8. VIII.
COLORED PEOPLE'S CHURCH.
There is a plain little meeting-house on
Barnwell street in which the colored people
—or a goodly portion of them—worship on
Sundays. The seats are cushionless and
have perpendicular backs. The pulpit is
plain white—trimmed with red, it is true,
but still a very unostentatious affair for
colored people, who are supposed to have
a decided weakness for gay hues. Should
you escort a lady to this church and seat
yourself beside her, you will infallibly be
touched on the shoulder, and politely requested
to move to the “gentlemen's side.”
Gentlemen and ladies are not allowed to
sit together in this church. They are
parted remorselessly. It is hard—we may
say it is terrible—to be torn asunder in
this way, but you have to submit, and of
course you had better do so gracefully and
pleasantly.
Meeting opens with an old fashioned
hymn, which is very well sung indeed, by
the congregation. Then the minister reads
a hymn, which is sung by the choir on the
front seats near the pulpit. Then the minister
prays. He hopes no one has been attracted
there by idle curiosity—to see or be
seen—and you naturally conclude that
he is gently hitting you. Another hymn
follows the prayer, and then we have the
discourse, which certainly has the merit of
peculiarity and boldness. The minister's
name is Jones. He don't mince matters at
all. He talks about the “flames of hell”
with a confident fierceness that must be
quite refreshing to sinners. “There's no
half-way about this,” says he, “no by-paths.
There are in Cleveland lots of men who
go to church regularly, who behave well in
meeting, and who pay their bills. They
ain't Christians, though. They're gentlemen
sinners. And whar d'ye spose theyll
fetch up? I'll tell ye—they'll fetch up in
hell, and they'll come up standing, too—
there's where they'll fetch up! Who's my
backer? Have I got a backer? Whar's
my backer? This is my backer (striking
the Bible before him)—the Bible will back
me to any amount!” To still further convince
his hearers that he was in earnest, he
exclaimed, “That's me—that's Jones!”
He alluded to Eve in terms of bitter
censure. It was natural that Adam should
have been mad at her. “I shouldn't want
a woman that wouldn't mind me, myself,”
said the speaker.
He directed his attention to dancing,
declaring it to be a great sin. “Whar
there's dancing there's fiddling—whar
there's fiddling there's unrighteousness,
and unrighteousness is wickedness, and
wickedness is sin! That's me—that's
Jones.”
Bosom, the speaker invariably called
“buzzim,” and devil “debil,” with a fearfully
strong accent on the “il.”
