs. with butter or dripping;
three-fourths of a pint of boiled milk alternatingly
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
with oatmeal porridge in winter months.
Lunch—2ozs. bread.
Dinner:
Monday—Pies consisting of beef and potatoes,
and 2ozs. of bread.
Tuesday—7ozs. of mutton, for roasting, or boiled
pork and haricot beans; 8ozs. of potatoes, cabbage,
marrows, etc., and 2ozs. of bread.
Wednesday—Fish or soup in winter; in summer
boiled rice with jam or stewed fruit; bread 4ozs.
or eggs and bread and butter.
Thursday—Same as Tuesday; or Irish stew or
rabbits.
Thursday—Suet or other pudding with jam or
treacle.
Saturday—Roast or boiled beef and 8ozs. of po¬
tatoes and 2ozs. of bread.
Sunday—7ozs. of mutton for roasting; 8ozs. of
potatoes, bread 2ozs. In the summer the meat cold
with lettuces; baked raisin pudding.
Tea—Bread 4ozs., butter one-half oz., or treacle:
milk one-half pint.
Supper—Bread 3ozs. with cheese.
CHAPTER V.
PARIS:
To Dover, the English Channel—Genuine Corkscrew motion-
Calais—To Paris—Gaiety and song—Versailles—Squares—The
. French woman—M. Pol and his birds—Law {or married people.
Our stay in London came to a close on the morn¬
ing of September 2nd, when a large cab arrived in
front of our boarding house to convey us and our
luggage to Victoria Station, from which place we
were to take the train for Dover en route to Paris.
Tickets had been already secured through the of¬
fice of Cook & Son and we had only to attend to
the minor work of weighing and registering the
baggage.
The polite English porters were on hand to per¬
form all of this work, not failing meanwhile to
inform us that they themselves received no pay
from the company and were compelled to procure
their own uniforms, all of which was expected to
have an expanding effect upon the prospective
"tips." Once seated in the car with grips stowed
•away all around us, it was a brief two hours run
from the station in London to the station in Dover
where we were to take leave of British soil.
Here again the porter was in great demand in
transferring from the train to the channel steamer
436 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Empress. The crossing- occupied about an hour,
and although the passage was comparatively a
smooth one, yet the twisting, boring ,diving mo¬
tion of the boat made one mad. Many persons
had that form of sea sickness which may be classed
as quiescent; they simply closed their eyes and
lips, folded their hands, drew together their toes,
while millions of imaginary little wheels whirled
within their bodies and brains, until time to leave
the steamer. The smell of that steamer which fol¬
lowed me like the mist of an evil spirit even after
I had left her deck, seems even now to return
with every thought of that crossing, awakening
memories of half developed nausea.
From Dover to Calais only one short hour and
yet it is from England to France, from British to
French, from comfort to chaos.
We come to the wharf and are delivered into
the hands of a hungry horde of fierce looking,,
fierce talking French porters who rush us with
the best intentions of course, shouting, beseech¬
ing, "Besom d'un facteur." Of course we wanted
a "facteur" or porter, and engaged one who soon
seized two of our handbags, and with the aid of"
a strap threw them over his shoulder, took the
third one in his hand and started off on a Roose¬
velt pace and bade us follow, which we did, keep¬
ing the trail through a swaying mass of fellow
•passengers trailing similar porters until we finally"
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 437
reached the counter of the Custom House. Here
within a hollow square, bulwarked by counters on
three sides and by a wall on the fourth side, a quiet
but very agile French woman was receiving from
these noisy men all this baggage; and, what was
to our purpose, she immediately passed all Paris
bound baggage without inspection. Hence we
were soon out of this din and ready to begin our
search for seats for Paris. The train once found,
our reserved seat tickets guided us directly to our
compartment. My French had not yet come to
my rescue.
Crossing the channel I had made the acquaint¬
ance of some Spaniards who invited us to share
their compartment, an invitation I was compelled
to decline because of my special tickets.
Before reaching Paris, however, I ventured a-
few words to a young man who was travelling
with us, and learned that he could speak English
a "leet-tel."
It was dark when we reached Paris, at the Gare
de Nord or in plain English at the North Station-
Part of my baggage had got astray and we were
detained in the depot some time before we could
leave for our hotel. When all were loaded on,
and loaded in, we were rattled through well-lighted
and gaily appearing streets, where the side-walks
in front of the numerous cafes were filled with
small tables and chairs at which happy looking
438 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
men were seated while all along vehicles and ped¬
estrians enacted their ever moving panorama until
we at length were stopped at the entrance of the
Hotel Dijon, 29 Rue Caumartin. Here we were
pleasantly welcomed, assigned a front room, and
as soon as we were ready were served with dinner
in the dining room.
Here we are in Paris, the oldest of the capitals
of Europe, and the finest city in the world. In
Paris we have a city of three and a quarter millions
of inhabitants, differing widely from London in
almost everything. Here one finds broad streets,
plenty of leisure on the part of the people, general
holiday appearance, gayety, luxuriousness and the
comic going to the very verge of what is per¬
missible; gaily dressed ladies with a display of
more than mere ankles, shop windows in which are
bizarre curios which to the English mind often ap¬
pear more coarse than comic; yet all covered with
an entrancing glare and surrounded by the mirth¬
ful clatter of the lively young French to whom all
things are acceptable that can stimulate the rip¬
pling laughter. Where system rules in London, senti¬
ment rules in Paris; London permits you to come
and go; Paris receives you with smiles of welcome
and parts with you with smiling au revoirs.
The city is not so orderly as London, nor does
it appear to contain so much misery. Poverty does
not seem so grinding and the laborer that one
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 439
sees in Paris does not appear so depressed in man¬
ner as many workmen and work-women whom I
saw both in London and in Glasgow. The labor-
seeking- poor of these two latter cities impressed
me sadly as I saw them so eager to earn a six¬
pence and apparently so urgently needy. In Paris
there was manifest much less of this appalling
poverty. Paris has seen her ;awtful periods of
floods and fires, barracades and blood, famines and
pestilence, but the French people are blessed with
an inner life which phoenix-like ever rises brighter
after its purgation through the fires that appear
to threaten its dissolution.
It is most difficult to convey a general idea o£
the city materially; although large and populous?
it rarely seems crowded, the buildings are not
high, avenues and boulevards are broad, open places,
and wooded squares abound, shrubbery, statuary
and architectural ornamentation greet the eye
from almost every point of view. The city is said to
cover 20,000 acres and the Seine running through
it is crossed by no less than thirty bridges during
the seven miles of its course; the form of the city
is that of an irregular circle the boundaries being
defined by a continuous boulevard bearing differ¬
ent names in different sections or segments; yet
much that belongs to Paris in the broad sense,
designated as faubourges lies on the outside of
this circle.
440 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Tired as we were our first night in Paris was a
wakeful one. There were too many songs in the
night; too much of unmusical talk, of the moving
of motors, the trotting of horses and of various
other unassorted and unclassified noises to permit
of peaceful sleep: and so morning found us un-
refreshed. Breakfast with its "unsurpassable"
coffee was hardly over before a guide and carriage
arrived to lend us their services for the day in a
drive to Versailles.
The day was bright and warm, the carriage very
comfortable and to it was harnessed a good team
of horses under the charge of a competent and
agreeable driver, and with this equipment the cov¬
ering of the twenty-five or thirty miles of our
day's excursion constituted a pleasing experience,
even aside from the sight seeing. Every step of
the way from the Rue Caumartin to Versailles
and return as journeyed by us, is so historic and
interesting that I must endeavor to convey my
readers over part of it in imagination by such
description as I am able to make. From the
Rue Caumartin we entered the Boulevard des
Capuchins and drove to the office of Cook & Son,
Place de L'Opera, and thence down through the
Place Vendome. The column Vendome which
stands in this open square was erected in accord¬
ance with an act of the senate passed in 1806 in
honor of Napoleon I. It is an imitation of Trajan's
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 441
Column in Rome; is 142 feet in height and 13 feet
in diameter. It is made of metal obtained by melt¬
ing 1200 Russian and Austrian cannon, and is fig¬
ured over with the scenes of Napoleon's first
campaign of 1805. It is surmounted by the statue
of Napoleon as Emperor. From the Place Ven-
dome whence stands Napoleon's Column we pass
by the .Place de la Concorde where stands the
Obelisk of Luxor with its hieroglyphics, and
where also rest many of the stones taken from
the Bastile. This is one of the most beautiful
squares in the world and is in the centre of the
pleasure-life of the city,
Its history may be read in outline, not without
a shudder by its various names. In the first rev¬
olution it was called the Place de la Guillotine;
it was also called the Place de la Revolution; be¬
fore the revolution its peaceable name was Place
Louis XV. Here Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette
and scores of others were beheaded. Hear how
that most wonderful of word painters, Carlyle,
speaks of this spot and some of the scenes enacted
upon it: "As the clock strikes ten, behold the
Place de la Revolution, once Place de Louis Quinze,
the Guillotine mounted near the old Pedestal
where once stood the statue of Louis. Far around
all bristles with cannon and armed men, spectators
crowding in the rear; D'Orleans Egalite there in
Cabrolet, swift messengers, hoquetons, speed to
442 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
the Town Hall every three minutes; near by is-
the convention sitting—vengeful for Lepelletier.
Heedless of all Louis reads his Prayers of the
Dying. Not till five minutes yet has he finished;
then the carriage opens. What temper is he in?
Ten different witnesses will give ten different ac¬
counts of it. He is in the collision of all tempers.
Arrived at the black maelstrom and descent of
death; in sorrow, in dejection, in resignation, strug¬
gling to b® resigned.
The drums are beating: "Silence" he cries in a
terrible voice. He mounts the scaffold not without
delay; he is in fur coat, breeches of gray, white
stockings. He strips off his coat; stands disclosed
in a sleeve waist-coat of white flannel. The ex¬
ecutioners approach to bind him; he spurns, resists;
Abbe Edgeworth has to remind him How the
Savior in whom men trust submitted to be bound.
His hands are tied, his head bowed; the fatal mo¬
ment is come. He advances to the edge of the
scaffold. His face very red, and says, "Frenchmen,
I die innocent; it is from the scaffold and near
approaching before God that I tell you so. I par¬
don my enemies; I desire that France "
A general on horseback, Santerre or another,
prances out with uplifted hand; "Tambours!" The
drums drown out the voice. "Executioners, do
your duty!"
The executioners desperate lest themselves be
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 443
murdered, seize the helpless Louis: six of them
desperate, him singly desperate, struggling there,
and bind him to the plank. Abbe Edgeworth
stooping bespeaks him, "Son of Saint Louis, ascend
to heaven." The axe clanks down, a king's life
is shorn away. It is Monday the 21st of January,
1773. He was aged thirty-eight years, four months
and twenty-eight days.
Monday, October 14, 1773, the widow of the
king, the discrowned queen, Marie Antoinette was
brought to the same scaffold and at a quarter past
twelve her head fell; the executioner showed it
to the people amid universal long-continued cries
of "Vive la Republique!"
But let us not linger longer this bright Septem¬
ber morning amid the bloody memories of the
Place de la Revolution or the Place de la Guillotine;
it is now the Place de la Concorde and proclaims a
happier era.
From here our course lay through the Avenue
des Champs Elysees to the Arch de Triomphe,
another imitation, as this Arch de Triomphe de
l'Etoile is itself little more than a copy of that
of Constantine at Rome. It was erected in honor
of the triumph of Napoleon's star of destiny and
forms a centre where a dozen broad avenues con¬
verge.
From here we passed through the Avenue de
Bois de Bologne and through the Bois (woods)
444 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
to St. Cloud and finally to Versailles, stopping first
at the Little Trianon the house erected for the
miserable Du Barry, and which afterward became
one of the homes of the queen most deserving of
sympathy, poor Marie Antoinette. The building
still retains much of its furniture and many choice
decorations in the way of sculpture and painting.
The bedroom of Marie Antoinette with its bed
overspread with a coverlet of handmade embroid¬
ery said to have been a present to the queen by
the ladies of Lyons, containing the queen's mono¬
gram, is perhaps as interesting as anything to be
found here. The house itself has been copied by
Anna Gould in her Paris residence. Besides the
little or Petit Trianon there is also the Grand
Trianon, standing along the same driveway, or
Avenue des Trianons, and not far distant. It is
a replica of the former only on a larger scale.
