Connecticut western news., 1883-05-09
A SMOKY MEETING HOUSE.
THE FREEDMEN AT THEIR WORSHIP.
The Stove Without Pipc-The Sermon and
 the Collection.

A Northern lady who was one of a party of whites who visited a colored church says: , "On Sunday afternoon Stephen in- , formed us that there would be meeting in the evening. When we entered the church, which had formerly been to-
 bacco factory, we found that wood fire
 had been made in an open stove without pipe, and consequently the room was
 full of smoke. Stephen apologized for
 this condition of things, remarking that
 the fire had been burning too long. The
 building was quite high, as adopted to It's original purpose, and it was therefore
 the custom to let the smoke ascend to the upper rafters and settle there. Then the fire was allowed to die out.
 "Why don't you have stove-pipe ?" we asked
 I've has got so much, replied Stephen, pointing to two or three joints of funnel that lay in the corner, an we'se waiting fo' $2. 26 mo to piece it out"
 Most of the smoke having by this time either stored itself away in the roof or escaped from the many crevices, the services began with "lining out the hymns, the minister giving but two lines at time, custom prevalent within our own recollection in New England, when hymn-books were less plentiful than they now are. The congregation joined with great energy and with the almost univer- sally musical voice which is natural to the negro race. In all their suffering, in the worst conditions of slavery. God gave them this, one of his choicest bless lngs. In the cotton fields, in the rice swamps, on the sugar plantation, any where and everywhere, with the over- seer's lash actually threatening them, they could sing. Even when the negro was slave have sometimes felt almost willing to take up the hoe and work by his side if could have his health, his laugh, and his music. The Eighty ninth Psalm was now read by one of the two ministers who oc- cupled the desk. He had evidently at some time witnessed the attitude and manner of an Episcopal clergyman in his set way of closing the book with "Here endeth the second lesson, for in pre- cisely the same way he gave us "Here endeth the conclusions of the Eighty ninth Psalm" It was now the turn of the other to pray preparatory to the dis course to be expected from the first speaker-and he did pray! Unless he was consummate actor, nobody could doubt his sincerity. Dictionaries and grammars were set at defiance, or rather their rules were intercepted indiscrimi- nately.
 "Oh, Lord, he prayed, "make us like de holy 'postle Paul. Make us 8 brag- gadocia like him for righteousness' sake. Po' into our hearts de rewerbera- tions ob gracious Omnipotence Fill us chock full ob cherubumic glory. Make dis land oberhow with milk an honey: of grace like de old Roanoke when de snow melt up yunder. We'se po' mis ble undefiled sinnahs -ah, an we knows it -ah! Pc out dy sperrit on dy servant who's to 'drass us 'ractly. Make his head like inkstand, so't his tongue will be like de hands of ready writer" And then there was loud Amen that ascended to the smoke under the roof.
 The sermon was very much in the same strain. "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, was the text. Whenever he was at loss for an idea he returned to n rpnpfifInn nf tho Co, mon practice of some of our white cler- gymen, and sometimes very good one, If they would confine themselves exclu- sively to it. He asked for our "serious prayerless attention" to what he might say, and I am afraid that we took the latter part of this exhortation more liter ally than he intended that we should. He closed..with grandiloquent perora- tion about burning stubble and lost souls. suddenly subsiding to low tone and an expressive grin as he wiped the prespira- tion from his brow with a ragged ban danna.
 "Now, I've been done de best could. Gimme little money fo' de stove-pipe l'
 The hat was passed around, and the
  negroes did not contribute penny. It was not expected that they would when there were dozen white people in the house. The contribution was poured out on table before the pulpit, and it was counted by the two ministers as the carefully looked on to see that there was no act of prestidigitation connected with it. When the count was finished the elder minister fell on the back of the younger, crying with some thing between a shout and sob:
 "Glory to God, Halleluiah Five dollahs and fo'ty cents-a leetle mo would ha' got a new heatah P
 "Got a heatah now, down cellar 1" shouted one of the congregation.
 The minister was dumbfounded for a moment, but speedily recovering him. seH. he turned to us and said quietly, "White folks, don't you believe that niggah, adding, as he tapped himself on the forehead, "Dare ain't nobody libbin' in de top ob his house." and then with B loud voice he gave the benediction.
 THE theory so ably advanced by some of our esteemed contemporaries that the Ic .J,,Nk k~A ,~f