The herald., 1895-02-17
PARSON SMITHS TROUBLES
Suspended for One Year by the
COlOred Conference
IMMORTALITY THE CAUSE.
Was He Married In a Fin de Steele
Manner ?
4
Rev. Mr.. Smith Thirsteth for Revenge, and Lo !
and Behold Revenge Cometh
Not at All
IMMORTALITY THE CAUSE

The upper-crust of Los Angeles colored
society is fearfully agitated, all about the
doings of a portly negro minister, who
was suspended for one year at the state
conference of Zion M. E. Church, held at
Monrovia last week, the charges preferred
being those of gross immortality.
The reverend minister who has thus
been made to feel the displeasure OF the
conference is G. ii. W. Smith, a very tall
and well-built negro, tastefully dressed in
clerical garb his immaculate black clothes
and spotless linen evidencing, as much as
his wel-nourished form, that he is doing
exceedingly well in pecuniary way. He
came here from Oakland last year.
The Rev Mr.. Smith acknowledges 40,
but he probably forgot the years he was
out at nurse, because he served in the
war of the rebellion. He is a native of
Pennsylvania At present his place of
worship or church is an empty store at
the corner of Fifth and San Pedro streets.
Here he breaches to the colored brethren
and sisters of his congregation on Sun
days.
When the Reverend Smith came to Los
Angeles he made the acquaintance OF
Miss Elizabeth Landy, a dusky damsel OF
= some l6 sunny springs. Miss Landy
Is native of Alabama. mutual affec-
4 tion was the result of the meeting. 1t is
quite likely that the gossip resultant from
the acquaintanceship was the outcome of
evil minds and evil tongues, but it is
nevertheless fact that the Rev. Mr..
Smith was the object of considerable I'M
complimentary remarks by the colored
-Four Hundred of this city for the manner
in which he conducted his courtship with
\ Miss Lizzie. And it is related, that on
$ 1inr it id,
nant colored persons, despite Smiths
lclerical garb, treated him to a shower of
Iancient and decayed, putrid and evil
smelling hen fruit also vulgarly called
rotten eggs
Rev. Mr.. Smith being DESTROYS that the
finger of scorn should no longer be pointed
at his well-dressed embonpoint on the
18th of June last visited the County
Clerk 5 office, with view to obtaining
marriage license to wed the youthful
Elizabeth. When the clerk in charge,
Mr., Butterworth, learned that the young
lady was not of age and that the consent
of her parents was lacking, he withheld
the license, Smith promising to call for it
the next day, and to bring the necessary
permission from Miss Landy's father.
He returned the following afternoon
with a little piece of paper signed by
Thomas Landy, which gave consent to
the union, the license was then issued.
On the same day, according to a certiti-
cate on record in the County Recorders
office the pair was married by the Rev. s.
w. Hawkins, another colored preacher
in the presence of the girls father and
oae Paul Il. Brown.
On the 10th of this month when the
Colored Methodist conference was held at
Monrovia the same Paul e. Brown and
two ladies of color and Maggie Landy and
Mrs. Leonard preferred the charges of
:, gross immortality against the Rev. Mr..
Smith. They accused him of marrying
without license and living with his
wife as her husband before this docu-
ment was issued. Mrs. Mary Leonard as
separate charge, said that the muscular
minister had Spanked her to her hearts
hurt, and he was further accused of
a Il e '' Spoken TT to Mrs. Thomas
The charges were fully explained by the
persons who made them to the conference,
and were believed, as the suspension
shows. Smiths accusers related that he
had induced the Rev. S. W. Hawkins to
marry him on the day that the license
was refused on the plea that a minister
did not need license for the next ten
days following his wedding. Believing
his colleague, Hawkins went through the
splicing of the knot act, and the next day
endorsed the marriage on the license
when Smith had procured it. This the
accusers of the Reverend Smith says is the
truth and if such is the case Mr.. Smith is
not married yet
This gentleman, however, as means of
defense against the grave accusations of
his enemies, has procured an affidavit
from J. w DOZENS of 632 Los Angeles
street, which was subscribed before No
tary Public Samuel Prayer, and witnessed
by Nick Treosti, which disposes of the
charge of gross immortality on the 18th of
June, if it does not before nor afterward.
Mr. DOZENS swears that he and the Rev.
Mr.. Smith slept on the floor upstairs, be-
cause the lady who is supposed to be Mrs.
Smith was sick that very night He AYERS
that the minister got the license on the
18th of June, but that is a mistake as the
records show.
Mr. DOZENS tells also that he was secre-
tary of the church meeting at which the
peculiar conduct of Mr.. Smith was venti-
lated last year, and he says that all the
trouble was settled then. The congrega-
ton came to the conclusion that it had
done its minister a serious wrong, and
begged his pardon very humbly. But
one Mr. Beyman was still wroth and
skeptical, and he is alleged to have re-
marked that he would fix Smith
Already last year the reverend gentle
man had applied at the District Attorneys
office for complaint against his traduc-
ers on the charge of criminal libel, but he
had been politely, although firmly denied
this revenge.
Now that the conference has suspended
him he is doubly incensed, and has been
laying siege to the present District Attor-
ney's fortress with the bravery which is
the outcome of despair. But his efforts
were all in vain. He cannot get Paul 4.
Brown arrested. and his only remedy lies
in u civil suit. His head aches, his heart
is sad, his enemies sneer, and the colored
HOO are III state of mind that is diff
cult to realize and far more difficult to
,,ortruV