The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1865-12-22
.imOng the Freedmen.
Amusing Incidents and Anecdotes
BY CHAPLAIN SELAH MERRILL.

| BY CHAPLAIN SELAH MERRILL.
The passion of the negroes for great
words. and their Use OF them. is very
amusing They frequently omit the first
syllable of !; word. or chtngc ii in some
way SO us to make it sound most ridicu-
louS. For instance. in nv meeting, one
man in prayer used these expressions /:
I'VE get down on de bows OF our sinful
knees = 1--WE have >inded with high
hand > ''we are dc objects of thy 'digna-
tiun and wrath = '-we have sat to-;iay
under the drippinS oi thy sanctuary."-
One man in leading the HYMN (thev al
WAYS read two lines. which are sung. and
two morrl came 10 the line.
When this poor lisping, stamnet-g tongue. =
which ne gave i'll a sing-Song tone aS fol-
7 lows
, When di> poor slimmering. slanmcriny tongue,
and h. was followed by the audience, who
sun" it exactly rs h gave it out
/ Sometimes an officer would be sent
around tilc picke: line Ia instruct the men
tor the day. The REGULAR picket officer
VIII he came to in>pec; them would al
wav> inquire 10 see it'th.y hal the proper
instructions and understood them On,
. ;!;iy the instructions wrr,- 10 look out for /;
;ia" of irucr. The picket officer. whel
he canc alon~. asked one man what hiS
instructions were. '.All dc distractions
rot, Sah. was TO look out for FLAG of
troops.
The camp guard, of three relieis, had Il
rack for their guns near my quarters. and
one morning they had long diSput,
is to the place for the guns of each relief.
The dispute ran high. and WIS III length
settled 10y a man with stcntorian Voice
somehow in the following style: "Gen'r-
men. I'll tel Won how dis is: lie tuSt be-
liel pu.> der guns dar: and de second be
lief puts der guns dar: and hc third belief
is on duty" Another guard SAID one day
that there were three 'lieis and four posts
4.
cr on the second.
! We had often occasion TO speak of tlt
pest house. :lS wei! as to send men there
and some cot IN idea that there were two
Syllab!c> 10 the word pest. Some used Il
speak OF il a- ''dc express house - ans
one man. who had been sent there will
varioloid. on his return was asked wher,
he had been. and replied, ITO dc conte>:
house. Sah" '.What was the matter will
you, George" ''Well, Sah,' he replied
Il don't exactly know: l b'lieve dey call
ed it de very loose -
l set one of my boys one dayrto reading
the spelling book near the beginning.
knew he could read some, but he did no
seem to make it 90 well for some reason
in the place assigned When | came bach
found him in the middle of the book
reading most fiuentlv such words as Sim
materiality." ''indcStructibilitv." '.incom
prehensibiIity," &c. But the little word.
of two or three letters in the beginning o
the book he read with the greatest difficult.
ty.
/ Sometimes the freedmen get part o
some common idea. as L text of scriptur,
for instance, and then make up the res
from their own invention. And again
they will Get the fact or idea correct. but
locate it wrongly. Ii is very common TO
them to give the following turn to a iamll
lar text : "P;,ul may plant, and poli>l
with water, but ii won't do
One Of my men preached one night
from John Vi. 81, which he repeated thus
"Whoso cateth nv flesh and drinketh m,
blood, hath eternal life and | will rais
him up at the last day. Believe this an;
be happy l supposed he intended tn
last sentence as comment OF his own, unit
in the progress of the discourse, he ''woul,
speak to thcm.' he said, ''from the las
clause Of the text, namely, Believe thi
and be happy" 1t is also common +
hear the blacks discourse upon the theme
of self reliance, and independence, from
/ the text, Let every tub stand on its ow1
bottom," which they insist is good scrip
ture.
/ In meeting one night, l heard a speak
er say, 'Brethren, | will proceed to tel
: ycu about Jesus Christ who was born i
, de garden of Elem And one of thei
exhorters said to me one day, in speakin
f of the devils which entered the herd {
swine, You know, sab, that Christ wen
| over into Genesis. and saw man win
9 was full Of evil spirits who said that thei
name was legion many. These spirits sab
were SO powerful that they went out Q