, 1885-06-12
4 coLoRED LEcruRER
Who Delivers = brilliant and Amusing
Discourse.

j. l. Judson. the colored lecturer who
WAS spoken of at length in The LEADER
Of Wednesday morning. delivered his dis
course at the colored Baptist church last
night to quite a small audience. about
one-thlrd Of which was white people; but
those who stayed away were the losers.
The talk was highly original, exceedingly
entertaining, amusing and instructive, and
he succeeded admirably in presenting a
truthful picture Of the negro character in
the South. He began by saying that the
yawning, empty seats in front of him
were not calculated TO enthuse him. but
those present were not to be blamed
for others being absent. He said that il
was a fact which he regretted to be forced
to admit hat those of the cslorcd race
who are working hardest to elevate their
people find the greatest Encouragement
among the very people whom they are
working for, and hat white folks are the
more lenient toward a black mans efforts.
The colored race should pull together
more in harmony, feeling and effort.
Branching off into his subject matter, he
said the colored man is full of humility,
politeness, fidelity in friendship and has
a strong love of locality. As an evidence of
the latter, it is a difficult matter to get
him away from the home in which he was
raised at the South, Notwithstanding the
fact hat it was the scene Of his slavery
and frequently cruel and harsh
treatment. He is extrayagant in re
ligion, and it is easy to persuade
him in the right direction. The African
ennuch in his chariot, when he met st.
Phillip, was quickly persuaded, and seeing
water near at hand insisted on being bap-
tised there and then. The colored people
are true children of nature and are swayed
easily by her teachings, and to them music
and the love Of the beautiful is Unborn
and brings them happiness. Some have
said that the negro is incapable of high
development, and here the speaker went
on to cite instances which prove this un-
true. He spoke at length of Toussiant
l. Overture. and made comparisons be-
tween his character and that of other of
the worlds great men. Comparing him
to Napoleon, he said L'Overture never
broke his word and did pot entertain rc
yenge. His last words to his son were:
Forget that France murdered your
father In comparison with Cromwell,
he said: CROMWELL government and its
principles died with him." Speaking of
Washington, he said L'Overture did not
" any slaves nor would he allow any sem
blance of slavery in his dominions. Refer.
ing to Lincoln, he spoke of the fact that
LOverture would not surrender n princi-
pie to save his life or anything else. Early
in the war Lincoln offered to compromise
the liberty of the blacks to procure peace
from the Southern Confederacy. Il was
born a slave, y said the speaker, and will
not perhaps in all my life, be able to re-
move its baleful varying, dwaring. witt
ating influences, but | rejoice that
/ belong to a race that has done 50 much
in the face of difficulties to raise itself
Our race came of an enslayed people and
was bred in a system that had to enforce
ignorance for its own protection He
spoke Of the fact that now there are ir0m
two to five freedmen's colleges in every
Southern state, that the teaehers ia them
are black men who have to undergo the
most rigid examinations from boards Of
white men prejudiced against the rsce.
that the South has thousands of lawyers
and doctors and clergymen who are ne
groes, and 100000 colored people in
the South belong to the Methodist and
Baptist church, while a million more be-
long to the other churches. He then
went OF to speak of the thousands of su-
perstitions that the colored people in the
South have, born of "hoCdooism, cou-
junng. and all that sort Of thin &, and
cited numerous and amusing instances Of
it, one of which was that it was bad luck
to shake hands across a fence, "and,
said he, Sc thoroughly was | imbued
with these things that | wouldn't shake
hands over the gate with my best friend
to night Not only, said he, do the
colored people of the South have these
superstitions, but by contact, it has been
largely diffused among the whites. Why,
once my mistress made me kill a hen that
crmged and she WINS an ele0ant and adu.