Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1909 — REV. JONES' PRESENTATION. [ARTICLE]

REV. JONES' PRESENTATION.

The Hon. Charles V. D. Jolme, judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Camden county, N. J., contributed the following story to a number Which had been told at a meeting of the Historical Society, relating to the confusion of ideas which sometimes resulted from an. effort of the primitive mind to grasp abstract ideas: “During war times,’’ said the judge, "the city of Trenton, where I then lived, was a red-hot abolition town, and those who did not fight devoted their time at home to patriotic declamation.

“Among the most violent of these was an old fellow whom we called “Major Howard.’ - The colonel was less bitter against the threatened severing of the Ulon than he was about the wrongs of the black man, and the negroes for miles around looked upon the old abolitionist as their potent saviour, feelingly firmly convinced that it was through his oratorical efforts that the war had been begun and was maintained.

“A ‘monster mass meeting’ and torchlight parade was planned in honor of their champion, who was apprised of the movement and promised to review the proposed parade from the rorch of his home. “The evening of the celebration arrived, the brigade marched through the town and halted before the colonel’s home. The Rev. Jefferson Obdike Jones had been coached in his presentation speech by a then prominent Trenton jurist, who wgs a notorious wag, and he proceeded with it as follows:

“ ‘Cqlonel Howard, we am overcome wid mortification at de ignominiousness ob dis yere ’casion. Yo’ wellknown and insidious pusillanimity towards de membahs ob our race am notoriously cognizant whereber de breast of man an’ incinerate by de predelicitions ob inglorious freedom. Dis am a most monotoneous occasion; we am'ambigious to put ourselbs on record as prescribing our depreciation ob yo’ efforts on our behalf; we feel dat yo’ am one wid us in de immortal sentiments ob life, liberty an’ de pursuit ob happiness, an’ we know dat, aldough yo’ skin am white, at haht yo’ are as black as we are.’ “This was as far as he ever got. The cheers and huzzas of the spectators drowned the rest. The colonel executed a war dance on his veranda and finally retreated, hut he never heard the last of the address ob presentation.’’’—Philadelphia Times.