ANECDOTES.
It is one of the unwritten laws of American civilization that the
public has a right to get off jokes on leading public servants, whether
they are clergymen, statesmen, business men or what not. Very often
this habit of caricaturing our ablest men by cartoons and jokes is
carried to extremes; but within proper limits, if it is possible to
define what is proper in such a matter, there seems to be no objection
to it among those who may be the victims. It is true that sometimes a
joke, if founded on facts, will go further in illustrating a man’s real
disposition than perhaps anything else. At any rate, it is customary to
include in every biography a chapter giving the anecdotal side of the
subject’s life. That rule will not be departed from in this case.
“THE BLACK STURGEON.”
On one occasion Dr. Walker was preaching before the Walker Baptist
Association down in Georgia. In the middle of his discourse, and at the
close of one of his most thrilling flights of eloquence, an old colored
man, in a frenzy of excitement, rose to his feet and exclaimed: “My
Gawd! No wonder dey call him de Black Sturgeon!”
The old man evidently had mistaken the word “Spurgeon” for the word
“Sturgeon.” In speaking of the matter afterwards, Dr. Walker said, with
a good-natured laugh, “Well, I’m glad he did not class me with the
small fish.”
READING AND COUNTING FOR NEGROES.
Once a Georgia Negro carried a letter to Dr. Walker and asked him to
read it for him. Dr. Walker complied with his request. Two or three
days later, the same man came back and said:
“Doc, you sho did read my letter all right. I took it to two white men
since, and dey read the same things dat you did.”
Somewhat later, another colored man came to Dr. Walker and asked him
how much was 9 x 70. Dr. Walker told him 630. A few days later the
colored man returned and said:
“Doc, you know de uddah day, I axt you how much was 9 x 70, an’ you
told me 630. Well, I axt Capt. Jones (a white man) about it and he
told me de same thing. I tell you, Doc, you sho knows how to count.”
In telling these stories, Dr. Walker always makes the point that it is
very difficult to get the average Negro to believe another Negro unless
some white man will endorse what the colored man says. It seems to be
an old and foolish way Negroes were taught during slavery.
PRAYING FOR MONEY.
Dr. Walker believes in praying for everything. In 1886, when in Boston
trying to raise money to assist him with his church work at Augusta,
he was rooming with Mr. Charles A. Dryscoll, who was at that time a
student in the New England Conservatory of Music. One Saturday night
Mr. Dryscoll noticed that several times during the night Dr. Walker got
out of the bed. He asked him if he was sick. Dr. Walker replied, “No.”
Once, while Mr. Dryscoll watched to see what called him from the bed
so often, he found him kneeling by a chair in prayer. He spent nearly
the whole night in prayer. The next morning (Sunday morning) he went to
the First Baptist Church, of which Dr. P. S. Moxom was then pastor, and
made an appeal to the congregation for help. He secured $109.00 in cash
and many pledges. Dr. Walker always referred to that contribution as
prayer money.
PRAYING FOR CONVERTS.
Once at Augusta he commenced his revival services by making a request
of the people that they would pray that the Lord would give them 200
converts during the meeting. At the close of six weeks’ work the number
of converts was found to be 325. But in a short while a large number of
these converts proved such miserable failures as Christians, Dr. Walker
said, if God would forgive him, he never would pray again for 200
converts, and he said that he did not want anybody else to pray that
prayer in Tabernacle Church. He thought that the best thing to do was
to pray for souls, and leave the number with God.
ABOUT JAY BIRDS.
Dr. Walker relates with great pleasure that, when he was a boy, he
made it his business to kill every jay bird he saw. He said that the
old folks had told him that he would never see any jay birds around on
Fridays, because on Fridays all the jay birds went to carry sand to
hell. So he made up his mind to kill every one he could, in order that
the number of jay birds engaged in the sand-carrying business would be
decreased. He was a man nearly grown before he found out that his ardor
in attempting to kill off all the jay birds was prompted by an “old
wife’s fable,” a myth, one of the many hundred superstitious notions
that prevailed among the old-time colored people.
