Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-05-04

fore they knew what was happening
he had dropped on his knees and was
praying that the same experience
might come into the hearts of those
children, and he never ceased to pray
for them until each one of them be-
came a preacher of the Gospel. The
Gypsy children watched their father
very closely in those days, for he was
new man to them and they grew up
in that tent to say, not that they
wanted tobe like God, or that they
wanted to be like Christ, because they
didn't know anything about God or
Christ, but they grew up to say, eve
want to grow up like Daddy
To Preach the Word.
My father, some months after his
fathers conversion was sheltering in
a rain storm one day under an oak
tree and he said to himself, Rodney,
are you going to be nobody all
your life, or are you going to be a
Christian~like your father?" And that
morning my father made his decision
and said, 81 am going to be Chris
tian like my father" The following
night, going into little Methodist
church in the city. of Cambridge, he
placed his decision before Jesus
Christ. The next morning he asked
his father if he could go to school.
Nobody had heard of a Gypsy going
to school before, and my grandfather
said, "what do you want to go to
school for?" And my father said, 81
want to learn to read, so that I can
read the Bible"
And he let him go to school that
winter. But all he got was four weeks
and that is all the schooling he has
ever received, and yet, one of our
London dailies said of him, few
years ago, that he was one of the
finest exponents of this possibilities
of the Anglo-Saxon speech since the
days of John Bright, and that is a
great deal to say of Gypsy with
four weeks education.
In those early days the first words
he tried to learn were those of King
James version of the Bible, and, of
course, the best Anglo-Saxon is to be
found there, so that his diction be-
came pure and, in his boyish way, he
made up his mind that if the way ever
opened he would like to become a
preacher.
Just about this time the Rev. VIM.
Booth had started an organization in
London known as the Christian Mis-
sion. 1t was to teach the men and
women of the slums of London, and
God had so prospered it that they had
a number of halls and about thirty
five salaried workers. Mr.. Booth used
to call them together once year for
al all day prayer and it was in one
of these meetings that my father
made his first appearance. Mr.. Booth
saw him sitting near the front and he
had heard that this Gypsy boy wanted
to be a preacher, so calling on him
in hurry, he said, "our next speaker
will be a Gypsy boy"
His First Speech.
My father trembled like leaf in a
thurder storm, but he jumped to his
feet, and Mr.. Booth seeing his ner-
vousness said, "Before he speaks he
will sing," and after my father had
sung he was clearing his throat, lit
tie nervous habit which young preach
ers have, and an old man behind him
said, "Keep your heart up, young
ster," and my father said, "It is in
my mouth, now, where do you want
it?" That gave him chance, while
the audience laughed to recover him
self, ,and he said: 81 am only Gypsy
boy and lived in a tent and 7 would
not know how to conduct myself if
l were in your home. But do know
Jesus and l have given Him my
heart, and I am going to be His boy"
and then he sat down.
After the service was over Mr..
Booth went to him and putting his
arms around his shoulder he said,
"My boy, how would you like to be
an evangelist" My father said 81
don't know what you mean by that" "
and he said, "Well, it means to be a
teacher" and he turned and said,
"Mr. Booth, do you think I will make
good one," and Mr.. Boothe said