Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-15

woman tarried in the wilderness eighteen
months. Eighteen months in the Bible
means eighteen years by our time.
Ten days mean one an quarter
days-word of God-what shall
do to be saved?-de sun refused
to shine-de Roman natiols-llght
OBJ glory-ws got de victory ober death,
hell an de debel-from center to cir
cumfice-back in the anteluvian world
oh Gawd-have King Herod ever come
down again-God knock de bad man
often their seats. -
During all this terrific harrangue the
congregational singing had swelled to
such volume that the preacher had to
yell to make himself heard, and finally
he knocked the warblers out. They
were forced to quit, and the deacon from
Washington might be preaching there
| yet only for an unfortunate slip he made.
| He struck on the expression 1.-The
damned day am here.' The congregs-
! ton smiled when he first
! uttered ii. but when he
rang it in several times the smile
| broadened into laugh and the preacher
| got mad. He was in the midst of most
awful flight of eloquence when he stopped
| suddenly, looked around on the grinnins
congregation, came down off his toes.
stralghtened out his face and said:
'WeIl, if you folkses is gwine TO make
! fun there's no use o. me preaching at
| you.
He took his seat and was given the
| grand laugh.
smile was bland.
''You don It like de preacher. That's
not strange. He tell you de great day
am coming. He tell you you will be
damned. Amt dat so? Maybe you
don't like de way de deacon say it.
Well, let us sing The hymn was of
the refrain character, rendered after the
negroes peculiar style.
Then the Sin Killer started in to cleanse
| his congregation of wickedness. He took
no particular text, but the way he han
died the Bible before he got through
! would indicate that all parts of the book
are equally familiar to him. He set out
i'll well modulated tone, but had not
| proceeded far until his voice had reached
d high pitch, his words poured forth in
senseless yolubility and his whole de-
meanor was that of one who had either
lost control of his own faculties or was
bent on deprIving his hearers of
theirs. The gYratons he executed, the
terror inspiring utterances he vented,
|
assumed, the excessive physical eXertion
lie underwent, combined to form mes
merio and hypnotic influence which no
doubt has achieved for Sin Killer Griffin
the reputation he bears among the
colored people as an exhOrter of unusal
ability. The effect of his efforts prove
his success.
For brief space he talked nationally,
but by degrees and after he had warmed
up he lost regard for reason and seized
apparently without purpose any con-
glomeration of words that came to his
tongue For instance i'll one place
he cited what purported to be
full list of the prophets and rulers
of Israel, q recital which, coupled
with his wild and terrifying Gesticuia-
tious, produced q strong effect on the
listeners. The common form of narra-
tive was something like this: 'An' l
saw ng-ah-acomin' outen de sky
ah-an' it hada wings-ah-an' fire
darted from it's mouf-ah-an' it few
down-ah-an' it split de clouds-ah-
an when it come anigh to me-ah-it
screamed aloud-a-sinner, will you
meet me there?"
The "ahs'' used indicate the sound Of
the preachers inspiration. When he
would gasp for breath his throat was so
swollen from eXertion of the more deli
cate vocal nerves used in the high key
in viii I'll his voice was pitched that the
sound was as loud as that used in the
speech. 1t seemed to the reporter as
though the man would burst a blood
vessel at every breath. The hoarse,
gutteral reverberation was awful.
But the preacher kept on. He would
wipe the great flood of perspiration from
his face occasionally, but would lose no
time in the operation. His favorite at
titude of delivery was one half crouching
as if about to spring; and when the eli
max would arrive he would make the
spring, rising sometimes off the ground
to an immense height; and this feat
invariably had good effect. The
women would scream, and one or more
of them would jump up and go dancing
around throwing their arms wildly in
the air, shouting, screaming and kick
ing At one time there were
seven women in this condition
each one hopping around like
hen with its head cut off. Their neigh
bors paid little attention to them, merely
watching that the dancers did not come
too near to them. In most cases the
mesmerised women would dance until
physically exhausted, then faint and be
carried into the open air to resusitate.
But the preacher would pay no atten-
ton to little affairs of that kline. The
seance would continue: cam bird
rose outen de water-ah-it had wings of
; fire-ah-an' a head of smoke-ah-an
its claws was made OBJ lightning rods-ah
an it spit de flesh an de flre-ah-an
in its teeth it ADORE the rod of Moses-ah
an 1t smots de rook-ah-an' 1t cry
, out-ah-'am you sav-ed?'
"Waw' would go up in feminine
voice and another wench or SO would be
cavorting around, Tapping her arms and
yelling: "On, 1 got de trufl Use q
witness OBJ de truf!''
1t was abont 10 O'Clock when the Sin
Killer decided that he was too tired to
carry on the war any longer. So he quit.
He didn t bring the business to close;
, he just stopped in the middle of SEN
tence of unusual strength, and an
, nounced that collection would be taken
= up. The same was proceeded with.
No collection box was sent around
, The Sin Killer has better scheme than
that. An elder stepped up to the pulpit
, to receive contributions, and those of the
t congregation who desired to chip ii