[Illustration: REV. CHARLES T. WALKER AT FORTY YEARS OF AGE.]
EARLY RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS.
Dr. Walker’s first recollection of any religious emotions run back to
the period of his early childhood. He remembers how every Sunday night
all the servants would gather in the hall of the “Big House,” and hold
a prayer-meeting with the “old master,” a Dr. Samuel Clark, leading the
service. He used to go with his mother to these meetings. The first
hymn he ever heard “lined” and sung, _i. e._, the first hymn that he
remembers, was the good, old-fashioned hymn beginning,
“When I can read my title clear.”
He remembers well the edition then used had these words:
“And hellish darts be hurled,”
Instead of the present rendition, which has these words:
“And fiery darts be hurled.”
ELECTING A CHURCH TREASURER.
Dr. Walker and the late Rev. T. J. Hornsby were once invited by
a country church in Burke County, Ga., to conduct an election of
officers. Bro. Hornsby acted as moderator. The custom of the church,
as was true of many others, had been to elect two members to see after
the money. One man carried the key, and the other man kept the box.
As a rule, the money was counted and the box locked in the presence
of the deacons. As a further precaution, the man with the box was not
allowed to carry the key. When the time came to elect the treasurer,
Dr. Walker explained to the church that it would be best to elect one
man as treasurer and make him responsible for both box and key. He told
them that the time had passed for them to continue the old custom of
electing two men. Some at first were not inclined to favor this new
departure. One or two members made speeches against it and said that it
would never do, but the majority of those present voted to adopt the
suggestion, and accordingly one man was elected treasurer.
Rev. Hornsby, when he declared the election, thinking to add a humorous
touch to the situation, said:
“Now, Brother Jenkins is your treasurer. He will have both the box and
the key. He can open the box whenever he wants to, and take out what
he pleases.”
Quick as a flash, an old brother, one of the opposers, rose to his feet
and exclaimed: “Dar now; you hear dat! I knowed when we sont fer Brer
Hornsby and Dr. Walker dat dere was gwineter be de devil to play here
to-day! Dog my cat, I tol’ you so, and you wouldn’t listen at me, and
now hit’s too late!”
DR. WALKER’S COMPLEXION.
While in London, on his way to the Holy Land, Dr. Walker, in company
with Prof. M. J. Maddox, one of his traveling companions, went to a
barber shop to get a shave. Evidently the barber had never seen Negroes
before, and was very much astonished. He noticed that Mr. Maddox was
several shades lighter as to his color than Dr. Walker. Speaking to the
latter about this, the barber asked, “Why is it that you’ve got so much
more complexion than your friend?” He wanted to know, of course, why
Dr. Walker was so much darker than Mr. Maddox, and that is the way he
put it.
When the barber had nearly finished his work, he said to Dr. Walker,
“I’d like to shave you all the time, your hair is so curly.” Americans
would speak of Dr. Walker’s hair as woolly.
THE NEGRO A NOVELTY.
In Heidelberg, Mayence, Cologne and other places, Dr. Walker and Dr.
Carter were the observed of all observers. Hundreds of people would
gather about them and inspect their clothing and feel their skin.
In Brussels, in a few minutes after they left the station and reached
the streets, a crowd of nearly 500 people gathered around and plied
them with all sorts of questions. They were asked what was the cause
of their blackness; they were asked whether the devil made them black;
one man wanted to know if everybody where they came from was black;
some wanted to know if their color would wash off; another asked why
the palms of their hands were so much lighter than the backs of their
hands; and so on almost without limit. When they started down the
street, hundreds of children followed them the same as if they were
following a circus. The children gladly carried the traveling bags,
bundles, and walking canes, umbrellas, etc.--anything to keep up with
the strange men. Writing about this to his newspaper at Augusta, Ga.,
Dr. Walker said:
“In America the Negro is a problem; in Europe he is a novelty.”