The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1894-08-18


sages Of them, the three voices which
simultaneously emanate from his
throat, sound discordant. He has by
d1nt of many years unassisted train
ing, reached that degree Of skill in
handling" his assortment of voices
that he can sing the solo part of his
song in his normal, clear Darytone,
reserving the wierd effect of the three
voices in conjunction to the chorus or
refrain. Besides this abnormal prof
cheney in emitting job lot of notes,
Mr.. Yancy is likewise the proud owner
OF yentriloquistic powers, and the lat
ter he knows how to use to even bet
ter effect than his vocal talents.
Is Jan1tor Of a Church.
William Yancy is now the janitor of
Quinn chapel, that large and hand
some church at the corner of Wabash
avenue and Twenty-fourth street, of
which Rev. James Townswell is the
pastor, and to whose congregation be-
longs thousands of the better class
Of colored people in Chicago, says the
Herald. He is eminently respectable
and, though his hair is turning gray,
he carries his Sc years with ease and
a certain amount of buoyancy. Yet
Williams life has not been so full Of
sunshine as it might have been. He
was born of slave parents down South
and at the age of he was sent to the
big slave market Of those days. to
Richmond, where, after spending a
few days in Lunptons Jail for safe
Keeping, he was knocked down st auc-
ton to Samuel Bowman, the price
being $500, and was carried off to
the Shenandoah valley, in Rockingham
county, where his new master had a.
large plantation. He never spent a
day at school,, and the little he now
knows of reading and writing he
taught himself, as he did his singing
and ventriloquism, in after life and
without a bit of assistance. He was
'raised' in Virginia, the old state and
the West Virginia, and when a youth
he was sold to another master, Peter
Roua, now at Harrisburg, W. Va. Aft
er the war he drifted to Chicago, in
1857, and has since made this city
his home, living for eight years Of the
time at IT'S Third avenue, and travel
ing Tor long while in the capacity of
assistant to an advertising agent for
a big New York buckwheat firm, all
over the country. For time, too,
he sold q cough syrup of his own
making, and in this semi-professional
capacity he was honored with the title
of professor" All through, though,
in slavery and since, he has been an
honest man, of good repute, has re-
manned gay and festive bachelor and
has always enjoyed good health. His
powers of observation are keen and
his conversational ability considerable,
the enjoyment of it heightened for the
nearer, perhaps, by Mr.. Yancy's IN
diluted negro dialect and his predilec-
ton for big words.
AS to how he came to discover his
peculiar gifts, above described, that
was as follows: Being then a boy of
about II, and working one day in the
cornfield on the plantation of Mr.. Bow
man, he suddenly discovered, while
singing some darkey tunes, that he
could strike two voices, when he sang
very high" He tried it again and again
and then ran to his mistress Miss Mary
Bowman, who had always been very
kind to him, and told her of his dis
covery. "But how can you do it VIII
liam?" she said in amazement. Where
upon he started off with that fine old
negro hymn:
when the rocks In the mountains will
all f1eee away,
shall find new hiding place there
He sang it, pitched in high key Of
bis youthful voice, and, sure enough,
the vibrations in the roof of his mouth
suddenly sounded double, then treble.
and Miss Mary stood and wondered
and said: "Oh, how strange it is?"
But that was. all. No further ado was
made of the queer facts in this case.
His white-skinned employers then and
since may have looked upon these ply
steal abnormities as a new phase in
negro nature. And William went on
through the even tenor Of his ways,
hoeing corn and feeding cattle and at
tending to other chores, reserving his
peculiar gifts for his own private
amusement in the evening, and not
thinking much about it. ..'
1- He Encounters q Professor.
Thus it was until recently when DR..
Ira D. Isham, whose speciality is the
voice and chest, and who is a profess