The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-10-14
THE CATHOLIC BULLETIN, OCTOBER IA, 1911.

elasticity and grace! It seemed to me
ne was about twenty-five years old,
becomingly and neatly clad, but not
stylishly. AS he advanced, he kept
his face turned towards my corner
and | saw that his features were al
most regular for negro, and wore
an expression that was grave almost
to dignity.
He halted square in front of me, for
| had drawn back the curtains of my
box, and looked at me with half
smile of expectancy, and reverence, as
II wishing me to say the first word.
My son, do you want to go to con-
fession?" / said
Most suttingly, sub, do for fac
sub, but 7 hardly know how to go
bout it, sub" His voice was remark
ably sweet and deep and his accent
strongly African, but I will not VEN
ture to reproduce his dialect entirely,
which I afterwards found was that of
the Cotton Belt
I stepped out of the confessional
and shook hands with my bashful
penitent and invited him to the
sacristy, for I saw he needed some in
struction on the method of making his
confession, and no doubt on other
points of our holy Faith. And when
gave him chair, and placed him at
his ease by few kindly words I asked
him to tell me all about himself.
my name" said he, in his soft
Southern tone, is Jefferson Stewart.
[ was born in the city of Baltimore
My mother was tall, very dark, and
very strong. | was her only child
My father died before I knew him.
My nanny often talked of him, and
when she said her prayers, with me
kneeling at her side, she always made
me say, God rest my fathers soul.
Amen Three times had to say that
And | can look back even to my third
year and mind the tears trucking
down her face. But sub" q had quite
a time making him call me Father"
he evidently thought it too familiar
and hence disrespectful) ssbut, sub, |
mean Father, many and many time
my good nanny took me to this very
church, and brought me to that railing
out there, and made me say over and
over, out loud my childish prayers,
while she fixed her eyes on the altar
and seemed to see God! Then when I
stopped for want of something else to
say, sub, she would turn to me and
whisper: God is right heah, Jefferson!
He's a-lookin' from the little Doah
down into youh little heart and I
would tremble lest the good God saw
something there He didn't like And
then she would say sometimes, as we
stood at the foot of this church: JET
ferson, chile, look around at dis grand
House of God! In dis heah church
yooh father and me was married, and
heah you was baptized little, pooh
baby! You was baptized a Catholic
heah, true Roman Catholic, and
doan you nebber forget it, an if any
nasty Meth'dists or Baptists ask you
to- jine their Iigion when you git
growed up, tell 'em you are Cath'lic
Roman Catholic, and that's the only
'ligion that's Cod"
I suppressed a smile at the epithet
my black man bestowed on our non.
Catholic brethren, but he did not see
me, in his fervor, then I asked him
about his prayers-did he remember
| them?
Yes!
This mother Git was always his
mother) taught them to him, and then
like a little child this tall, fine fellow,
went on his knees and said the "Our
Father Hail Mary" and Greed .
with numberless little mistakes, which
he repeated like a little boy when
corrected them.
I cannot forget his simple fervor
and his intense religion. Then he sat
down again.
"My Nanny, sub, was free
woman, Father" he began, "and al
ways carried in an oilcloth purse in
her bosom printed paper with her
name on it, her free-papers as she
called them I have seen her show
them to the constables who sometimes
stopped her on the streets.
"She had to work hard, and
scrubbed and cleaned number OF
Offices. We lived with colored Cath
Ollie family, in an alley full of our
people.
Il often went with my mother when
she went out working. One of her
Offices was along the waterfront, and
one evening while she was working at
her sweeping she sent me for some
sand to strew on the floor. It was a
long summer day, and went over in
pile of sand that lay heaped up near
the river. Mother knew the black
man who watched there and told me
he would give some in can. I got the
sand, carried it to her and ran back
to talk to the man.
IT found a black boy Of my own age
and we began playing tag out on the
long wharf where several schooners
lay moored on the river. A man soon
began loosening some ropes on one OF
1 ~Y..c sol he