As to history, the Grand Trianon was built first
by Louis XIV, for the Pompadour woman. While
it contains much that is very beautiful in art, the
constant rectirrence of the portraits or statues of
Louis XIV is offending to taste and serves to ex¬
plain the vanity of the monarch. After examining
the building within and without we visited the
gardens and saw the Temple of Love, and other
buildings. Finishing with these places and gardens
we next visited the famous carriage house in which
are kept the great state carriages now no longer
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 445
of use. Here we saw the great golden chariots,
the sleighs, the sedan chairs, the gilt harness, all
at. one time employed in the service of royalty and
its pleasures. They show how millions of hard
earned dollars have been wrested from the world's
service to be plastered in gold and silver upon
these accoutrements of useless pomp; while the
frail gods and goddesses in them for a time received
the half-hearted homage of the half-clothed and
half-fed thousands, but now both chariots of state
and bedecked and bedizened kings and queens are
but little more than curios of a departing age.
Versailles and its great palace is now reached
and after an excellent luncheon at the Hotel
France, we go to visit it. In the great court of
honor leading up to its broad front, upon which we
see inscribed, "A tous les gloires de la France,"
we see numerous statues of worthy statesmen and
heroes; we enter the building to pass through its
halls and large rooms in a state of mind approach¬
ing bewilderment; costly and elegant furniture,
statuary and paintings, especially Napoleonic paint¬
ings, are everywhere. Here we see footprints of
the first and last of the Bonapartes. Here is a
building that can accommodate ten thousand in¬
mates, its history going back to the early part of
the seventeenth century. At present it is a national
museum in which are stored numerous mementos
of former glory. Here is the bed in which Louis
446 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
XIV died; here the chamber in which poor Louis
XV ended so gloomily his life forespent to pleas¬
ure. Here is that Bull's Eye window, overlooking
the entrance; here that balcony that served as a
stage for the thrilling scenes of the opening acts
of the revolution. I tramped these marble floors
and steps looking upon statuary and paintings until
my mind positively refused to register further im¬
pressions. My final interest lingered upon the
mechanics' tools and the remains of scientific study
and work, which were left by the unfortunte Louis
XVI.
The town- of Versailles contains 55,000 inhab-.
itants, is well laid off with stone paved streets
and contains a grand park with canals and elaborate
fountains. In front of the palace is the spacious
Place D'Armes into which debouche the three im¬
portant avenues, St. Cloud, de Paris and de Sceaux.
It is frequented by visitors: it is a place of great
interest and during the tourist season is seldom
without them; it is well provided with hotels and
cafes.
The next day we began our promenades over
the city by a visit to the Tuilleries the place orig¬
inally named from the tile works carried on there,
but which has been prominent in French history
from the days of Catherine de Medici to the dawn
of the present republic.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 447
It is a public garden and the space is generally
open to the public; consequent^, although there
is plenty of shade, there is little grass. Small
shows squat upon the grounds, and various games
are indulged in. It was here we saw M. Pol, the
bird man surrounded by his flocks of sparrows
and pigeons. These birds would come to him at
the call of their names, eat out of his hand, perch
upon his lap., his shoulers or upon his head as seen
in the pictures. Mr. Lucas in his very interesting
book entitled "A Wanderer in Paris," thus speaks
of M. Pol:
"But the best thing in the Tuilleries is M. Pol.
Who is M. Pol? Well, he may not be the most
famous man in Paris, but he is certainly the most
engaging. M. Pol is the charmer of birds—Le
Charmeur d' oiseaux au Jardin des Tuilleries, to
give him his full title. There may be other charm¬
ers too at their pretty labors; but M. Pol comes
easily first; his personality is so attractive, his
terms of intercourse with the birds so intimate.
His oiseaux are chiefly sparrows, whom he knows
by name—La Princesse, Le Lousie, Garibaldi, La
Baronne, L'Anglais, and so forth. They come one
by one at his call, and he pets them and praises
them; talks pretty ironical talk; uses them (par¬
ticularly the little brown l'Anglais) for sly satiri¬
cal purposes, for there are usually a few English
spectators; affects to admonish and even chastise
448 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
them, shuffling minatory feet with all the noise
but none of the illusion of seriousness; and never
ceases the while to scatter his crumbs or seeds of
comfort. It is a very charming little drama, and
although carried on every day, and for some hours
every day, it has no suggestion of routine; one
feels that the springs of it are sweetness and
benevolence.
He is a typical elderly Latin, this M. Pol, a little
unmindful as to his dress, a little inclined to
shamble; humorous, careless, gentle. When I first
saw him, years ago, he fed his birds and went his
way; but he now makes a little money by it too,
now and then offering, very reluctantly, postcards
bearing pictures of himself with all his birds about
him and a distich or so from his pen. For M. Pol
is a poet in words as well as in deeds: "De nos
petites oiseau," he writes on one card:
"De nos petites oiseaux, je suis le bienfaiteur,
Et je vais tous les jours leur donner la pature,
Mais suivant un contrat dicte par nature
Quand je donne mon pain, ils me donnent leur
coeur."
I think this is true. It is a little more than cup¬
board love that inspires these tiny creatures, or
they would never settle on M. Pol's hands and
shoulders as they do. He has charmed the pigeons
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 449
also; but here he admits to a lower motive:
"lis savant, les malins. que leur couvert est mis,
C'est en faisant du bien qu'on se fait des amis."
The Tuilleries is a place for play, for conversa¬
tion, for reading and for love making. In the
latter occupation many young Parisians seem ard¬
ently employed, and yet they do not become so
infatuated as to abandon their dread of microbes;
for in the Tuilleries I saw a young Frenchman
extend the silk ribbon hat-string of his inamorata
very carefully over her mouth before he ventured
one of those clinging kisses of which novelists
write.
From the Tuilleries to the gardens of the Louvre
is but a short distance, crossing a broad avenue
and through an entrance adorned with statuary
and the whole scope of the forty-five acres of
buildings and grounds are open to view. I shall
speak of the statuary of the buildings and grounds
hereafter. The buildings that enclose these grounds
on three sides are immense structures and apart
from the museum are occupied chiefly by offices
of the government. The garden is beautifully em¬
bellished with shrubbery, statuary, landscape ef¬
fects and flowers.
My stroll through the Louvre was confined to
sculpture solely, which occupied the whole of the
450 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ground floor. The building devoted to the pur¬
poses of the museum is immense and the collection
of sculpture embraces Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek,
Roman and early Italian and French, as well as a
large collection of modern works. Besides the
work in stone there are also important works of
bronze.
I wandered through these vast halls, knowing
that I could not particularize because of lack of
time; looking at everythig only to regret that I
had not a month to pass in this great school. Of
course I saw the Venus de Milo, and, strange to
say, my enthusiasm did not kindle on beholding
it, nor did I feel the least like apostrophising her or
singing of her great charms. This does not mean
that I do not coincide with all the world in pro¬
nouncing it a masterpiece. The statue has been
so often described and so aften represented in
engraving that I need only add that in form it
touches the highest point. One could accept it as
the proper encasement of the highest conception
of the soul of womanhood. I was much more in¬
terested in the antique in sculpture than in modern ;
but when one has but a few short hours to see
such a world of art productions, each piece of
which is worthy of attention, he is liable to give
up all in despair and resolve them all more or less
into old stones. It is the only classification he can
make that will embrace them all, and with sadness
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 451
he leaves them with their stories unread.
The Place de Carousal taking its name from the
great tournaments carried on there in the days of
Louis XIV, lies between the Tuilleries and the
court or gardens of Louvre. Of the statues and
animal figures upon these grounds and of the build¬
ings here and elsewhere in the city, I penned while
looking them the following remarks: "The striking
thing in Paris is the remarkable beauty, grandeur
and boldness of its architecture and sculpture—
especially is its sculpture striking. Its horses are
just ready to dash themselves to death as they
hang on the verge of some high building; its men
and women are generally, at the summit of action."
The genius of France is an aviator. Paris is
unquestionably the crown of the world; the Athens
of the age. Strolling leisurely along its boulevards
one delightful autumn afternoon I entered in my
note book the following condensation or summary
of my observations and impressions: "A mere
whirl of gaiety and pleasure-seeking; a combina¬
tion of elegance and refinement—of high art and
culture, with, what would appear to our minds,
a shocking disregard of almost the commonest
rules of propriety."
Of the figures exhibited in the hair dressers and
costumers' places, I made this note in my book:
"As to stylishly dressed women here, of course,
they are to be seen everywhere; but what really
452 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
caused me to stop and admire was the female forms
used in the shop windows upon which to display
their goods. These forms were perfect, and the
features brought up so near to life appearance,
that one could define the expression, and almost
wait for them to speak. The eyes are finished not
only with all the visible mechanical parts including
lids, lashes, etc., but the coloring of the eye and
its apparent liquidity, are so real that one can
easily fancy it the window of a soul within. The
same remarks may be made concerning the lips
and teeth."
The French woman is a being to herself, differ¬
ing from the women of any race I have hitherto
met, in what I would call her sufficiency. She is
highly efficient and executive and at the same time
most highly feminine. My note book reads: "The
paper-stands that I have seen here so far, are con¬
ducted by women and the women are quite gen¬
erally young and spruce looking and tastily dress¬
ed. Going to the railroad I found all the ticket
agents to be young women who seem to be very
expert, although adherring closely to business and
nevertheless courteous and polite." I had written
the above before I had read the following from
the pen of the liberal English professional writer,
Mr. Lucas:
"The Halles furnish another proof of the quiet
efficiency of French women. At every fruit and
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 453
"vegetable stall—and to me they are the most in¬
teresting of all—sits one or more of these watchful
creatures, cheerful, capable, and always busy either
with the affairs of the stall or with knitting or
sewing. The Halles afford also very practical proof
of the place that economy is permitted to hold in
the French cuisine; as much being done for the
small purse as for the large one.
In England we are ashamed of economy; by
avoiding it we hope to give the impression that we
are not mean. The wise French either care less
for their neighbor's opinions or have agreed to¬
gether to dispense with such insincerities; and the
result is that if a pennyworth of carrots is all that
your soup requires you need not buy two penny¬
worth, and so forth. Little portions of vegetables
for one, two or more persons, are all ready for
the pot, can be bought, involving no waste what¬
ever, and with no faltering or excuse on the part
of the purchaser to explain so small an order. In
France a customer is a customer. There are no
distinctions; although I do not deny that in the
West End of Paris, where the Americans and Eng¬
lish spend their money, subtle shades of courtesy
(or want of it) have crept in. I have been treated
like a prince in a small comestible shop where I
wanted only a pennyworth of butter, a pennyworth
of cheese and a pennyworth of milk. It is pennies
that make the French rich; no one can be in any
454 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
doubt of that who has taken notice of the thou¬
sands of small shops not only in Paris but in the
provinces."
Last July a law was passed which bore the
double title of: "A law upon the free disposition
of the salary of the woman married and the con¬
tribution of wives to the common support."
This law provides that in all cases the wages of
the married woman are her own. This right is.
extended to her when employed as teacher, artist,
tradeswoman or an employee of any sort and even
though she be a merchant on her own account
she can deposit her money in a savings bank and
withdraw it without her husband's co-operation;
she can buy and sell for cash or on credit except¬
ing to sell real estate. She cannot give away
gratuitously.
The woman under this law has the right to sell
the things bought with her own money; but if
there are debts personal to her she must pay them.
Debts contracted by either husband or wife for
the benefit of the family are held against both
and the wife's goods can be levied on equally with
the husband's; but the wife's cannot be held for
husband's debts contracted before marriage.
The law does not permit the wife to consent
that her private property shall go to pay the hus¬
band's debts, does not permit the husband to man¬
age the wife's property or collect her wages. If
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 455
the husband and wife are both employed in gainful
occupations they must each before making any
other outlay set apart the just proportion for the
family expense. If one or the other neglects to
do this, whether it be husband or wife, the other
can compel it to be done by simply applying to the
courts which will authorize at once the seizure of
the proportional part of the goods or wages of
the one neglecting.
This law while it secures the wife in the pos¬
session of her own does not permit her to jeop¬
ardize her husband's property by improper expen¬
ditures ; she can create debts for the support of
the family for which the property of both is made
responsible, but otherwise if she creates debts she
must pay them. A law such as this, ungallant as
it appears, would prevent much disaster in our own
country; but American women have never been
taught yet that they must be honest.
