Morning journal and courier., 1886-04-06

''others" not kept them out of these oppor- tunities for work all these months or years while they have been idle and hungrys
 RICHMOND'S NOTED PREACHER. Sunday Morning in the Rev. John
 JasPer,s Well-Fflled Church.
 IFrom the Chicago Timesl
 His place of worship is a large, solidly built and somewhat attractive brick in the very center of ''Africa"-the extreme north ern prolongation of Richmond It will hold nearly five hundred and was well filed About dozen white persons besides myself were present, and the ushers conducted them with great politeness to seat, but, as I went with the quadroon waiter of our boarding house, I felt sort of obligation to accept seat in his pew. And, by the way, this quadroon gentleman (who forbids me to publish his name) has an intellect that is not to be sneezed at He tells me he is second cousin of Senator Mason of the Confederate British embassy, and he certainly looks it.
 He was born, he says, on the North Caro- lima line the day Sumter was fired on, and his mother never heard the darkeys were to be freed till the paroled men began to arrive from Appomattox. She steadfastly refused to believe it till ''young marse hisself cum and say so;'' but, as 'tyoung marse' was sick in northern prison hospital, she was not convinced till the next July. Then she ''toted" this boy to Petersburg, where he could learn to read, and supported him and herself by washing. He is now much better educated than the average white man, but still talks plantation lingo, though he can write beautiful English. And here discov- CT one reason why the colored people make such slow progress in language studies; his associations were all the time pulling him d. sJ. +l, IL: good English half the time. He can speak English but perceive it is an effort, as if it were a foreign tongue.
 He says that he has changed his mind four times about "God, the war and the niggers At first he took the notion of the old folks, that niggers were made to be kept down and white folks to boss; next he thought the niggers time had come to get up and the white folks to get down, and then he conclu- ded that all the old Bible notions about nig- gers durned foolshness; that every race should have it's time to run just every dog has its day. At present, he complacently informs me, hesrather 'spects there is God, but nobody can prove it; admits that Jesus was a better man than Mohammed, but thinks Abraham Lincoln much better than either, and so far above Moses that the cur rent comparison of the two makes him ''fghtin' mad" He likes the music at Jas per's though and goes to church 'just like white boys do-for style" As the first col ored positivist I he was quite a l study, and I ventured on an inquiry to I the origin of races. This stirred his f'gall' and he pitched into the tenth chapter of 1 Genesis very savagely, maintaining that men | started on the earth in thousand different l places, and that in two thousand years from | now the negroes of America will be made | white by the climate. But this is digres- | sion-let us return to our Jasper.
 He is venerable-looKing three-quarter | mic fnrah md pleasant address-nearly seventy years old. 1 His text was: "The queen of the South | shall rise up in judgment against this gene ration and condemn it, for she came from | the uttermost parts of the earth to Solomon, | and greater than Solomon is here" On | this he preached very good sermon-I have | heard much worse from pretentious white | pulpits' But toward the last he became ex- l cited, and then all the African in him came l to the surface. Swaying tremulously back | and forth, or leaning far over the pulpit and l waving his long arms, he half sang, half l shouted in musical monotone 8 gorgeous de- l scription of Paradise. The tropical imagery | wonderful; shining sands, crystal l streams and evergreen shores; golden crowns, | immortal harps, never whitening flowers; the 1 sun that never sets, the palms that never fade and the love that never grows cold; the bright-robed angels for the weary soul and the tree with it's twelve manner of fruits | that are for the healing of the nations. And l as he swayed and chanted, shouted ex- | horted, nearly the whole congregation 1 swayed in unison with him, while from all | parts of the house came fervent responses of | "Ah the LordP' "Oh, my soul!" Jesus, | bar us home!" some women occasionally | breaking into a long cry half scream, half | vail. And then I saw how strong the tropi- | cal nature still is in these exotics, and was in | fancy borne back two centuries to the time when the rude ancestors of these people, | beneath the blazing of Africa, under the 1 palm trees or on the hot sand sang and | screamed and danced in praise of Mumbo Jumbo.
 All at once I realized that I, too, was | swaying back and forth in unconscious sym l pathy with the mass, and was not surprised | to see my posTtivist neighbor at the same | performance. The preacher suddenly | dropped his voice, assumed severely judi | cial tone and gave the visitors blast for five or ten minutes. He declared with rather embarrassing emphasis that ''they is some folks keah that is not heah fo' the love of God but jest to catch up somethin' to carry away and laugh at. I know they's heah for nothin' else; but you can set it down that Gods word shall stand. Nothin' agin it can come to a head; everything in this book means just what it says; nothing is too ac- complicated for God. You that's heah to laugh may talk about your science, but I'll give you the straight word of God and my skirts will be clar; then if you refuse it and have not the love of God spread abroad in the heart you'll go down to hell!' And with this cheerful assurance he closed.
 The congregation was of more interest than the sermon. One rarely more we'll dressed people in a rural church. There were black cloth coats, white vests and neck ties in proportion, along with elegant and tasteful dresses. Not ragged or unkempt person in the house. The music was excel lent and the collection showed that the peo- pie had money to spare.