Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-12-22
N EXCELLENT LECTURE
BY DR.. A. w. LAMAR AT THE r.
NJ. c. A. BUILDING LAST EVE
MING.
a LARGE AUDIENCE PRESENT.
His Subject was ssDixie Before and
During the War; and He Gave
q Glowing Description of Scenes
Presented in the SOuth-Some-
thing Of the Habits and Customs
of the Southern People.

At the Y. NJ c. A building last
evening A. w. Lamar, d. D., OF South
Carolina, delivered lecture upon the
topic, Dixie Before and During the
War" and his remarks were thor
oughly appreciated by the large aud
fence present DR.. Lamar is from dis
tinguished family in the South and was
a soldier in the Confederate army. He
possesses rare ability to entertain and
delighted his hearers in his description
of the typical southern home.
The lecture was the second OF
the Y. NJ. C. A. entertainment course.
In his opening remarks DR.. Lamar
expressed his happiness at being al
forded an opportunity to address the
people of West Virginia and took oc-
casion to remark that he first saw the
light of the world in the midst OF
slavery. He then described the many
beautiful scenes presented in the
southern home and Interestingly re-
ferred to the habits and customs of the
people of the South.
He said that as memory brought
back the scenes of his childhood days
in the South 'fblack mammies" ap-
peared before him in the foreground.
They mourned over our failures and
manifested their pride over our achiev-
ments. Indeed, they We're prounder of
the little white children than they
were of the little black ones. While
they loved us with all their hearts,
our love for them was just as great.
In recounting the many pleasant in
cidents in his boyhood haunts he re-
marked facetiously that there were
presented the wela defined scenes of
ghosts and COLLINS. He said that the
life of boy on South Carolina plan
tation at that time was unique one.
We used to play with the black chill
dren. We used to love to play with
them because we could boss them.
You know it always has been the de-
sire of the white people to boss. When
/ was old enough to ride pony l was
presented with a black boy. was
given a niger boy for Christmas
gift, and 1 never had friend that was
better to me than him. He was much
older than / and l know that many
a time he lead me away from wicked
ness, which my southern blood had a
tendency to lead me to.
THE religion and ghosts were Of
great interest to the children at that
time. We thought that we had relig-
ion when we had ghosts and that we
had ghosts when we had religion. At
that time certain houses were haunted,
certain fields haunted and certain
streams haunted and that all the at
mosphere was filled with COLLINS. My
goodness, how we were loaded up with
ignorance and how long it took us to
unload
1--WE had some slave owners that
were bad. They were some that be-
lieved that slavery was a divine insti-
tuition. We had hundreds of niggers
that were shipped here from Africa
and there was not one OF them who
desired to be released and sent back
home, where he could be free. In
those times there were ministers who
went about the country evangelizing
the black people and who did not get
cent for it.
"Many of these niger preachers
were like some white ministers. They
selected subjects to preach upon that
they knew nothing of, and after they
got through their hearers did not
know anything about 1t either. When
those simple niger preachers gave
their simple gospel talks the Lord well