The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1869-09-16
LETTER FROM THE SOUTH:
Contrabands.

-, y. $9s NJ
from On Cur Regular Correspondent. . a
a. E NEW ATHENS COLLEGE, III:
GnEENsnuRa, GnEEN Co., XII II
5 Aug. 80, 1869. } n
EDITOR JoURNAL.-And now few
words OF oar co1ored .tellow citizens.
Where shall ( begin, and what is proper
to say? Proprioty is a chief recon-
mendation. Touching this point, it is
important. If I say that
they are nice and handsome and thrifty
| shall be pronounced the oleverest fell
low living by one man, aud a great
rogue by another. 1t I say they are
an ilI-contrived set of kangaroos, I
shall. be called s..closo obscrverof men and
thing by one man, and an ill-natured,
worthless scribbler BY another, So it
is ! am in strait between two opin-
ions, whether I shall tell the truth or
write q novel;. ,.. r~.'..' r.
-" go" SAN KEY. ~''''~
: Sam is as black as the ace Of spades.
He is as fat and jolly as the Lord
Mayor Of London. He passed my win
dow not five minute since. He dresses
in black, and he dresses we'll is about
fifty, and wears a nice silk hat. His
head is Websterian, and his face, while
it shines from pure. ebony, shines with
intelligence as we'll. He is an ex-Vir-
gina slave, but rides in covered car
riage drawn by a handsome gray horse.
Sam Key is leader. He is well
educated, eloquent, ready and plausible.
He came down here all the way from
Louis vile, to preach to his c>lorcd
brethren Of the Methodist persuasion,
in and about the old town of Greens.
burg. His arrival was the signal Tor a
hub-bub Of no ordinary kind among the
people Of his race and pursuasion.-
The consequence was that early on
Sunday morning, I could very easily
imagine myself in South Africa. Not
less than a thous md gentlemen and
ladies Of color were on the streets
some riding mules, some jcnnets, some
red horses and some white, some. stood
in knots at the corners, some leaned
!, against the hitching posts and the brick
walls Of white folks houses, some gath
> cred together in. the long row Of negro
: shanties just across the way, and: filled
2 the windows with as many: clouds as
!; there were heads, showing ivory and
= eyes luminous as the sun, and many
: hundreds went down to the church.
= ..:l 1T L3jA~sERxox.5 90.
ao' samslooked well:up in the pulpit
r Didyou ever see a negro preaching
? I have seen him picking tobacco.
:, have seen him singing over bis bale o
cotton and dancing Aat negro weddings
But Sam locked better to-day than an!
= I ever saw before. He started.@of vel
> with sonorous voice. Artemus Warl
, said ,-"As singer, I am not a success
:. it makes me sad to sing-Iam sad
dest when sing-and those who hea
me are sadder than am" This coul,
not be said. Of Sam Key; H
sings admirably. He sings like "a lark
-. only louder. L will do him justice AM
say he ID hard to- beat in. Kentucky
= and when you say that you say NOR
y than most people know. ':...;
= 2' But though Sam excels as a singer
his preaching belongs to that elias
= which I find is rarein the world I al
], not speaking:ot the manner now, blu
:, tho matter He said, aud he locke,
|. as though he meant it, that it Away
: n'ado him sad when he thoug hit of tn
!; past. When he:thought of the happ,
. days when he lived with his good Ok
!; master, Key, in: good old Virginia
:, Negroes in those days were christians
! in these they were like the people o
the North, who loved not the cross bu
money. He had been over the Stat,
much and found that the friends of tn.
poor black men were men who Tough
. for the South. AS for him, he was ar
!, ex-rebel and gloried in it. As to 70
ting-that day would soon come, ant
he believed they would vote themselve:
back into slavery, where they could bt
good christians and suffer toll and trla
as their Saviour did when He was here
on earth. He warned all that the
Il Union men were selfish, penurious
>, nnoncy-making race, and not high mind
cd and generous like the men of the
South. '~
.. This is but the synopsis Of Sans
able and interesting sermon. Probably
Eve hundred were there of his race
: looking forward from Mount Pisgah te
!, the Promised Land of slavery. I wa,
: among thcm. An old woman with .
white cap on, was crying. Whether
she was crying thinking what she had
escaped, OF whether she was crying
thinking what she had lost, could no,
4 be- discovered from the manner in
which it was done! From the cordial
=, greeting however which she gave San
when he came down, I am inclined i,
was over what she had lost. ~ Sam evi
IDENTIFY carried all hearts With him, Ok
cept niue Like Bill Arps, who ,.te
fall in with the times first bought blue
hroLoS %l,or Him nou<o anil <hAn -