The Washington bee., 1909-02-20
DR.. Corrothers the Orator.

ton in the spring of 1902. Washing
ton is the city of magnificent dis
tances and disappointed hopes. Wash
ington is the graveyard of reputa-
tons.
Congressman and Senators, who
are stars of the first magnitude in
their native state, come to Washing
ton and shine with a subdued light,
paling into insignifcance before the
reSplendent glory of men of national
reputation Colored preachers and
teachers come here who were big mo-
guls in some northern. western or
southern town.
Washington is the place where
giants are reduced and get lost in the
crowd. But before DR.. Corrothers
had been here a year he made the
walls of the Metropolitan African
Methodist Episcopal Church and the
Second Baptist Church ring with his
impassioned eloquence. When the
Negro church was discussed in the
Bethel Literary, and Booker Wash
ington was discussed in the Second
Baptist Lyceum, tall broad shoulder
ed and athletic, with a rich barytone
voice and a magnetic personality, DR.
Corrothers electrified and held spell
bound his audiences. Then. two
years ago he led the fight in behalf of
the discharged teachers which finally
resulted in the unhorsing and unseat-
ing Of Superintendent Chancellor, the
we'll known educator and writer.
Then, DR.. Corrothers with DR.. Wal
dron, was in the van in the contro-
versy that waged around the Browns
vile matter, striking out like the old
knight in Froissorts Chronicle, and
standing by Foraker.
DR.. Corrothers the Pastor.
But the fame of a mere agitator is
evanescent. New issues come and
and issues fade away like a long
summer day. A mere radical agitator
bursts before the astonished gaze of
p'ankind like a meteor in the air. He
dazzles the imagination of men by
i the scintillating brilliancy of his
verbal pyrotechnics for few months
or a few weeks and then he joins the
unnumbered host of those who pass
into the midnight of oblivion.
SO, if DR.. Corrothers were a mere
agitator he would be a trailing comet
rather than a fixed star in the frma-
ment of national greatness. But DR..
Corrothers is a gospel preacher of
rare power and a church organizer of
high administrative and executive
ability. Before he had been pastor
in the Galbraith African Methodist
Episcopal Church six months, he had
successfully planned and mapped out
4 thousand dollar rally.
Since New Year he has conducted
the biggest revival in the history OF
the church. The meetings have been
largely attended; the singing and
preaching and praying have been of
that old-fashioned type which caused
people to shout for Joy and cry
I"Glory Hallelujah." DR., Corrothers
and Bishop Blackwell preached the
people into Mysteries.
The singing of such pieces as 81
Heard John Wesley Say" "While I
am on My Way" "When the Roll is
| Called" Il Want to be There to an
swer to my Name" and "This is your
Last Time Poor Sinner, you Must
{ Make up Your Mind" etc, reused up
the audience to the fever heat of en-
thusiasm and caused from fifty to
one hundred people to rise and shout
and sing at once. Already over one
hundred have been converted and the
good work still goes on.
The first Sunday in March will be
a gala day for the church. Then this
popular and magnetic Bishop Alex
ander NJ. Waters, the laundering
Bishop A. L. Warren, of Tennessee,
called the Swamp Angel of Alaba-
ma" will fill the pulpit and break
the bread of life.
And DR.. Corrother's final title to
a place in the Negro Hall OF Fame
resides in the fact that he has behind
him nearly a quarter Of a century OF
I s4%fa RnCly