Now that I have time to read my notes at my
own desk, after some weeks and many duties have
re-established me in my wonted condition, I can
see that I must have been powerfully impressed
and I think justly so, when I entered the follow¬
ing into my journal as I was leaving the city:
"While in Paris I occupied myself as much as pos¬
sible with seeing the wondrous sights which the
city offers, but was so overwhelmed with the vast-
ness of the varied aggregation of things interest-
456 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ing, things grand, things exquisite and things rich¬
ly beautiful, that I found myself incapable of at¬
tending much to details. But the glory of Paris,
above everything else is to be found in its en~
trancingly beautiful women, so beautiful that I
should estimate the cost of producing one such-
equal to a good round fortune. By the time the
"Creations" and the beautifying and the "Coif¬
fures" are paid for I fancy many thousands are-
gone glimmering."
On the streets of Paris I saw several colored
persons, but they seem to enjoy no distinction as
they were usually with white persons in apparent
comradship. I have seen a few at work, a thing-
vyhich I did not see in England. No mention is
made in the journals here or in England respecting
the color of individuals. A lady approached us a few
days ago asking us in French if we were from
Brazil. A conversation immediately sprang up be¬
tween us, in Spanish, in which she told us she was
born in Brazil and had lived in the Argentine Re¬
public and thought we might be of her countrymen.
In the cities of wScotland and England that I have
visited the churches were numerous and impor¬
tant, especially so in Scotland where the people
appear emphatically church going. In Paris the
churches seem much less important. I visited that
of Notre Dame on Sunday and St. Roche on a week
day. The principal feature of the service at Notre
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 457
Dame was the operation of the great organs, one
:in the choir gallery, the other in the chancel, in a
kind of antiphonal music, somewhat monotonous
though not without beauty. The building itself is
-over 700 years old, and is over 400 feet in length
by about 160 in width. The real Notre Dame de
Paris is the statue of the Virgin, a work of the
-earlier part of the 15th century, preserved in this
church. This is the great national church that
was desecrated during the revolution and convert¬
ed into a Temple of Reason, and this statue of
the Virgin was replaced by the Goddess of Liberty,
while Reason was represented in another part of
the church by the figure of a famous ballet dancer.
'The church of St. Roche was visited as I say dur¬
ing a week day. It is an important building his¬
torically, but the services were of the ordinary
-character. The Madeleine is a very large building
-and the Sunday services there were found im¬
pressive. Speaking generally the services in the
-churches appeared so mechanical and spiritless that
I found myself unable to become interested in
them, and as they were conducted in an unknown
tongue the thought within its monotonous forms
failed to reach me.
While the Bastile no longer exists in Paris the
place where that infamous prison once stood, and
where such patriotic rage broke forth a century
-and a quarter ago, cannot be forgotten. The spot
458 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
is still called the Bastille, and upon it stands a
column 154 feet high and 13 feet in diameter erect¬
ed in honor of those who fell in the revolution of
1830. Standing tiptoe on the top of the monument
with torch in hand is the Genius of Liberty. Ta
reach the Bastille we took the omnibus St. Denis,
and St. Martin passing the Place de la Republique,.
finally through the Boulevard Beaumarchais to the
Place de la Bastille.
In my early childhood when I was both imagina¬
tive and impressible I read somewhere a graphic
description of the storming of this Bastille, with
a sketch of its previous history; the effect produced
upon me at the time has been further broadened
and deepened by historic study, especially as I
have followed Carlyle throuh his matchless dran>^i
of riot, blood and fire in his portrayal of the French
Revolution, until it has become to me a matter of
personal gratification to reflect upon the fact that
this iniquitous stronghold is no more. Yet as we
are here on the ground where such awful scenes,
came and went upon the mammoth stage upon
which all of France were players, and all the world
spectators, we must try to conjure to view some
outline of that great building which stood on this,
spot as the symbol and stronghold of a tyranny
unbearable. Carlyle hopelessly cries out: "Could
one but, after infinite reading get to understand
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 459
•so much as the plan of the building!" It was a
massive structure with esplanade, courts and draw¬
bridges and containing eight towers. Before me
is a cut of the Bastille restored, which shows walls
moats and towers as they are supposed to have
stood. The feudal castle of southern Europe, or
even of Scotland is sufficient to give the idea of
the Bastille. Gloominess, strength, despair form
the triune deity that reign over and within it.
"Twelve years of royal effort were expended (1371-
1383) in its erection, and after completion it en¬
cumbered the space with its doleful presence for
four hundred and one years. It was both arsenal
and prison and within its walls many of the noblest
characters of France, innocent of crime, but against
whom some jealousy or envy had arisen, passed
many weary years. Men were imprisoned through
those terrible Lettres de catchet (secret letters) of
the king, and beyond the reach of any righteous
habeus corpus, were doomed to await the pleasure
perhaps of some favorite of the king without hope
-of trial or redress. It is estimated that under
Louis XV, at one time called the Well-Beloved,
not less than one hundred and fifty thousand of
these sealed and secret letters of arrest were is¬
sued. When the revolution broke out it could not
do otherwise than surge against this advance ram¬
part of tyranny, storm and demolish it amid scenes
-of horror and bloodshed. With this overthrown
460 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
the mob felt its strength and also justified itself;
and although France went through the Reign of
Terror then and has been many times since over-
swept by political hurricanes, which have sown<
the land with sorrow, it has never regretted the
overthrow of that tyranny which the Bastille typi¬
fied and never apologized for the destruction of"
the Bastille. On its spot the graceful column pro¬
claims the triumph of liberty; the discomfiture of
oppression.
CHAPTER VI.
SOUTHERN FRANCE:
St. Etienne—Our Consul, Mr. Hunt, and his wife—Auto trip uj»
the Rhone—Sketch of the country.
Southern France—St. Etienne
Leaving Paris at 9 o'clock on the morning of
September 13th, from the Gare du Lyon our train
started southward for Saint Etienne. The former
part of the journey we had an elderly lady and
her daughter for travelling companions, both of
whom had learned a little English. These left us
at an earl}'- station and at Rouen their places in the
compartment were filled by three very interesting
ladies who were journeying also to Saint Etienne.
They were of the middle class and had with them
some fruit which they shared with us and also they
were carrying some pigeons which were intended
for food at home. I noticed also how they planned
to use the wings of the birds for decorations for
prosepective hats. They were talkative and gave
us much information about the country through
which we were passing.
At Saint Germains where we changed cars I
purchased a lunch neatly put up in a paste board
basket or box and this is the list of articles com-
462 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
prising the lunch: One bottle of wine, Bordeaux;
one bottle of mineral water, a glass, knife and
fork, small bottle of brandy, two small loaves of
"bread, one large slice of boneless ham, one large
slice of veal, some slices of bologna, one quarter
of chicken, a box of salt, a piece of cheese and
one peach. The price of this lunch was four francs
—about eighty cents. I made the list of the con¬
tents at once, the reader may therefore rely upon
the statement as being exact.
It was at this place that we found ourselves
right in the centre of great military maneuvres
that were then going on. Two divisions number¬
ing in all seventy thousand men of infantry, cav¬
alry and artillery were moving along the roads and
across the fields in this vicinity, and on the plat¬
form at the depot I saw a number of French and
foreign officers assembled to participate in or ob¬
serve the movements.
Arriving at St. Etienne we were met at the
station by Mrs. Hunt, the amiable wife of our
counsel at that place, and by her we were con¬
ducted to the Grand Hotel du Nord where we
were furnished with an excellent room at mod¬
erate rates. Being known as the table guests of
the American consul we were treated with marked
•consideration at the hotel. It was very interesting
to me while in France, especially in Paris to ob¬
serve the swift movements of the French waiters.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 463
Timing them once, I saw a chef and two assistants
serve a five-course dinner to sixty-seven persons,
furnishing and opening bottled drinks in the mean¬
while, and having the guests seated at different
tables, inside of one hour, using no trays, but car¬
rying all dishes in and out in their hands, handling
within that time full three hundred dishes, be¬
sides knives, forks and spoons. They move like
birds. Remembering the activity and efficiency of
the Paris waiters, I was prepared to subscribe to
the following encomium which I later read concern¬
ing them in "A Wanderer in Paris."
"Around and about one all the time as one
watches this panorama, the swift and capable wait¬
ers are busy. Every one comes away from Paris
with one mastering impression upon the inward
eye: I am not sure that mine is not a blur of
waiters in their long white aprons. Paris may be
a city of feminine charm and domination; but to
the ordinary foreigner, and especially the English¬
man, it is far more a city of waiters. Women we
have in England too: but waiters we have not."
I found our consul here at St. Etienne, Mr. W.
H. Hunt, most affable in manner and exceedingly
popular in the community, He is president of
two local organizations and has been made an
official of the Academie. The local illustrated mag¬
azine has published a sketch of his life with por¬
trait ; and he participates in all official functions.
464 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Moreover, through the aid of his accomplished
wife, the social standing is important and they are
able to count among their guests persons of high
social and official rank. The general commanding
one of the divisions in the grand maneuvers then
in progress could be named among those who had
honored their board; nor is this courtesy one sided;
M. Consul and Mrs. Hunt are eligible guests in
quite a large circle of influential people. Mr. Hunt
has been recently made Vice-President of the
American Geographical Society of New York and
is much esteemed by American and other foreign
visitors here. Both himhelf an his wife are large¬
ly endowed with those attractive qualities that
create friendships. The office is also fortunate in
having as secretary and vice-consul, Mr. Burrill,
a gentleman most happily adapted to the position.
While it is a great pleasure to speak thus of our
worthy consul and of the high achievements he
has made thus early in life it gives me still greater
pleasure to add that the kindness and courtesy ex¬
tended to us during our stay in St. Etienne by
himself and wife were such as to enshrine them
within our most grateful memories as most worthy
representatives of the highest and broadest type
■of American civilization.
St. Etienne is the head of the arondissement of
the same name and the capital town of the de¬
partment of the Loire. It was originally in the
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 465
ancient province of Lyons, and is still closely as¬
sociated with that very ancient city. It was in
Lyons in the centre of the Roman imperial admin¬
istration in Gaul that the first Gallic church was
built and the first Christian martyrs of that race
shed their blood. Here Irenaeus preached and
exercised the office of bishop. The church of Lyons
and of Vienne suffered severely in the persecutions
carried on during the reign of the good Marcus
Aurelius in the latter part of the second century.
In none of the accounts of that period do I find
any mention of St. Etienne nor has it found men¬
tion in Duruy's history. It seems to be inhabited
by the fortunate people whose annals are few. At
present it has a population of about 150,000 and
is among the most important manufacturing cities
of France and a railroad centre. Here are great
manufactories of arms, cutlery and hardware, and
enormous silk ribbon factories. There are all told
perhaps seventy-five thousand men, women and
children engaged in these factories of St. Etienne.
The town is situated in what might be described
in part as a mountain gorge; it contains several
important buildings and beautiful squares, notably
the Place Marengo, and the square in front of
the Hotel de Ville (City Hall).
An Automobile Journey
On September 15th Mr. Hunt, accompanied by
Mrs. Hunt, treated us to a very enjoyable auto-
466 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
mobile ride. The car was large and comfortable
and well protected from the dust, of which how¬
ever we encountered but little, the weather cool
and delightful, the roads excellent. We started
early, soon after partaking of our petit dejeuner)
and going out of the town in an easterly direction
we were soon up in the Cevennes mountains bear¬
ing toward the Rhone whose banks we ultimately
reached. The mountains through which we passed
lift their peaks from three thousand to five thou¬
sand feet high, and the altitude of the road bed
was posted at intervals along the wayside; but as
the metric system was used, we were too much
engaged with the scenery and with our own sen¬
sations to spare the time to translate these kilo¬
meters into feet. The mountain slopes were cover¬
ed with heavy timber, a great part of the first half
of our way going, the road being through what is
called the Grand Bois, or great forest.
