Evening star., 1930-12-15
RITES FOR GABRIEL
: DRAW BIG THRONG
CoIored Player in Screen
Pastures" Paid Tribute
in Dramatic Funeral.
BY LORENA HICKoK.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, December 15.-In
Harlem, where they refer to the 1880
Pulitzer prize play not by its title, but
simply as The Company" funeral
services were conducted yesterday for
the big, genial colored man, whose
own people months ago dropped his
real name and called him after the
role he played, Gabriel"
More than 1000 persons filled the
pews and packed the aisles of one of
the colored sections larger churches,
where tor two hours and half eulo-
gies were read, hymns were sung and
rituals intoned over the body of Charles
Wesley Hill. the Angel Gabriel of
Screen Pastures" Marc Connellys
drama of the Negroes conception of
Heaven. Hill was killed by taXicab
Wednesday.
The man who plays the role of Je-
hovah in Green Pastures" Richard B.
Harrison-looking somehow shrunken
and much older today than he did a
few months ago across the footlights-
read tenderly, and in voice that some
times broke with grief. a tribute to
Gods right-hand man." who helped
TO create Broadway success by usher
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held Theater with a joyous, stentorian
command:
"Gangwayl Gangway for de Lawd
God Jehovah!"
adam" Master of Ceremonies.
Daniel L. Haynes, one of the best
known actors of his race and the
Adam OF the play, was master of cere-
monies, and at the end of the long
service the colored players-led by the
little cherub who gets a fishbone
stuck in his throat at the heavenly
fish fry of the first act-filed tearfully
by the caSket.
Marc Connolly occupied a place of
honor in the pulpit, with Harrison,
Haynes and several colored preachers
while down in a block of pews reserved
for them sat the entire staffs of the
producer and of the theater in which
Green Pastures" is playing, together
with a number of men and women
prominently identified with the stage
But most of the mourners were of
the dead actors own race, and at times
the service was as typical of the race
perhaps as Green Pastures" itself is
said to be. On the whole it was
strange, stirring mixture of primitive
emotion, naivete, and love of color and
ceremony with the reserve of an older
northern people.
OratiOnS and Ritual.
There were long and fiery orations,
two Masonic rituals, with uniforms,
swords and ncense-an more dramatic
somehow than when used in white
ceremonies-and a sort of childlike
expression of satisfaction over the sue
cess Of their own Gabriel in a dream.
The whole service was conducted in
terms of Green Pastures" Hill was
mentioned hxy
than Gabriel except in the formal,
T1tualistic ceremonies.
Two large choirs-the white-robed
choir Of the church and the choir that
sings the spirituals in the play-leading
the huge audience, every man, woman
and child Of which could apparently
sing, again and again filed the audi
torium with the melodies of the old
hymns, Lead, Kindly Light" Abide
With Me-" Nearer My God to Thee"
And while white members of the audi
ence sat with rapt expressions on their
tacss, colored persons here and there
would utter wild, piercing screams.
Gives Brief Tribute.
But more moving than all was the
brief and broken tribute of Harrison,
The Lawd God Himself to His
Right Hand Man"
"No one could ever be angry with
GdDc very long ne SAID. AFTER all,
he Just fingered his trumpet In the
play-he never did blow it. No one in
the theater was more liked than
'Gabe.'"
Then he told how the pickaninnies of
the first act used to come into
"GabriePs" dressing room to get the
candy that he brought them when they
were good cherubs.
You can imagine" he said slowly,
"the CONSERVATION of the whole cast
and myself when we learned that the
last curtain had come for our friend
and co-worker Gabriel"
It remained for the younger Haynes
TO say farewell for "Gabriel's' associates
In Green Pastures" At the end of a
recital of Hills achievements in the
theater, Haynes bowed his head and
murmured in voice that could hardly
be heard beyond the chancel rail:
"Good-by, old man"