New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-12-28
THE RECORD OF FIFTY YEARS
"REMINISCENCES OF A JOURNALIST.
BY CHARLES I. coNGDoN.
MEETING HOUSES AND MINISTER'S.

THE NEGRO PKw-coLoRPHoBlA IN SCHOOL,
KpHRAIM PKABoDY-JoHN wEIss-DR. JOHN O.
CHoULEs-DR. CHANNING-A PREACHER WHO
COULDN'T RE sroPPRD-JOHN NEwLAND MAFtIr
DR. SAMUEL wKsT-JoHN rrERroNT
Perhaps il is not always fully remembered as
IL should be that the pulpit. apart from its great re-
lgous mission. may also he felicitous educator
of the taste and judgment Ii is great deal to his
ten week otter week TO thoughtful, learned and
eloquent discourses, full OF piety unprofaned by
clumsy construction aud platitudinors common
place. Our PLAN, unprotending wooden church
was my first college, its pastor my FIRST Professor
of Rhetoric, and the only ono had who was
good for any thing. The first clergyman 10 whom
really listened was Or. Orville Dewey who for ten
years preached 10 Us sermons which thought Ss
fne n those of MassoD OF Bossuet or Jeremy Tav-
lor-io speak frankly. whatever critical Judgment
have since acquired has not much modified my
OPINION i still place some OF DR.. Dcwey's sermons
in the front rank Of such literature. unfortunately.
few people read printed sermons with much relish,
and the general style of pulpit eloquence has under
gone a marked change. not much for the better
but il great purity aud force Of language, rich rhe-
toric we'll kept ia hand. snewy log caipower' vigor
Gus and Incorporating earncstaeSs, with q genue
lberaliy-if all these together make great sermons.
Dr. Dcwey's wore great The best of them are In
print, and the reader who does not care to take
my word may Judge for himself The Doctor had
way. of which we did not complain, of preaching
his sermons over and over again until they were
perfectly familiar 10 us. and we knew when the
finest passages were at hand. So when a dapper
little young man fresh from the Cambridge Divinity
School ministered unto and treated MS to the
best parts of one of them which had been published.
astonlshInent and ind gnatiOn filled all tho pews
Those who in their righteous wrath at the larceny
refused 10 attend church in the afternoon missed
the opportunity of hearing the youthful apostle re-
peat the offence If there had been people enough at
our vespers for mob. think we should have had
one. Pulpit plagiarists are always getting them
selves INTO divers trouble, but have never heard
Of a foolharder defiance of detection than this.
We had in our church what suppose rs not to be
found in many churches at present. pew for black
people though never saw any blacks In IT, Under
the circumstances they declined very properly to
pray with u.s. but set up tabernacle for themselves
In the outskirts of the village. where they could
make as much noise az they pleased; and sometimes
they pleased to make a great deal AS future ages
will probably decline to believe the negro pew at
all except upon good evidence, hereby put 1t upon
record. Once in another meeting house in another
town l saw negro admitted 10 the church IN a pc
culiar way. All the white pOstulants were first re-
ceyed Then the minister said, to my astonish-
rnent "Jnhn, come DOWN. and saw John descend
ing from his pen with much mcckness depicted
upon his sable conntenance. When he had been
properly posed before the altar. the minister said
" John, you have been great liar" Yes. maSsa.'
"And q great their u know II, massa ~
And ] do not suppose that there is q person
in this congregation no thinks that you will abide
by your professions" YES. ! will. massa" Aud
80 the sable convert went back 20 his pew or pen.
by no means in a state of spiritual exaltaton; and
everybody thought how charming il was in the
minister 10 let him come into the fold ut all But
forty years ago this colorphobia was in full and
fierce and most unchsrtabe force. / do not
know how many towns had & cir niger suburb.
but know that we had j went to public
school m which the black boys were seated by
themselves, and the white offenders were punished
by being obliged to sit with them Such gross
immortality seems hardly credible. One As
tempted 10 burst into adjcctives in writing Of it,
and TO set il down as coarse and cruel, and worse
A respectable negro of our town had q white WIFE,
who WAS made so utterly miserable by the SCOTS
and scorn Of her ncighbors that she did her best to
become herself black. exposing her face constantly
to the sum- until she attained tOlerable color. and
might have passed at least for a Mestizo. Think
OF lyccum, established TO promote popular knowl-
edge, actually debating whether black people
should be allowed to purchase tickets for the lee
turo course! Ours dld that once, am ashamed TO
say aud decided the question in the negative.
But enough Of this il is not pleasant TO remember
There was a Clergyman in our town who got into
scraDes afterward, aud did not live his last years
In much credit. We have "a drunken ne'er-do-well
blacksmith called George, famous for his mother
wit who was discovered BY the minister sitting
upon the steps of his church, very unwel from the
effects OF impruGent rotations. well, George.
drunk again, Ell y said the reverend man. No,
parscn," answered George. I" 1 amt drunk. The
fact il hic) that was thinking lhic of jining your
church, and the more tbicl think of ii the sicker
grow" 1t was this same minister who rebuked an
old and exceedingly well saed sea captain for his
nnrestrained use of profane language. Never
mind" was the answer; there isn't man in town
who wouldn't rather hear swear than hear you
pray" We had a succession Of excellent pastors.
among them the Rev. Ephraim Peabody. a sweet and
sanity man. who left US 10 20 to the Kings Chapel
10 Boston. and who died not many years after He
was the clergyman mentioned with such ehusion
by Miss, Martineau in her " Retrospect of Western
Travel" She met him in Cincinnati and described
him and his wife. Sad their experiences and trials
and adventures with so much particularly. that
Mrs. Peabody said with great archness: " Dear
what babes in the wood she makes Of US"
One of our notable pastors the lamented
John Weiss. dead only little while ago. Nobody
who heard him in the full flush and strength of his
youth can forget his energy and power. He
one of the boldcst preachers l have ever known.
He had his own theory Of the proper topics for ser
mons, and one of them he conceived 10 be the ini
auity Of slavery. He was neither BOanerges
gant-on the contrary, he was a small man. with
thin, sharp voice; but when his subject was
winch thoroughly warmed INN, his stature was for
gotten and his tones were like those of q battle
CRY. lie preached against the nomination of
General Taylor for the Presidency TO house full Of
Wings; and though be once IN my hearing made