Coming out of these woods we passed through
the town of Annonay, now containing about 18,000
inhabitants and noted for the manufacture of
paper and glove leather; but interesting to us as
being the birth place of the Montgolfier brothers,
the inventors of the baloon. The oldest of these
two brothers, Joseph Michel Montgolfier, was born
in 1740 and died in 1810; the younger, Jacques
Etienne Montgolfier, was born in 1745, and died in
1799. They both studied mathematics, mechanics
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 467
and physics. And later having taken charge of
their father's paper factory they jointly invented
the air-baloon which bears their name. The prin¬
ciple employed by the Montgolfiers was the ex¬
pansion of air by heat, thus causing it to rise by
relative lightness. The year 1910 the centennial
of the death of the older Montgolfier, witnessed
such startling developments of aerial navigation
as these inventors could never have fancied, the
sojis of France being found in the foremost ranks
of the inventors of air craft and also among the
most daring and successful of those who soar aloft
in them.
Montgolfier died in 1810, as I have said, and
now in 1909 while I am passing through his village
all France is exulting over the feat of one of his
countrymen, Bleriot, who has just crossed the
English channel in an air ship.
Halting at a village we took what the French
call the major breakfast, having taken our little
breakfast before starting from home. The village
was Serriere on the bank of the Rhone, the hotel
was rural, and I was careful to make a note of
the articles of food served as giving so much light
upon living away from the cities. The bill of fare
was as follows: Muskmelon; cold meat-pie; fried
salsify; beef with mushrooms: roast chicken;
grapes, peaches and pears; and finally cakes and
coffee, with wine of course all through the dinner,
468 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
or breakfast as it was called. The banks of the
river were walled up in front of the town and a
long well shaded promenade overlooking the
stream was laid out. Small as was the town it
had its market of clothes, and here, too, I noticed
a manufactory of trunks and travelling bags. A
good bridge which at the time of our visit was
undergoing repairs spans the river here; we cross¬
ed on this bridge and took an extensive walk into
the country opposite the town where were orch¬
ards, vineyards and grain fields. Returning to our
hotel we set out for home by way of this bridge
and down the eastern bank of the Rhone.
We had at first a long stretch of level road as
we descended the left bank of the Rhone through
orchards and vineyards untl we reached the old
historic town of Vienne. This town is situated at
the junction of the Gere with the Rhone 16 miles
south of Lyons and dates back to the days of
Roman occupation; indeed it was a city even be¬
fore the coming of the Romans. Originally it was
built by the Allobroges and became the capital
of the Roman province created there to which
was given the name of Allobrogia. It was the
earliest centre of Christianity in Gaul and
was for a time the capital of the Kingdom of
Burgundy. It was so important that the arch¬
bishop of Vienne remained the primate of Gaul
until the French Revolution. Several church coun-
Fifty Years m the Gospel Ministry 469
cils have been held here, notably that of 1311-
12, in which Pope Clement V suspended the
order of the Templars. It now has a good
trade in wine and grain, and contains a popula¬
tion of about 25,000. Among its noted buildings
are the temple of Augustus and Livy, a Roman
Corinthian temple built in the dawn of the Christian
era and later converted into a church, and the
Cathedral which is of characteristic style and dimen¬
sions. The Allobroges who had occupied this ter¬
ritory previous to the coming of the Romans were
a Celtic people of whom little is known. Vienne
was their chief city; they were brought under
Rome 121 B. C.
In the article on Pontius Pilate in Schaff's Bible-
Dictionary, it is related: "In 36 the governor of
Syria raised some severe accusations against Pilate:
who went to Rome to defend himself before the
emperor. He did not succeed, however, and was
banished to Vienne in Gaul and there or, according-
to another tradition, on the mountain lake near
Lake Lucerne which bears his name, he committed:
suicide."
A school was established here in the second cen¬
tury of the Christian era; the history of the city
can be distinctly traced through an existence of
more than two thousand years. Protestant mar¬
tyrs suffered here during the period of the reforma¬
tion. Mosheim asserts that Clement V mentioned
470 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
above was a mere creature of Philip the Fair and
was absolutely directed and governed by that
prince as long as he lived; and that it was because
Philip was most ardently bent upon the destruc¬
tion of the Templars that Clement called the coun¬
cil at Vienne in 1311, and that everything done in
that council was in strict obedience to the king.
The only regret I have with respect to this
whole trip returning from Serriere to St. Etienne
was that the roads most of the way were level,
smooth and straight, tempting the driver to run
at too high a rate of speed, and consequently views
and observations were necessarily hastily made
and my own feelings were not always as calm as
I like them to be when looking upon things of
such deep interest. On some of these long stretches
our motor fairly flew, to the delight of the younger
members of the party, but the pace was too fast
for me. I must speak of these French roads here¬
after.
Turning a curve after leaving Vienne we sud¬
denly ran upon a woman who was crossing the
street with a babe in her arms and another little
one on the street just in front of her. We were
right upon her and there was no time to lose. She
immediately administered to the little tot a kick
which sent it out of harm's way and she with the
child in her arms quickly followed. Our chauffeur
happy with having escaped the dreadful calamity
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 471
of running down a woman and child, gleefully re¬
marked, "C'etait un coup de pie bien place." And
now our journey is nearly at an end and we are
held up for a moment by the local custom officers
to learn if we had with us articles of food which
were subject to tax.
I noticed in this valley as in other parts of
France, buckwheat growing in the fields and also
some corn; but fruit, especially grapes are the
standard crops. Of course wine is abundant and
-when freely used is not as strong as our cider of
a few days old. Indeed from the taste of some
home made wine I could not detect any of the "bite
of the serpent or the sting of the adder," but I ami
confident it is there. I never realized before so-
fully the force of the saying, "Wine is a mocker-
and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.'*'
I think the constant use of wine accounts in part;
for the French levity. The people are so brilliant,.,
scientific, so industrious, so patriotic, so affable,,
so fickle. All intelligent Frenchmen feel this, and
yet they perhaps fail to recognize what I believe
to be in great part its real cause, wine drinking.
The course of drink proceeds here as elsewhere,
from the lighter and less alcoholic to the heavier
and finally to the strong drink that "is raging."
The general impressions upon me by observation
among the French people are to the effect:
1. That the government has done much for
472 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
the public good in the way of roads and buildings,
bridges and care of streams, planting trees and
care of drinking water. At present also the cus¬
tom of planting fruit trees along the highway is
coming in. I do not know to what extent this
work is under the control of the government, al¬
though I am informed it receives government
■sanction.
2. I am impressed also with the general dis¬
tribution of wealth, the activity and apparent
prosperity, good wages and general good living
enjoyed by the people. One sees much less of dis¬
content in France than in England and Scotland.
Is it because France is a republic?
Since arriving in France I have enjoyed so much
the signed editorials of Henri Rochfort in "La
Patrie," appearing daily and have been almost
amazed at the tremendous vigor of this octo-
generian writer. While in Paris I made an effort
to see him, but he had gone to the country. He
writes with an extremely fine hand and does not
Jiesitate to criticize the courts, the officers or even
the president. Not long ago a man expressed his
■dislike for the president attempting to pull the
latter's beard. He was but a waiter in a cafe. He
was tried and sentenced to three years imprison¬
ment. Mr. Rochefort inveighed against this sen¬
tence with great vehemence, declaring it to be out
of proportion to the offense. He ridiculed the idea
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 473
of the special sacredness of the person of the
president.
As previously narrated, passing through St.
Germains I was able to get glimpses only of
the grand maneuvers that were going on in that
vicinity. But I enjoyed much hearing our consul
and his wife speak of having entertained at dinner
recently the general commanding one of the two
great divisions then assembled. Mrs. Hunt is de¬
cidedly anti-militaristic, but has the fine tact to
make and hold friends among army people while
Mr. Hunt has an attractive side for every one.
I have been in France now a couple of weeks
and at present have practically no difficulty in
making myself understood or in understanding the
peop e with whom I converse. Every day adds to
the facility. In the hotel where I am no one
speaks English. In this place I have seen but one
black person, although many would be classed as
colored in the United States perhaps. There ap¬
pears to be no such distinction through here as
white people and colored people. I have not seen
the slightest sign of it since reaching France, and
while in England and Scotland I saw but the slight¬
est evidence of any feeling that a person should be
shunned or slighted or in any way imposed upon
because of color. How different from what I have
seen in the United States. Often have I seen poor
little fellows apparently using up all their energies
474 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
trying to strain themselves to a height enabling
them to look down upon me when I knew they
were almost breaking their necks looking up to
me.
While in Paris I addressed a note to the Artist
Tanner directing it to his Paris residence. To this
I received a most polite reply from their country
residence regretting their inability to visit us; thus
were we deprived of the great pleasure of meeting
these noted persons.
CHAPTER VII.
ITALY:
— The Catacombs, etc. Naples and "goats." Finis.
The Alps—Good roads—Turin—Milan—Venice—Florence—Rome The
Catacombs, etc
To Italy—and Home
Leaving St. Etienne at 12:35 Friday we had
a very rainy journey to Lyons the centre of silk
manufacture. On the road our compartment was
occupied by one other person beside ourselves, a
middle aged Frenchman with whom I conversed
about the country, about the navy and about the
prospect of war. He thought there would be no
war, but that the limit of increasing armament
would be reached and the nations might turn to
something else. He thought the dirigible baloon
would change the elementary principles of military
science. He was a very intelligent citizen. Speak¬
ing of England and France in comparison, he spoke
of the general distribution of wealth in France
and the consequent favorable condition of the
people generally.
We had but little over an hour to remain at
Lyons and as the weather was bad we did not
leave the depot. What we saw of the city and
476 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
of the two rivers, the Saone and the Rhone which
there conjoin, we saw from our 'car windows.
Lyons however is second only to Paris in popula¬
tion, manufactures and commerce, and is as deeply
seated in history. It counts a half million of in¬
habitants and has the greatest silk manufactures
in the world. It was founded by the Greeks 560
B. C., and afterward became a Roman colony,
where the Romans succumbed to the barbarians
from the North. Lyons became the capital of the
Burgundian kingdom only to fall later under the
sway of the Merovingians. It can boast of being
the birthplace of Claudius, of Marcus Aurelius and
of Caracalla; Ambrose and Ampere. Its first
bishop was Irenaeus who died there A. D. 202.
From Lyons to Aix-les-Bains we were fortunate
to have as a travelling companion a rather extra¬
ordinary lady, a teacher of music and language.
Although unable to speak a word of English she
spoke her own language with such elegance and
clearness that I had no difficulty in understanding
her. She, too, gave the same description of the
French people as the gentleman passenger previ¬
ously had given. She said France had not men of
great fortune as America, but the wealth was so
generally distributed that the people were com¬
fortable. She said their ancient nobility had been
obliged to divide up their estates and were now
generally poor looking for opportunities to marry
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 477
rich American heiresses. She thought France was
the foremost country of the world in the general
distribution of wealth.
Arriving at Aix-les-Bains we found a beautiful
little place with fine hotels but the weather was
so bad we could do no more than take our supper
and go to bed. The next morning at 7:14 we took
the train for Italy, to pass through Modena, and
Turin, and to spend- Saturday night and part of
Sunday at Milan. In our compartment we found
a French woman with a family of seven children,
six girls and one boy. They belonged to the lab¬
oring class and looked well fed and were well
dressed. They were going to meet the father of
the family who two months before had gone into
Italy to work. In the same compartment was also
a gentleman from London, an artist whose work
is to be found in many of our American magazines.
He is an illustrator and we found him a very pleas¬
ant travelling companion.
Although we were permitted to pass but one
night at Aix-les-Bains and that a rainy one, yet
we were able to see a little of this popular resort.
The name Aix as found in more than one place
in France, seems to have been derived from the
Aguae of the Romans. Aix-les-Bains was cele¬
brated in Roman times as a bathing place and
numerous ancient remains are to be found there.
It is also memorable as the place where Marius
478 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
met and defeated the Teutons 102 B. C. It pos¬
sesses hot sulphur springs and is a very fashionable
centre in its season.
Our road from here to Modena was through
the wonderful Alps about which in schoolboy days
we were accustomed on the last day of our district
school term to recite:
"I've been among the mighty Alps and
Wandered through their vales,
And heard the honest mountaineers
Relate their dismal tales,
As round the cottage blazing hearth when their
daily toils were o'er.
They spoke of those who disappeared and ne'er
were heard of more."
Up these mountain sides climbing well toward
their peaks could be seen the well laden vineyards
and snug little cottages of the descendants of these
hardy mountaineers. Although we saw several
snow capped mountains and although the seven
bright children of the French woman who occupied
the compartment with us, were on the constant
lookout we did not see the real Mont Blanc as
that peak was enveloped in clouds when we were
near enough to see it.
