The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1860-05-09
MISCELLANEOUS.
Correspondence Of the N. Y. Express.
FROM VIRGINIA.
RICHMOND, April 16
THE SUNDAY IN RICHMOND.

THE SUNDAY In hlCHMOND
There are so many good people in the
North, especially in the Rural Districts"
that believe negroes are served here for
breakfast, dinner and tea, and are cooked
and fried and eaten, as well as burnt, Van
Wyck) or, if not that, that the masters of
them here, go about with big bowie knives
in their pockets, and great long leather
thongs and lashcs in their hands, threshing
out the blood, step by step, from the poor
ncgro's skin. thought it might interest
such worthy and intelligent people to know
of the progress Of reformation i'll this land
of Washington, Patrick Henry and John
Marshall, and to show that really, the Sab
bath is kept up here, as in other Heathen
lands, say Burmah, or Hindoostan, or the
Blight of Benin.
We'll, to begin at night-there was not a
theatre open in the city-and there is one
which works busily on week day-there
was not a ERE, Concert" that heard of,
where they sing, dance, and make merry,
there was not ball, or frolic, or kick up
of any kind, and have not the least belief
in the morning, that the records Of the Po-
lice will turn up fight, or murder, or a
stabbing case, or anything of the kind
To New Yorker, accustomed to having
the Bowcry, or the saloons of Broadway to
spend his Sunday evenings, you can imag-
inc the inetfable stupidity of all this, better
than can describe it. Indeed, there is no
where to 20 except Ito meeting" and l can
easily imagine the curses that free Repub-
lican of the North, especially German Re-
publican, would pour forth upon such a
state of society, and such ''institutions," "
where it is almost necessary, if you spend
the Sunday evening away from the family,
to spend it in church.
The Sunday itself was as sombre as the
night. The church bells and wonderful to
say the audacious shareholders point up
spires and steeples to heaven just as non
shareholders do in the North ringing vocif
erously if not merrily in the morning-and
the whole population, black as well as white
seemed to pour out to hear the word o1
God read and expounded. Wonderful tc
say, too, they have the same bible here that
we have in the North, and they admit it to
be orthodox, and it is 'the higher law, '
and they ought to obey everything in it,
Of course such religion was not endurablt
to free Northerner like me, and the hun
dreds of well dressed white men, womer
! and children, all going to church, passet
by to visit the down -trodden Africans, ii
their church, and to see if they were allow
ed here the same God, and the same bibl
that white folks have. Wonderful to say
the God of the white man here, is the Coz
of the slave also, and all have the same bi
BILE, and all profess reverence, and the duty
of full obedience to it's commands. Thl
would have astonished and confounded me
if | had not read of such things in our Saw
iour's day, and afterwards in the early day
of the Church, and of the Holy Martyrs Q
the first and second centuries, who knew
about as much of the Apostles as we ar
likely to know sixteen or seventeen centurie
later.
, Well, II A. NJ, entered the Africa
! Church. White folks are admitted and ne
\ gro treats us just as We in the North trea
negro-hc sets aside for us and apart fo
himself, special benches. All were Bar
tists-Puritan Baptists-iankec Baptist'
!. They pray extemporancously and with
; good hearty will that has a soul in it. BaI
o fist negro was praying when | entered.
! was the exact formula of prayer that 20
will hear among the ruder Baptists of Me-
!. England. Negroes sing in grand choi
= men and wonderland only think of it !
All in public, too, they read hymns frol
the hymn book, and then the whole congr'
. CATION heartily responded, as if they wei
!. !. really God d-praising. Think of their beli
.. allowed hymn-books! Think of their know
A. ing how to read, and Of their being allowe
to read! Only think Of that, Mr.. Senate
Wilson.
- White preacher then bcgan-a very inte
r. lgent man. and said to be the best pa
ir preacher in the city Gree negro contribute
pays him. The only fault he had, so
seemed to me, was, that he fred too higf
- but am not accustomed to such intelligel
negroes as these if they understood him.
=: Anti-C Christ is puzzle to us white folk
10 but he dwelt very elaborately upon Ant
N Chris..
What was astonishing-only think it !
~ he addressed these "poor slaves" as bret