The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1912-04-05
az DR.. r. II. BOYD, D. D., IL. ..
CHAPTER Ill.


on the gallery and get some Of the Pacific
air, which we needed. Laughing heartily,
lie consented. He called in one of the priests
Of the Episcopal church, Mr.. Robinson, as
well as we now remember We will not be
positive about the name. We tried to tell
Mr.. Brown who we were. He said, Eyes,
understand, you are of the Southern Bap-
fists" We said, mo, from the National
Baptist" He said, "Well, l know you live
in the South" We said eyes, sir" "Well,
the Southern Baptists have charge of you"
We said, mo" He said, "Who has charge
of you" We said, eve have charge of our
selves" He began to talk short We said,
MAY it please your honor" to which he
laughed, "there are three families of Bap-
fists in America, the Northern BaptstS
(white) the Southern Baptists (white),
and the National or Negro Baptists"
We said, "Sir, of these three fam
lilies of Baptists, the Negro Baptists
are the most numerous and by far the
poorest of all Baptists. But, sir, the Negro
Baptists do not let anybody have charge of
them but the Lord Jesus Christ" Suiting
his actions to his feelings, Maj Brown
rushed into his office, came out with two
well-bound books, which we readily recog-
nized as two volumes of religious census Of
the United States taken in 1906. Turning
$ to the index and from the index to the pages
mumbling something to the priest with
him, he turned over page after page, closed
his book with his finger still between the
leaves and said, Sir, you are Baptist pope
and you will pretty soon have charge of all
the Negroes in the United States" We
begged his pardon and said there was moth
ing popiSh about us, we were an humble sec
Nh oft oVdc Of oil i'm
poverished, numerous body of Baptists. He
laughed heartily and said he was glad of our
call if for no other reason than it had
caused him to look up conditions of the Ne
gro Baptists and the Negroes IN general in
the States, but that he did not know ,illtil
now, just who the Negro Baptists were We
had quite a pleasant discussion concerning
the work. Major Brown had no hesitancy
in saying that the spirit of the States was
spreading on tie Zone; that he had just APP
pointed two Negro preachers, who would
take charge of two of their chapels, and was
looking for others, that he was fully con-
WINGED that the Negroes of the States we're
getting the Negroes Of Jamaica, Barba-
dos, British Guiana and other British colony
Negroes to the point where they would want
Negro preachers He said unfortunately,
the United States government, taking
charge of the Zone, had created condition
that made the Negroes desire pastors of
their own race. We then asked him about
the condition of the National Baptist work
He replied, "You say that your people and
your denomination are poor; if the United
States government should cease to furnish
work for me and had to take charge as an
Episcopal rector, would indeed be glad to
buy out your chapel and your preachers
home and live there myself had heretofore
pointed it out as the abode of one of the rich
American religious Boards; that while the
rest of our preachers had to be content
with two and three-room cottages the
preacher of your Board has a siX-or seven
room cottage; an Office kitchen, bath
room, dining-rOOm, sittlng-room and two
bed rooms, and has nobody but himself and
wife. This is more luxury than is given to
the rest of us poor preachers. We apollo
gized to him and showed him that this
was not on account of large money, but the
big hearts Of the poorer preachers in the
States, who earnestly desired that their
chief representative upon the Zone should
appear in a becoming manner.
We then asked him concerning the two
Baptist Boards and told him that our Board
had been informed by the Southern BaptistS
that our representative was persona non
grata' Mai Brown, or Archdeacon Brown,
as he is, being the chief representative Of
the Episcopal or Established Church of the
Zone laughed very heartily and said he did
not care to be quoted, but pointed out to us
who the persona non grata" was, and said
we might quote him in saying that the work
of our Board, and especially of Mr.. Thor
bourne was as welcome on the Zone by all, as
any man on the Zone white or black, rich
or poor, and that it would be next to ca
lamity if our Board should give up the work
on the Zone and turn it over to another body
He further stated that if the three churches
and preachers homes with all of their prop
erty and paraphernalia were for SALE give
them a chance and they would bid on them.
With many other favorable comments and
sayings, which we do not here remember, we
made Decline for the First National Bap-
fist Church of Panama and the parsonage, as
we'll as for dinner. On reaching the parson-
age, we found Brother ThOrbourne and his
bo1 81 hot