We could see the well graded wagon road paral¬
leling our railroad and see gliding along it
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 479
the lone bicyclist or at times the well laden tourist
car, for automobiles can run freely over these
Alpine roads.
At one of the way stations two sisters of charity
or of some other Catholic order entered our com¬
partment and rode with us all the way to Milan.
They were of gracious manners, but unfortunately
neither could speak either English, French or
Spanish, and I at once discovered how far astray
are those who say that the knowledge of Italian
is not important to one traveling in Italy. Con¬
versation with these sisters was impossible and
it was with extreme difficulty that I could learn
anything from them. And what I experienced
here I met again and again while in Italy. In the
hotels and among business people one can general¬
ly find English or French speaking people but the
people with whom you will want especially to
converse, speak only Italian. I met one boy, son
of the Italian consul at Denver, Colorado, who
had learned French at school and who spoke i>
well. This boy who came over from Naples to
New York on the steamer with me, accompanying
his father, I found a model in both manners and
spirit and I could wish that our country might
receive many such. I shall have occasion to men¬
tion the consul and family again.
From Turin to Milan we might say the country
appeared as though specially created for the artist.
480 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
The fields of corn, broom-corn, and rice, the
orchards and vineyards, the small houses and the
ornamented villas, the churches with their towers
and bells, the spreading plains and the great amphi¬
theatres formed by the receding mountains, the
people in their bright costumes, the flocks of sheep,
the cows, donkeys, and oxen, all produced a pano¬
rama of life and beauty. We reached Milan time
enough for supper and to get to bed and that was
about all for the night. Sunday morning we took
the street cars from our hotel door or near it and
rode to the cathedral or duomo as it is called. The
building occupied a place somewhat like the Zocalo
in the City of Mexico.
It is a kind of centre from which the street cars
radiate. The building itself is very ornate, con¬
taining ninety-eight steeples and about two thou¬
sand statues. It covers 1400 square yards and will
hold about 40,000people. The interior is 162 yards
in length; the transept 32 yards. In this cathedral
we attended service and heard the choir and great
organ and saw a procession consisting of the car¬
dinal and the clergy, the choir and altar boys,
some sisters and many others, the whole number¬
ing over 150 persons, move through this church
as though parading on the street.
Unfortunately for us we were obliged to leave
Milan at 1:05 for Venice, to pass through a most
interesting country generally quite leevl, and rich
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 481
in vines and fruits; arriving at 7 P. M.
On our way from Milan to Venice we passed
the city of Brescia at the time an airship was
making its ascension and flight over the city.
Thousands of people had assembled to witness the
feat.
We had an excellent view of the machine from
our car window as it sailed far above the city as
clearly delineated against the cloudless blue of
the afternoon sky. Our train was falling behind
and as we were crossing the long dike between the
mainland and the horseless island upon which
stands the beautiful Venice, the new moon shone
out in the fading twilight. Arrived at the Gare,.
an entirely new experience awaited us. We were
destined to the Luna Hotel and it was some time
before we found the runner of that hotel and a
much longer time before we had got our baggage
all out and were seated in the gondola to begin
the dark and weird journey through those wind¬
ing canals under suspicious looking arched bridge-
ways to our destination. The distance could not
have been great but the time seemed immeasurably
long while sinister suggestions sprang out of the
many forbidding looking openings jwe passed.
Glad was I when from these snaky interior canals
we opened upon a broader water scene supplied
with ample light and when soon after we were
piloted into the steps of the Luna Hotel. The
482 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
greeting shouted to us in English convinced us
that news of our coming had preceded us. It was
not a very reassuring message that came to us in
the ungrammatical forms: "Have you wrote for
a room?" The voice was firm and indicated that
the answer was already couching behind it ready
to come forth in the same gruff way. "We have
no room." My reply was prompt and as bluntly
as I could make it, "I have the room already en¬
gaged and paid for."
We were landed, served with a good supper and
then turned over to the tender mercies of the
niosquitos, although our bed had a large mosquito
bar. My notes say: Arriving at our hotel we
were given a good room, well lighted and fur¬
nished, containing a bed more than large enough
for four Wilberforce students. In this room we
were very warmly welcomed by Venetian mos-
quitos who gave every evidence that they had been
waiting for us; and as our mosquito bar was de¬
fective they kept up their affectionated cooing and
billing till way in the night.
The gondolas are all built according to one gen¬
eral pattern, but some are ornamented more elab¬
orately with carvings and other metal finishings
than others. All, however, 'are constructed on
graceful lines and the manner of propelling them
along those silent canals makes the sensation de¬
cidedly quieting. Persons may be iseen sitting
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 483
quietly in a gondola sketching the front of some
house or the view presented by the canal or they
may be engaged in low conversation; but I found
no music or song along those silent streams.
A funeral procession on one of these canals
reminds me of Charon's boat and seems almost
unearthly. I saw one while in Venice and shall
not soon forget the strong impression made upon
me by the black gondola hearse.
Monday morning at an early hour a Venetian-
guide reported to the hotel to conduct me on foot
to the principal points of the city. In our trip
we went over the Rialto, saw the house in which
the Jew lived that gave Shakespeare his charac¬
ter of Shylock; saw the house in which Robert
Browning died; the house in which Lord Byron
died; the house where Desdimona is supposed to
have lived; the Bridge of Sighs and other places
of minor interest.
The chief things of interest in Venice, however*
are the two great churches, San Marco and Santa
Maria Di Salute, the former of these is situated in.
the square or "Campo" of St. Marco and is erected
to commemorate and give honor to the Apostle
St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice. The build¬
ing itself is very ancient and is a storehouse of
art in the way of sculpture and painting. Much
of the latter work has been done by Titian, one
of Italy's great masters. The legend is that St.
48-1 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
Mark on coming to this part of Italy by sea and
striving to enter the harbor was stopped by the
-vessel running aground. He then predicted that
where his vessel grounded there would one day
be a great church. The spot was kept in mind
and later St. Mark's church began to rise. Then
St. Mark having died and his body placed in a
tomb in Alexandria, Egypt, guarded by the Turks,
it was with great strategem that two Venetian
captains managed to steal the bones away. The
story goes that they carried a large casket filled
with ham, suasage and other pieces of pork pre¬
tending it to be an offering of food for the Mo¬
hammedan priests; while in they secured the bones
placed them within the large casket underneath
the ham and came out saying the priests would
not accept their food. The guards seeing and
smelling the pork turned hastily away and allowed
them to pass out with the bones. This scene is
all portrayed in mosaics on the front of, St. Mark's
church. It was here in this church that the Pope
preached to the Crusaders from the pulpit that is
still standing; and here in the vestibule the slabs
of reddish brown marble commemorating the spot
where Frederick Barbarossa is saicf to have kneel¬
ed before the Pope to receive his blessing. Here
too are columns said to have been brought from
Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. But the bones
of St. Mark carefull}' preserved are of course the
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 485
most precious relic. All the great churches in
Italy have their legends; some of these fairy stories
may contain some truth • but the majority of them
may be dismissed as the most transparent of pious
frauds. The bones of St. Peter, and of St. Paul,
the chair of St. Peter; the column on which Christ
leaned; the wood of the real cross; the cradle
of Jesus; the Veronica handkerchief bearing the
impress of the Savior's face—all of these stories
are told and great churches commemorate them,
l">ut they are not authenticated.
The Church of St. Mark was opened for the
priests. It was the 20th of September, wihch
commemorates the overthrow of the Pope's tem¬
poral power and the beginning of the kingdom of
united Italy.
While at home, and especially when attempting
to exercise my public rights a feeling of disregard
for the land of my birth and for the government
1 serve, will struggle for place within my breast,
but I have never yet allowed it to prevent me from
singing with a fair degree of enthusiasm, "My
Country, 'tis of Thee." But travelling abroad al¬
though sharing freely all the amenities of a well
ordered civilization my mind nevertheless goes
back to our own great country where among the
pigmies that disgrace it, dwell also, so many that
are as the salt of the earth. My country-men,
white and black, count among them some of the
486 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
highest types of mankind; and my country, Amer¬
ica, is for me above all others.
Before we were cleared from Venice, including"
tips at the hotel and tips at the depot, we felt that
we had contributed our share toward the support
of the gaily bedecked government that we saw
marching around us in the most elaborately uni¬
formed police of the country. It takes but a
glance at the. paraphernalia of officials and upon
the royal palaces of Turin, Venice, Florence and
Rome to satisfy one that kings are costly.
Having finished our stay in Venice with what
the French call a petit dejeuner and the English
translate a plain breakfast, we soon after started
on our winding way through the canals to the
railway station. I had observed at Turin that the
porters were organized into a co-operative asso¬
ciation; and that they worked in groups, one man
carrying a large common purse into which were
deposited the individual fees of the group, thus
making of them a common fund. I found this
organization in all the Italian towns I visited.
Judging from occasional outbursts of temper which
I witnessed, it might be that some such organiza¬
tion is necessary in order to avoid frequent trag¬
edies. As it is, the energies of the co-operative
porters, instead of being directed against one an¬
other, are now allowed to expend their force
against the traveller, and especially against the
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 487
American traveller who seems to be regarded as
the man of money all over Europe. The current
phrase, "Those rich Americans," expresses the
basis upon which all these public servants such as
porters, waiters, cabmen, etc., act toward the
American tourist. It was for this reason that I
was not anxious to be known as an American;
and yet when I found myself hailed as from Brazil;
or accepted as from Mexico, Spain or India, my
national pride would at once compel me to blurt
<out, "I am from the United States."
In our compartment on the journey was an Eng¬
lish lady who had travelled extensively through
Europe and Asia and whose conversation was very
interesting. She was accompanied by her daugh¬
ter apparently of sixteen or seventeen years,
demure, modest and sufficiently interesting for her
age. It was from her that I learned how to sound
out the Italian "Facchino" which brought to my
aid the labelled station porter at Florence and sub¬
sequent stopping places.
Today, September 22nd, we have been sight¬
seeing in Florence. The Hotel New York at which
we are stopping is one of the old palaces of the
Medici family: and nearby are the principal palaces
of this family and of the Strozzi family. I have
looked upon the house in which Catharine de Med¬
ici was born: and we are eating, sleeping and walk¬
ing in the halls of one of the palaces of this rich,
488 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
powerful and cruel family, the palace itself being
500 years old.
I know no better way to keep my readers' in¬
terest in Florence than to take them with me on
my morning trip, first to the old city building"
where once the heads of the city-state, held their
offices. Thence to the Baptistry where all the
children of Florence are baptized. I had heard of
this Baptistry even while in Scotland and had been
urged not to omit seeing it and it is well worthy
the regard in which it is held, not only for its in¬
tegrity but also for the vast amount of artistic ef¬
fort which has been expended upon it. This build¬
ing is constructed upon an old Roman temple for¬
merly consecrated to the god, Mars. The old Ro¬
man columns with their Corinthian adornments are
still standing, and above them have been construct¬
ed a beautiful and symbolic roof with gables, the
whole presenting a distinguished composition of ar¬
chitectural beauty.
The doors are antique, elaborate and costly; they
are of bronze and one is so exquisite that it has
received the name of the Door of Paradise. It
contains many panel scenes of Old Testament his¬
tory which are very forceful in conception and are
brought out with such distinctness of detail that
they are readily recognized. Near the centre of the
door are two heads differing from all the others
figured upon it. These are the heads of the artist
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 489
iLorenzo Ghiberti and of his step father, who as¬
sisted him in the work. The door was begun in
1423 and was finished in 1442, thus consuming 14
years of the artist's life in its production. In this
Baptisty is also buried the Pope John XVII who
-was deposed.
From this Baptistry we went just across the
.street to the great cathedral or Duomo, the front
■ of which is very ornate, the style being Gothic in
general. On entering this church we are struck
.first with its enormous dimensions. It is the third
in size in Europe, St. Peters being the first, St.
Paul's the second, and this Cathedral of Florence
the third. It is 555 feet in length and 341 feet wide
:in its widest part, with a dome 300 feet in height,
with the lantern 352 feet high. The building itself
was begun in 1296, although a church had been on
this spot much earlier. The architects who were
concerned in its building were Amolfo de Cambis,
1296 to 1301; Gioto, 1334 to 1336; and Andrew Pis-
ina, 1336 to 1349; in 1357 the plan was expanded
and the vaulting was begun by Francesco Talenti.
