CHAPTER XIX.ANECDOTES.

It is one of the unwritten laws of American civilization that the public has a right to get off jokes on leading public servants, whether they are clergymen, statesmen, business men or what not. Very often this habit of caricaturing our ablest men by cartoons and jokes is carried to extremes; but within proper limits, if it is possible to define what is proper in such a matter, there seems to be no objection to it among those who may be the victims. It is true that sometimes a joke, if founded on facts, will go further in illustrating a man’s real disposition than perhaps anything else. At any rate, it is customary to include in every biography a chapter giving the anecdotal side of the subject’s life. That rule will not be departed from in this case.

On one occasion Dr. Walker was preaching before the Walker Baptist Association down in Georgia. In the middle of his discourse, and at the close of one of his most thrilling flights of eloquence, an old colored man, in a frenzy of excitement, rose to his feet and exclaimed: “My Gawd! No wonder dey call him de Black Sturgeon!”

The old man evidently had mistaken the word “Spurgeon” for the word “Sturgeon.” In speaking of the matter afterwards, Dr. Walker said, with a good-natured laugh, “Well, I’m glad he did not class me with the small fish.”

Once a Georgia Negro carried a letter to Dr. Walker and asked him to read it for him. Dr. Walker complied with his request. Two or three days later, the same man came back and said:

“Doc, you sho did read my letter all right. I took it to two white men since, and dey read the same things dat you did.”

Somewhat later, another colored man came to Dr. Walker and asked him how much was 9 x 70. Dr. Walker told him 630. A few days later the colored man returned and said:

“Doc, you know de uddah day, I axt you how much was 9 x 70, an’ you told me 630. Well, I axt Capt. Jones (a white man) about it and he told me de same thing. I tell you, Doc, you sho knows how to count.”

In telling these stories, Dr. Walker always makes the point that it is very difficult to get the average Negro to believe another Negro unless some white man will endorse what the colored man says. It seems to be an old and foolish way Negroes were taught during slavery.

Dr. Walker believes in praying for everything. In 1886, when in Boston trying to raise money to assist him with his church work at Augusta, he was rooming with Mr. Charles A. Dryscoll, who was at that time a student in the New England Conservatory of Music. One Saturday night Mr. Dryscoll noticed that several times during the night Dr. Walker got out of the bed. He asked him if he was sick. Dr. Walker replied, “No.” Once, while Mr. Dryscoll watched to see what called him from the bed so often, he found him kneeling by a chair in prayer. He spent nearly the whole night in prayer. The next morning (Sunday morning) he went to the First Baptist Church, of which Dr. P. S. Moxom was then pastor, and made an appeal to the congregation for help. He secured $109.00 in cash and many pledges. Dr. Walker always referred to that contribution as prayer money.

Once at Augusta he commenced his revival services by making a request of the people that they would pray that the Lord would give them 200 converts during the meeting. At the close of six weeks’ work the number of converts was found to be 325. But in a short while a large number of these converts proved such miserable failures as Christians, Dr. Walker said, if God would forgive him, he never would pray again for 200 converts, and he said that he did not want anybody else to pray that prayer in Tabernacle Church. He thought that the best thing to do was to pray for souls, and leave the number with God.

Dr. Walker relates with great pleasure that, when he was a boy, he made it his business to kill every jay bird he saw. He said that the old folks had told him that he would never see any jay birds around on Fridays, because on Fridays all the jay birds went to carry sand to hell. So he made up his mind to kill every one he could, in order that the number of jay birds engaged in the sand-carrying business would be decreased. He was a man nearly grown before he found out that his ardor in attempting to kill off all the jay birds was prompted by an “old wife’s fable,” a myth, one of the many hundred superstitious notions that prevailed among the old-time colored people.

REV. CHARLES T. WALKER AT FORTY YEARS OF AGE.

Dr. Walker’s first recollection of any religious emotions run back to the period of his early childhood. He remembers how every Sunday night all the servants would gather in the hall of the “Big House,” and hold a prayer-meeting with the “old master,” a Dr. Samuel Clark, leading the service. He used to go with his mother to these meetings. The first hymn he ever heard “lined” and sung,i. e., the first hymn that he remembers, was the good, old-fashioned hymn beginning,

“When I can read my title clear.”

He remembers well the edition then used had these words:

“And hellish darts be hurled,”

Instead of the present rendition, which has these words:

“And fiery darts be hurled.”

Dr. Walker and the late Rev. T. J. Hornsby were once invited by a country church in Burke County, Ga., to conduct an election of officers. Bro. Hornsby acted as moderator. The custom of the church, as was true of many others, had been to elect two members to see after the money. One man carried the key, and the other man kept the box. As a rule, the money was counted and the box locked in the presence of the deacons. As a further precaution, the man with the box was not allowed to carry the key. When the time came to elect the treasurer, Dr. Walker explained to the church that it would be best to elect one man as treasurer and make him responsible for both box and key. He told them that the time had passed for them to continue the old custom of electing two men. Some at first were not inclined to favor this new departure. One or two members made speeches against it and said that it would never do, but the majority of those present voted to adopt the suggestion, and accordingly one man was elected treasurer.

Rev. Hornsby, when he declared the election, thinking to add a humorous touch to the situation, said:

“Now, Brother Jenkins is your treasurer. He will have both the box and the key. He can open the box whenever he wants to, and take out what he pleases.”

Quick as a flash, an old brother, one of the opposers, rose to his feet and exclaimed: “Dar now; you hear dat! I knowed when we sont fer Brer Hornsby and Dr. Walker dat dere was gwineter be de devil to play here to-day! Dog my cat, I tol’ you so, and you wouldn’t listen at me, and now hit’s too late!”

While in London, on his way to the Holy Land, Dr. Walker, in company with Prof. M. J. Maddox, one of his traveling companions, went to a barber shop to get a shave. Evidently the barber had never seen Negroes before, and was very much astonished. He noticed that Mr. Maddox was several shades lighter as to his color than Dr. Walker. Speaking to the latter about this, the barber asked, “Why is it that you’ve got so much more complexion than your friend?” He wanted to know, of course, why Dr. Walker was so much darker than Mr. Maddox, and that is the way he put it.

When the barber had nearly finished his work, he said to Dr. Walker, “I’d like to shave you all the time, your hair is so curly.” Americans would speak of Dr. Walker’s hair as woolly.

In Heidelberg, Mayence, Cologne and other places, Dr. Walker and Dr. Carter were the observed of all observers. Hundreds of people would gather about them and inspect their clothing and feel their skin.

In Brussels, in a few minutes after they left the station and reached the streets, a crowd of nearly 500 people gathered around and plied them with all sorts of questions. They were asked what was the cause of their blackness; they were asked whether the devil made them black; one man wanted to know if everybody where they came from was black; some wanted to know if their color would wash off; another asked why the palms of their hands were so much lighter than the backs of their hands; and so on almost without limit. When they started down the street, hundreds of children followed them the same as if they were following a circus. The children gladly carried the traveling bags, bundles, and walking canes, umbrellas, etc.—anything to keep up with the strange men. Writing about this to his newspaper at Augusta, Ga., Dr. Walker said:

“In America the Negro is a problem; in Europe he is a novelty.”

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