The record-union., 1898-08-21
LEARNED AFTER EIGHTY.
HOW A NEGRO OCTOGENARIAN
STUDIED THE BIBLE,
Uncle Jesse" Welsh Beats the
Worlds Record as an
Apt Pupil.

! education requirement late in life ever
recorded is that of a negro past So
years of age, who learned to read, hav-
ing been ignorant of even the alphabet
until that time.
The story Of the remarkable way the
old man learned to read his Bible long
after he had passed the period pre-
| scrlbed for the life of man was told to
the Record Union" a few days ago by
| William Clare, late of Oregon, Holt
| County, Mo-, who was the only tutor
the remarkable old negro ever had
! Speaking Of the subject, Mr. Glare
said: 1T seems like a dream to me
now, when look back upon the case
II was early in the seventies when
| met an old negro commonly known as
Uncle Jesse Welsh who lived at Ore
gon, Mo-, which was then my headquar-
ters, although 1 taught school at Red
Bluff, four miles away.
| L was coming home one evening on
my mustang pony when was stopped
| by the old fellow, who said: Look
heah. Massa William, Use made up nv
min to Farm to read de Bible 10 dies.
an Use suah I can parn ef yoll teach
me-
"Of course the proposition struck me
as unusual, owing to the age Of the ap-
phcant, who said he was nearly Sc
years old, but I said I would do ell I
could to teach him; so we agreed that
ne was to come to my house on Mon
days and Tuesdays, along in the even
ing.
Wen. he came one night, not long
after that conversation, and began to
teach him just as I did my boys Of 5
and years of age; but, to my surprise.
found he excelled them in two points
attention and mental grasp-as well as
memory. Call it second childhood. or
whatever you please, but the fact is he
learned very fast. At first he would
look at a word-for 1 taught him words
rather than letters, according to the
new methods of teaching - and pro-
nounce it again and again, squinting
at its printed appearance as intently as
an old Indian looks at a trail to find
whether it is fresh. The first word I
taught him was Bible as it was that
which was dearer to him than all other
words. In less than half an hour he
got so he could recognize and pronounce
that word wherever he saw it. Then I
took up God Savior Christ 'Heav-
en- HELL and like words, so that in a
week or so he had probably twenty
such words at his command
THE next task was to teach him ar
ticles. such as the and a small num-
Der of conjunctiens. This was followed
up with a very thorough drill on the
alphabet. pursued in the old way, and
on this he hesitated for nearly a month.
finally mastering it. Then I took up
the somewhat difficult and puzzling
system of spelling to him by sound
and teaching him to analyze words in
that way He was puzzled for a long
time over the silent letters, but finally
mastered them fairly well.
so it went on for nearly year, at
the end of which time, having familiar
lied him with number of words that
occur in the Lords Prayer, so that he
knew them at sight, though he did not
suspect that they We're the words of the
Lords Prayer 1 opened the Bible, and
imagine his surprise when he was read
ing the prayer aloud. The old fellow
wept for JOY. called his aged wife in to
hear him read it,. and spent all the
evening pronouncing it. for fear he
would forget how to do the trick.
"I left that part of the world many
years ago, but I often heard Of the old
man up to the time OF his death, which
occurred at the age of 81 years. 1t is
said>t that he spent the last ten years of
his life in reading the Bible and singing
psalms that he had known from child
hood dying quite happy in his faith.
There may be other examples like
this on record, but / doubt whether
there is an instance in any country that
rivals this, when all the circumstances
surrounding the case are fully under
stood My pupil had been a slave and
a hard working man for seventy or
more years. Although once powerful
~ built specimen of humanity there
was a refinement in his features quite
unusual in the African - or, for that
matter, in the man of any nation from
the humblest walks of life.
I'm trying to understand how the old
fellow mastered the art of reading so
soon, have often concluded that it was
because he. had for long time been
trained by his owners to remember
mems names, to remember the names
Of various dishes, and to recall loca-
tions In other words, while his brain
had never been subjected to book learn
ing, his memory had been very thor
oughly trained from boyhood. But he
was a remarkable man physically as
well, having maintained his steady,
quick gait almost to the end. / think,
all in all, though / have seen a number
of wonderful people in my time, he was
as remarkable as any that ever knew
welLr