In 1366 a commission of 24 architects met to de¬
cide the form of the choir and dome. The church
was finished and consecrated March 25th, 1436: the
finishing work being done by Filippo Brunelleschi.
So much for its history and its description save to
remark that the blending of colors in stained glass
■that appears in the wonderful windows of this
490 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
building is now one of the lost arts, as is also the
making of a hard and glazed surfaced terra cotta
such as one sees specimens of here in Florence*
Speaking of churches reminds me of a remark I
heard an American make yesterday on coming ta
Florence. He says, "I suppose they haint got noth¬
ing to show you but churches and statuary; I never
was so sick of looking at churches; I've seen enough
to do me for four hundred years." It is something>
however, to go into a church where Michael Angelo
is buried as I did to-day, and look upon the monu¬
ment raised to his honor by his pupils; to see the
tomb of Macchiavelli and see a great slab raised to
his honor, bearing the inscription "Tanto nomine
nullum par eulogium"; to stand before the grave of
Rossini, the composer of our Willliam Tell, and
many other great worthies lying buried in the
church of Santa Crose, Florence. Here I saw a
great slab erected to the memory of Dante, al¬
though Dante himself was not buried here. I saw
the grave of poor, honest Savanarola; the building
where Galileo died; the house in which Dante lived;
the house in which Macchiavelli lived; the house
where Elizabeth Barret Browning breathed her
last. Here to this wonderful city came Milton and
Ruskin and here, still, lovers of all that is inspiring
continue to make pilgrimages. From the church
we passed to look on and admire the great bell
tower, a structure of marble of various kinds. It
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 491
is 276 feet high and is regarded as one of the finest
works of its kind. Of it Ruskin says, "The charac¬
teristics of power and beauty occur more or less
in different buildings, some in one and some in
another. But all together, and all in their highest
possible relative degrees, they exist so far as I
know only in one building in the world, the Cam¬
panile of Giotto."
From this place we passed through the art gal¬
leries looking upon the works of Raphael, Rem¬
brandt, Murillo, Michael Angelo, Titian and those
of lesser lights. We saw the originals, the great
works of the masters, and in a special room called
the Tribuna we saw collected the choice master¬
pieces of the great artists of the world. There are
two galleries of art, one on either side of the Amo
connected by a bridge and by an enclosed passage
running through the second story of the bridge.
This enclosed passage was used by the Medici fam¬
ily when they were so hated that it was unsafe for
them to appear in public, the building now occupied
as a gallery on the south side of the Amo having
been their royal palace. It is still a royal palace,
being owned by the city and is kept up all the time
so that when the King comes here he enters at
■once into his own house.
There are also royal palaces at Turin and at Ven¬
ice, although the King is supposed to reside at Rome.
492 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
As a matter of fact I believe he spends the greater
portion of his time at Rome.
The country is flooded with soldiers and policemen,,
the latter togged out in such showy uniforms that
I took them at first to be some special representa¬
tives of the army. They wear fine, dark unforms.
trimmed with red and well spangled, and fine cock¬
ed hats making them appear very important, and
as they are generally well formed and with good
faces they impress a stranger well. The country
must be fearfully burdened with its tremendous,
army and navy.
In the reading room of the Palace Hotel in which
we are stopping, frescoed upon the ceiling in the
corner is a sheaf of wheat so perfectly done that
at first sight: we were almost deceived into the no¬
tion that it was an actual sheaf secured against the-,
wall in some hidden manner. From the copies that
we saw in process by both men and women artists,,
in the great galleries in Florence, most of whom
were Italians, it is evident that the desire and taste-
for the great in art still survives in that wonderful
country.
The trip from Florence to Rome is worthy of a.
very full description, had I the power to give it..
Our train was to leave Florence at 1:20, and before
1 o'clock I Avas at the depot with tickets and bag¬
gage all ready to step on board. The train was.
to arrive from Milan and was a little late. An im-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 493
niense crowd stood on the platform awaiting it with
an immense amount of hand baggage. When it is
understood that all baggage in Italy is charged
for except the pieces you carry with you into your
seats, it will readily be seen that hand bags will be
large and numerous on these trains. As the train
which was very long arrived, there began at once
the scramble for place among the three classes of
passengers. Among those of the second class the
struggle was strenuous and not a few succumbed
in the ordeal. Mrs. Steward. M. D., who is not
very tall and not very thin, had the time of her life
trying to step up almost half her length until two
earnest Italians gave her the much-needed boost
which raised her to the level of the door, enabling
her thus to enter the compartment filled with
various reflections—wrestling and sweating; I en¬
tered also just in time to get seated as the train
started. The weather was very hot at starting,
but cooled off as we journeyed. During the whole,
trip from Florence to Rome the conductor did not
reach our compartment. I observed much country
land that appears to be very poor; the people were
poorly clad, and although in some places the grape
crop appears abundant there were evident signs of
great poverty. The course of the railroad is along
the Amo until the divide is reached, and then along
the Tiber to Rome. One notices as he reaches this
part of the country that the towns are generally
494 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
built on the summit of high hills and appear inac¬
cessible. I suppose in this the towns are prolong¬
ing the history of the early Roman camps or fort¬
resses.
I have noted a marked difference between the
Italians and the French. The former being more
brusque, less tactful and less agreeable than the
latter and perhaps not so quick mentally. Having
been assured that with Spanish and French I could
get along well in Italy, I paid no attention to the
Italian tongue, to my disadvantage. On entering
Italy I began my first experience of traveling in a
foreign country with no knowledge of its tongue
and I found it very trying. I would speak to my
man in English, then in French, then in Spanish,
only to find him incapable of comprehending me.
The brightest ones among them occasionally take
in the meaning. In inquiring about Milan of the
two sisters who were our traveling companions, I
spoke of the church using the Spanish and the
French name and also the English, to no effect.
Finally I spoke of the "Casa de Dios" and thus got
the meaning into their minds. Now while doubt¬
less the word for church in the three languages
comes from the same root, the transmutations in
sound are very great. In Spanish, "Iglesea"; in
French, "Eglise"; in Italian, "Chiesa." From that
time I began to turn my attention directly to Ital-
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 495
ian words of which I picked up a few of those most
necessary.
Arriving at Rome we found excellent quarters
at the Fischer's Park Hotel. Here we had a beau¬
tifully furnished airy room and the table was well
supplied. Speaking of hotels and their kepers, I
must give the people of the Hotel New York, of
Florence, Italy, a place among the politest I ever
met. The proprietor seemed to do his utmost to
satisfy and please his guests. The rule with all
Europen hotels is to please their patrons by atten¬
tive and efficient service, although they do not fail
to bring their bill of extras where one is not very
careful. We spent two days in Rome using an
open carriage and a guide. Our first trip was dur¬
ing the forenoon of September 24th, in which we
took a general look over the city and then visited
great St. Peter's Church; St. Peter in chains; and
St. Mary's. The special things to notice in St.
Peter's, the largest church in the world, is the fact
that it does not appear so large to the eye. Stand¬
ing just inside the entrance door and looking from
there to the rear of the church a distance of over 200
yards—it seems impossible to conceive at first that
you are looking over so much space. It is only
by comparing things that the distance and other
dimensions are realized; standing under the dome
and looking at a pen in the hand of the figure of
St. Peter painted within the dome, it helps to
496 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
realize the height when you are told that this pen
of ordinary appearance, is seven feet in length.
Within the building are columns, altars, canopies,
crypts, mosaics and paintings of very great beauty
and value; but most prized of all are the sacred
bones of the Apostle Peter encased within the
crypt surrounded by a gilded enclosure or railing on
the top of which are about eighty oil lamps kept
continuously burning. Before the door of the tomb
a beautifully carved image of Pope Pius VI. is
placed in a kneeling position, life size. There is
also in this church a dark bronze statue very old
apparently, the right foot worn smooth and the
.great toe pretty well sucked away by kissing it, if
the general supposition is true. I suspect there
has been some sand papering done to help the cause
•of religion along. There are some very sacred rel¬
ics in this church, for example, the spear that
pierced our Savior; a portion of the cross; the
sweated handkerchief of Santa Voronica showing
the impression of the Savior; and the head of St.
Andrew; none of which I saw as they are exhibited
only on high festivals, and on these occasions only
to the faithful at near view.
Visiting the church of St. Peter-in-chains, where
the original chain with which Peter was bound in
prison is kept, the special object of interest there
is Michael Angelo's Moses, a most wonderful con¬
ception and execution in marble, taking up in its
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 497
completion one and a half years of the artist's ma¬
ture life. What a representative of dignity and
strength it is. Prints of it have often been made
and it is looked upon as a great triumph in sculp¬
ture. The position is said to be that of Moses
"On the point of springing from his seat in indigna¬
tion at the idolatry of the Jews" as one interpreta¬
tion gives it ; "or summoning the twelve tribes of
Israel together in order to bid farewell." These
two very widely differing interpretations take their
rise from the attitude and expression of the figure,
especially the expression which indicates the enter¬
ing upon something of intense importance. The
horns placed in the hair over the forehead are, of
course, a defect and to that extent carry the feel¬
ing of the observer into the realm of mythology ;
tut who would dare remove them? Critics say
the proportions of the figure are inexact, but admit
the general effect is imposing.
St. Mary's was next visited. This church was
built in accordance with the dreams of Pope Liber-
ius and a patriarch named Johannes. In 352 the
Virgin appeared to these two persons simultaneous¬
ly commanding them to erect a church to her on
the spot where they should find snow on the fol¬
lowing morning, August 5th; hence the next morn¬
ing the Pope traced the outlines of the church in
the snow on the spot where the church now stands.
This scene is preserved in mosaics on the church
498 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
facade and each year on August 5th the event is
grandly celebrated.
Perhaps without breaking the chain it will be as
well to go on with the churches without stoppping
for lunch, dinner or sleep; and so we will go to
St. Paul where the bones of St. Paul are kept.
This church was "founded in 368 by Valentine II.
and Theodosius on the site of a small church of
Constantine." This much seems to be history, but
the other things about it are worthy of being sifted.
The claim is that St. Paul's bones were originally
placed in a Sarcophagus here, thus aiding a poor
woman, named Luccia, who owned the property.
It is now a new church and the eighty columns with¬
in are from Simplon tunnel.
We now go to St. John in Lateran, the mistress
and mother of all the churches because it is the
cathedral and of it the Pope himself is the Bishop.
The Pope who is Bishop of all the bishops in that
he is Pope, is also Bishop of this church in Rome.
It is the Pope's church. Constantine gave to Pope
Sylvester a large palace here which he took from
the family of Latera and fitted up a church within
it. It is upon this fact that the fiction has been
built that Constantine made elaborate donations,
including the grant or recognition of the Pope's
temporal power. Here in this church among its
precious relics are the heads of St. Peter and St.
Paul. I suppose in a good state of preservation.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 499
Perhaps more ought to be said about the churches,
but the reader is asked to remember that there are
about 400 of them at Rome and near 100 of them
are celebrated for their age, size and beauty. While
St. Peter's is the largest in the world, the largest
church organ in the world is in the church of St.
John. But I have grown tired of Roman church
services. To me it appears that it would be about
as effective and much cheaper if performed by
horse-power or elecricity.
Next to the churches and superior to them all in
historic importance is the Pantheon, the heathen
temple erected primarily by Agrippa, 27 B. C., and
dedicated to the gods of the seven planets—Apollo,
Diana, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
It was struck by lightning during the reign of
Trajan and afterward restored by Hadrian, who
gave it its present circular form and dome. There
are several things about this very sacred building
worthy of serious study. There are sixteen enor¬
mous Corinthian columns, forty feet in height, each
cut out of a solid block of granite. Queries: How
were they quarried and cut? How put in place?
Pope Boniface VI. consecrated this building to the
Christian church and it is now known as Santa
Maria Rotunda. In 1632 Pope Urban VIII. re¬
moved the brass tubes on which the roof rested and
converted them into columns for the canopy of the
liigh altars of St. Peters, and into one hundred and
500 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ten cannon for the castle of St. Angelo.
I placed my name on the record book kept in
the Pantheon and saw the brazen columns. Here
in this building I looked upon the tomb of Raphael.
Here also Kings of Italy lie buried since 1870, when
the Pope commenced his present political play of
captivity. No persons are allowed to be buried
within the city except the King and the Pope. The
height and diameter of the dome are equal, being
each 142 feet. The building itself is circular with
a portico in front. This is the best preserved of
all the ruins, although the tomb of Hadrian, of
which I shall speak later, is a marvelous structure.
There are sixteen Egyptian obelisks in the city and
two well-preserved arches, several separate col¬
umns and vast portions of the Coliseum and the
great circus.
Next in order after the Pantheon, perhaps, is
Hadrian's tomb, now connected with the castle of
St. Angelo. The building was erected by Hadrian
himself in 136 A. D., as a tomb for himself and his
successors; it was completed by Antonius Pius in
139. The substructure is a square 114 yards in
diameter and upon this building was probably a
smaller, surmounted by a statue of Hadrian.
Smaller statues were placed all around the top's
of the circular building. From Hadrian to Cara-
calla all the emperors were buried there There is
now on the top of the building a statue representing
Fifty Years in rile Gospel Ministry 501
the Archangle Michael sheathing his sword, placed
there in 1752 in commemoration of a vision seen by
Gregory the Great in 590. It has been used as a
fortress and hence its double name of Tomb of
Hadrian and Castle of St. Angelo.
The Coliseum is next to be visited and in this
we passed a couple of hours. It was easy to dis¬
tinguish the five walls, the various entrances and
stairways, the door in which came the gladiators;
the door out of which as dead they were dragged;
the entrances of the vestal virgins and of the Em¬
peror—altogether there are 84 entrances. The
building is about one-third of a mile in circumfer¬
ence and its wall 157 feet high. At its base it is;
about 20 feet thick, built of brick. The marble
steps and other valuable stones have been carried:
away to be used in the churches. The cages in
which the wild beasts were kept on the one hand,,
and the persons within which were kept the Chris-
tain martyrs, are also readily located in the building
In a comfortable one-horse victoria we passed
out of the city through the Porta San Paolo erect¬
ed by the Pope Honorius—the gate through which
St. Paul was led forth on his way to suffer martyr¬
dom to commemorate which the name San Paolo
was given to it; just outside this gate stands the
pyramid of Cestius erected by Agrippa in honor of
his friend Caius Cestius. This monument was
standing in St. Paul's time, and if he passed through
502 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
this gate as tradition says, he must have seen it.
Once out of the city on the Appian Way we stopped
to visit the little church known as "Quo Vadis."
The full name of the church is: "Domine Quo Va¬
dis?"—Wither goest Thou, Lord?" Tradition says
that here St. Peter when fleeing from persecution
met our Lord, whom he at once recognized and
addressed to him tremulously the question: "Whith¬
er goeth Thou Lord?" To which the Savior replied:
"I am returning to Rome to be crucified anew."
This answer so affected St. Peter that he turned
back to Rome to face persecution and death. The
very stone in the Appian Way upon which our Sa¬
vior stood when addressing St. Peter is preserved
in this church of Quo Vadis, and on this stone may
still be seen the full imprint of our Lord's feet. I
saw this stone, and saw the tracks, and did not for
a moment either doubt my eyes, or believe the
story.
It would be difficult to give a description of the
catacombs as they appeared to us on the occasion
of our visit. Some distance beyond the Church of
Quo Vadis we passed into a field, the entrance to
which bore some slight resemblance to the gateway
admitting to the old-time county fair ground. The
field itself as we looked over it was devoid of
feature and was as inexpressive as a common that
had been well grazed over by hungry sheep. Deep
down beneath its surface, conducted thitherto by
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 503
two flights of dark earth-cut stairways, we began
our pilgrimage with taper in hand and our guide in
front through those dark, narrow lanes and alleys
that had been cut by Christians whose burrow this
place had been sixteen centuries ago. Here were
the sepulchral residence of those holy men and
women who early died in the new faith. Our
Italian monk guide halted us at many of these inter¬
esting spots to discourse to us in the strangest of
modulations in an English that reminded one of the
tottering fat dimpled-cheek tot, beginning to step,,
dilating upon which the tapers enabled us to see,,
and which his prattle could not darken, his per¬
formance meanwhile serving to prevent the awful?
dreariness of the place from settling upon us too*
oppressively. The visit was not long, but for my¬
self I am willing to take all that I did not see as-
being like that which I saw, or different, as the
case may be. There is no au revoir for me to the
catacombs.
From the catacombs a short drive took us to the
tomb of Caecilia Metilla, the wife of the son of
Crassus, the wealthy member of the first Trium¬
virate. Here we were on somewhat familiar
ground, for the history of the Triumvirate had fur¬
nished many a class struggle. This tomb is thus
described by Ferguson: "It consists of a bold square
basement about 100 feet square, which was origin¬
ally ornamented in some manner not now intelligi-
504 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
ble. From this arose a circular tower about 94
feet in diameter, of very bold masonry, surmounted
by a frieze of ox skulls, with wreaths joining them,
and a well-profiled cornice. Two or three courses
above this seem to have belonged to the original
work, and above this almost certainly in the ori¬
ginal design arose a conical roof which has per¬
ished. The tower having been used as a fortress
inthe Middle Ages, battlements have been added to
supply the place of the roof, and it has been other¬
wise disfigured so as to detract much from its beau¬
ty as now seen. Still we have no tomb of the same
importance so perfect, nor one which enables us to
connect the Roman tombs so nearly with the
Etruscans."
The vault inside this tomb was discovered in
1540 and the fine marble sarcophagus as present
preserved in the Palazzo Farnese is supposed to
have been taken from this vault.
From the hill on which is built this tomb a most
delightful view of the extending Appian Way can
be had, as on both sides of it lie the plains and hills
of the Campania, filled with historic ruins. Espe¬
cially interesting are the long lines of ^he ancient
acqueducts attesting the engineering skill and mu¬
nicipal intelligence of the inhabitants of old Rome.
"There is nothing at Rome that is more worth a
careful study than these great aqueducts, for noth¬
ing shows better the secret of Roman greatness;
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 505
the strength of the Roman character can only be
realized by those who study the great engineering
works of the Roman people, constructed to secure
the health and comfort of the city; the magnificent
roads with which they covered Italy; and the
strong and graceful bridges, many of which exist
to this day." The writer from whose work the
above is quoted adds: "Probably no town has ever
enjoyed in any age so abundant a supply of excel¬
lent water; it has been calculated that there was
enough to give 230 gallons daily to each person."
It was near this place from which we are now
looking out upon this historic road and the ruins
that eloquently speak from these plains, that the
venerable Seneca lived; and to his home in this
vicinity he retired after his pupil, Nero, had be¬
come one of the world's monsters; and it was in
this home that he put himself to death by the order
of this incarnation malevolence. Here it was that
Hannibal halted when by threatening Rome he was
trying to draw away from Capua the Roman army
that was beseiging that city. His brilliant strategy
however was of no avail against that unflinching
tenacity which dwelt in Roman character. He was
compelled to retire, and Capua met that fate which
Rome always meted out to her unfaithful allies.
Returning to the city we hade a brief visit to
the Methodist Mission, but found the minister away
on a vacation to the United States. The assistant
506 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
minister, learning of our visit, called upon us in
the evening at our hotel. I have mentioned many
of the churches and the ruins; but the mammoth
modern buildings, the abundance of fine marble
used in construction and ornamentation, the blend¬
ing of the very old and the very new, the moving
flocks of tourists of every description, the heat and
dust—all these gave so much employment to eye
and ear, that one could early find reason for seeking
the comfortable and airy room which we enjoyed
There is much misery, poverty, filth and beggary
and crime in Rome; and for disease there would
seem to be a wide-open door.
We left Rome on Sunday, the 26th of September,
1909, on the train which was scheduled to leave the
Terminal Station at 1:30 p. m. The weather was
very hot, the sun glaring, the train crowded, ^.nd
the people on it were of that low-browed, murder¬
ous looking class, so prevalent in lower Italy. They
were not all of this type; some were refined look¬
ing and mild mannered, but the majority reminded
one of garlics and the dagger. The run to Naples
occupied about five hours, and as we were delayed
in starting at Rome it was about seven o'clock when
we arrived at the end of our long European journey.
We landed in Glasgow August 1st and are to sail
from Naples September 29th.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 507
A VISIT TO THE UNIVERSAL RACES CON¬
GRESS—LONDON, 1911
During the month of July, 1911, in company with
my wife, Dr. S. Maria Steward, and her sister, Mrs.
S. J. Garnett, a retired principal of the New York
Public School system and Professor Earl Finch, of
Wilberforce University, I again visited London to
attend the Races Congress. We also made a short
visit to Paris.
In this trip we sailed from New York on the
Mauretania, sister ship to the Lusitania afterward
sunk by the Germans.
The Universal Races Congress, which met in
London during the closing days of July, 1911, was
the first of its kind ever held. The active member¬
ship numbered over twelve hundred, representing
about all the countries of the world. The body met
in the University of London, Imperial Institute
Road, South Kensington. Its motto was: "Con¬
cord among races and peoples"; its watchword,
"Harmony." In that body were found many of the
leading scholars of the world.
The origin of the Congress is thus officially stated:
"The interchange of material and immaterial
wealth between the different races of mankind has
of late years assumed such dimensions that the old
attitude of distrust and aloofness is giving way to
a general desire for closer acquaintanceship. Out
508 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
of this interesting situation has sprung the idea of
holding a Congress where the representatives of the
different races might meet each other face to face,
and might, in friendly rivalry, further the cause
of mutual trust and respect between Occident and
Orient, between the so-called white peoples and the
so-called colored peoples."
The object and nature of the Congress was out¬
lined as follows:
The object of the Congress will be to discuss,
in the light of science and the modern conscience,
the general relations subsisting between the peo¬
ples of the West and those of the East, between
ss-called white and so-called colored peoples, with
a view to encouraging between them a fuller un¬
derstanding, the most friendly feelings, and a
heartier co-operation. Political issues of the hour
will be subordinated to this comprehensive end, in
the firm belief that, when once muutal respect is
established, difficulties of every type will be sym¬
pathetically approached and readily solved. Ac¬
cordingly the Congress will not represent a meeting
of all the races for the purpose of discussing in¬
discriminately everybody's concerns. It will not
discuss purely European questions, such as the
relations existing between or within the different
European countries; nor, of course, will it discuss
the attitude of Europe towards the United States,
or towards other American Republics representing
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 509
races of European descent. Again, whilst wholly
sympathetic towards all far-sighted measures cal¬
culated to strengthen and promote good relations,
the Congress is pledged to no political party and
to no particular scheme of reforms." The pro¬
moters further said: "Furthermore, the Congress
will not be purely scientific in the sense of only
stating facts and not passing judgments. Nor will
it be a Peace Congress in the sense of aiming
specifically at the prevention of war. Finally, it
should be noted that, since the Congress is to
serve the purpose of bringing about healthier re¬
lations between Occident and Orient, all bitterness
towards parties, peoples, or governments will be
avoided, without, of course, excluding reasoned
praise and blame. With the problem simplified in
this manner, and with a limited number of papers
written by leading authorities, there is every hope
that the discussions will bear a rich harvest of
good, and contribute materially towards encourag¬
ing friendly feelings and hearty co-operation be¬
tween the people of the West and the East."
Altogether, arrangements were made for eight
sessions within four days to discuss over fifty
distinct subjects, and in the meantime participate
in a half-dozen social functions with numerous
side calls of various kinds.
Previous to the opening of the Congress proper,
there were several preliminary conferences held
510 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
at Westminster Palace Hotel, always accompanied
with tea-drinking. The day before opening there
was a meeting of the Anthropologists, specially.
In this meeting our own Professor Finch was ap-
pointed to open the discussion.
In a large room adjoining the -hall where the
sessions were held, there was arranged under the
supervision of Professor Haddon of Cambridge, a
large ethnographic exhibit containing thousands
of portraits. These were from all countries, and
from many schools. The exhibits from Mexico
and from the American Indians were among the
most interesting. Altogether these portraits ex¬
hibited the fact of the over-whelming majority of
the colored people among earth's inhabitants. The
exhibit made by Colored Americans was very
creditable.
The Congress formally opened Wednesday morn¬
ing, July 26th, with three odes of beautiful com¬
position ; one by an English lady; one by an East
Indian scholar ; one by Doctor Dubois. The best
and worst that can be said of these odes was that
they arose from a vague region of somewhere and
were addressed to a much more vague region of
nowhere. They were in beautiful English and rep¬
resented aspiring souls. The open mouths of
young robins might symbolize them both for ear¬
nestness and indefiniteness. They breathed a
great want of the greater unknown, I have said
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 511
the Congress discussed over fifty topics. It will
give you some idea of the vastness of the work
to read the summing up made at the close by the
Honorable organizer, Mr. Gustave Spiller. He
says: "It has been asserted that anthropology has
not been discussed by experts and that it ought
to have been. But there has actually been two
long meetings of anthropologists, at which there
were about sixty present, among the most repre¬
sentative experts on the subjects. These anthro¬
pologists here discussed the whole subject at these
two sittings and they found that both sentimen¬
tality and science are in perfect agreement, and
some of the greatest anthropologists have gone
on the platform and expressed the same views.
The same applies also to International Law. There
have been two sittings of experts on that subject
and they have come to several resolutions with
perfect unanimity. There has been plenty of en¬
thusiasm at these meeting but no passion."
The opening address of the Congress was made
by a dark complexioned East Indian, Dr. Seal. He
dealth with the meaning of the Race. He main¬
tained that there must have been a prototype from
which all human types were derived; and held
that all races should be regarded as capable of
developement and progress. He said nothing
whatever upon the question of the equality of
the races. Dr. Von Luschan of Berlin followed
512 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
with the declaration that white races and black
races came from the same stock. Dr. Spiller fol¬
lowed with a strong argument in favor of the
equality of the races. This was immediately com-
batted by John Gray of England who did not be¬
lieve all races were equal; and did not believe the
differences were due to environment. Professor
Haddon of Cambridge said he hoped we would
never get a common type of humanity. He fancied
that a common type would be a very common type
indeed. What was needed he said was sympathy
to enable the different races to understand one
another.
Rev. T.G.Steward said that he had observed a ten¬
dency to confound differences with inequality.
He did not think we were prepared to pass upon
the distinctive values of people. He was most
concerned that we should be able to recognize the
human being in every race without regard to the
question of inferiority or superiority.
Count Peter Vo_y of Australia announced the be¬
lief that if we went forward with faith and good
will, we would not fail to establish among mankind
within a few decades a feeling of unity amongst
all the races of the world.
The next important event was the introduction
of the subject of miscegenation with professor
Finch as speaker. He gave a clear and perfectly
impartial presentation of the subject.
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 513
.Sir Sydney Oliver, of Jamaica, who followed,
said it was rather late in the day to talk about
miscegenation, for it had been proved over and over
again in the history of the world that mixed races
had done greater things than pure breeds.
Dr. Clark (formerly M. P. for Caithness) said
that his experience in New Zealand had shown
that where the mixture of the native and white
races was freely allowed the result was beneficial;
but when such mixture was regarded as illicit,
and where the worst element of each race only,
produced miscegenes there the result was dis¬
astrous. Rev. T. G. Steward was here called upon
again but declined to speak. He having spoken
on this subject in the Anthropoligist meeting.
Coming to the question of economics, Mr. Wat-
anable of Japan opened the discussion. He said
there was no racial bad feeling in Japan against
any other race. He was sometimes inclined to
think it was more difficult to wipe out differences
between the races, than between nations. What
we want to see now between the races he said is
not wry faces but smiling faces; and to have
smiling faces will require time, tact and patience.
Mr. Hobson of England said the most serious
movement today was the economic. Markets were
world wide. There was still a doubt whether cer¬
tain races could conform to factory life, and he
declared, "As slave labor had proved unremunera-
514 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
tive, so servile labor would prove unremunerative."
This declaration was strongly cheered. Dr. Clark
of India said: "Unfortunately the Indian laborer
is glad to work for six cents a day, and glad to
go elsewhere to get more when he can. It was
this that made poor foreigners objectionable.'"' Dr.
Dubois said the Negro of the United States took
lower wages because he could not get more. Us¬
ually the unions rejected him unless he had made
himself indispensable. The Negro, however, was
beginning to find a way out by developing business
of his own.
Mr. Googenheim of the London University, said
the thing to do, was to raise the standard of liv¬
ing of the inhabitants of a backward country, so
as to make it impossible for them to compete with
the better paid races who have higher standards
of living. The Chinese speaker following, said
when the backward nations were developed they
would naturally rise to the standards of living of
other nations. Mr. Sydney Oliver in closing the
discussion, said, that no man so disciplined by the
capitalist system, would desire to do any more
work than was absolutely necessary. The cap¬
italist was therefore obliged to go for labor to a
country where he could find a poor, but disciplined
people. In Jamaica, no employer would import
Indians if he could get native creole labor. The
Jndian did not do as much work while he was at
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 515
work, but he worked regularly. The Creole in
Jamaica when he settled down to work, often be¬
came a rich man and really made a better citizen.
Taking up the subject of Parliamentary Rule,
Dr. Lange, General Secretary of the Inter-Parlia¬
mentary Union, a Norwegian, said, "no existing
institution offered such excellent opportunities for
promoting the great object of world unity as the
Universal Race Congress. He did not think there
was any ideal of International uniformity. On the
contrary, national and racial diversity was in his
opinion a condition of progress and life. Mr. Doissy
spoke of the racial antagonism of Australia and of
America against the yellow race. This must be
broken down, he said.
Following this came up the intense question of
the Negro and the Jew. Dr. Du Bois leading in the
former and Mr. Zangwill in the latter. Dr. Du
Bois' effort was pronounced by the press, "as by
far the finest thing that the Conference had pro¬
duced." I will not reproduce his speech as we are
all thoroughly familiar with his views. Dr. Rube-
sana, a scholar from South A.frica, and Mr. Jebanu,
editor, spoke earnestly and well of their country
and its needs. Dr. Rubesana advanced the doc¬
trine that Africa was still for the Africans. Presi¬
dent Scarborough spoke of the protection of law
and the application of religion. The business meet¬
ing which was held near the close of the program
516 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
was presided over by Lord Weardale. The name
was changed so as to read, "World Conference for
Promoting Concord between all Divisions of Man¬
kind." Lord Weardale said he was glad of that,
because he had had to stand a lot of chaffing as
to whether the present Congress hd anything to
do with horse-racing.
WHAT THE CONGRESS DID
1. It pronounced definitely upon the oneness of
humanity as a result of a rigid inductive inves¬
tigation, thus placing science again on the side
of the Bible.
2. It pronounced in favor of a dark skinned
original man just as Major De Lany had done
years ago, who declared, "by the mixture of ex¬
isting varieties, you reproduce the original."
3. It accounted for color as follows: quoting
from Prof. Lionel W. Lyde, England.—"We are
in a position to say that primitive man was dark-
skinned; and that, when he began to make his
way northward, he began to bleach, thus creating
a semi-primitive yellow type. This yellow man,
exposed to conditions of cold and moisture, might
become entirely white. The human skin develops
pigment to protect itself against a strong sun; and
the quantity of pigment in the skin varies with
the intensity of the sun. It is therefore in men
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 517
who live in the hottest and least shaded parts of
the world—that is to say, in the African savana
—that we find the blackest skin. The white peo¬
ples, on the contrary, are confined to a region
where the humidity of the atmosphere forms a
screen against the rays of the sun. Finally, be¬
tween the Negro and the white is the yellow man,
who is a product of dessicating grass-lands with
seasonal extremes of temperatures."
4. It defined race and accounted for race ani¬
mosities and showed how to overcome them'—
quoting from Prof. Alfred Fouillee, France.—"I.
An idea is a force tending to realize its own ob¬
ject. The idea of race involves: (1) a certain
self-consciousness on the part of the race; (2) a
tendency to assert this personality more and more.
It has the disadvantage of leading to a feeling of
supposed superiority, and, on ^this account, of
natural hostility, accentuated by difference of lan¬
guage, customs and religion.
II. How shall we combat this idea-<force of
hatred and division? By other idea-forces: by
scientific ideas the great international bond of minds,
the germ of universal peace; industrial technics,
which has all the characteristics of science, of
which it is an application; Commerce, a connecting
link between races; philosphical ideas, which rise
above religious and social prejudices; purely moral
ideas, expressing the universal conditions of life
518 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
and progress in society. Hence the only practical
means of bringing races together is the general
spread of scientific, moral, and social instruction
The moral summing up is given by the Honorable
organizer as follows: It may, however, be asked:
What reason is there for believing in the substan¬
tial likeness of races and peoples, admitting always
certain probable exceptions (as in the case of the
Anamanese, Australian Aborigines, the Vedas, and
certain tribes in India and Central Africa) ? The
half-hundred papers communicated to the First
Universal Races Congress by eminent authorities
belonging to over twenty countries furnish the
reply. As with so many strokes of a heavy ham¬
mer wielded by powerful arms, these writers
shatter into atoms the many popular idols of the
thoughtless. They might have asserted the fixity
rather than the fluidity of races, the vast superior¬
ity of some of these over most others, the supreme
influences of physical heredity and the indifferent
effects of the social environment; the importance
of skin colour and facial features; the dire con¬
sequences of race-blending; the danger of encour¬
aging either cordial relations between races or
their respectful treatment; but, seeing that the
writers of the papers have vied with one another
to prove the contrary of these things it is con¬
clusive that the best and ripest thought of the
world is breaking with the near past. What was
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry 519
that? When in the name and on the authority
of science falsely so-called, the essential unlike-
ness of peoples was preached from the housetops ;
and most races were, on the flimsiest evidence,
declared incapable of initiative, progress, and high
ideality, if perchance they were not charitably
doomed to be wiped off the face of the earth."
THE FAMILY OF IRA ALDRIDGE
During our stay in London at this Conference
we were fortunate to make the acquiantance of
the family of the renowned tragedian, Ira Ald-
ridge. He died many years ago while at the height
of his fame, leaving a widow and two very inter¬
esting daughters. Neither of the daughters mar¬
ried, and both were living with their mother quietly
in London. Since then the mother has died, but
the daughters are still living. Their names are
Amanda Ira and Lurannah. Both are talented
musicians. The former a pupil of Jenny Lind, is
an extensive composer and a very highly esteemed
teacher of vocal music. Miss Lurannah has won
marked distinction as a vocalist, possessing a rare
contralto voice. They are both highly cultured
ladies and enjoy the affectionate regard of a large
circle of friends.
520 Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry
The following note was intended to be inserted on page
237.
(From the Washington Star)
The A. M. E. Church has reason to be proud of the suc¬
cess which has thus far crowned their efforts in establish¬
ing at the capital of the nation a Metropolitan church
wherein Methodists from all sections of the country would
find a spiritual home. The large and beautiful edifice on
M Street between 15th and 16th Streets contains at every
service, especially at the Sunday morning service, a rep¬
resentative audience of our colored citizens drawn there
by the eloquent and learned sermons by the pastor, Rev.
T. G. Steward, and by the delightful music by the choir
which is one of the best drilled as well as one of the
largest in the city, and is under the leadership of Mr. John
W. Layton. The choir consists of:
Sopranos—Mrs. Maria Ricks, Misses Julia B. Rush,
Helen D. Handy, Chanie A. Patterson, Sarah Jurix, Laura
Arnold, Mrs. C. Twine, Miss Gussie Moore, Mrs. Mary
C. Howard, Miss Amanda Waters, Miss Annie Simms,
Miss Stella Sprague, Mrs. Flora Skinner.
Altos—Mrs. Amelia Brooks, Mrs Mattie Dodson, Mrs.
Irene Jones, Miss Letitia Lee, Miss Marie Brown, Miss
Mattie Bruce, Miss Clara Bowie, Miss Mamie Bostic.
Tenors—Mr. John A. Simms, Sr., Mr. John A. Simms,
Jr., Dr. Thomas S. Upshaw, Mr. A. J. Hall, Mr. Charles
Champ, Mr. Charles Harris, Mr. Hemry Lewis.
Bassos—'Messieurs David Hardy, Daniel Herbert, B. T.
Leftwich, William Geary, William Wilkerson, Levi Grant,
Walter Stev/art, Moses Hunter, Geo. T. 'Rogers, Robert
Plummer, Robert Weaver, James Steward, James Wash¬
ington and Henry James.
Organist—John W. Stevenson.