Oscar Micheaux - Chapter IV The Gambler's Story (Epoch the Third): The Homesteader lyrics

THE KEYSTONE was the oldest and most elite hostelry for Negroes in Chicago and the West for many years. It is located near Thirty-first and State Street, in the heart of the black belt of the southside of the city. It was built previous to the World's Fair and still maintains its prestige as the most popoular hangout for Negroes of the more ostentatious set. And it was here that Jean Baptiste went, following his departure with Glavis. When Chicago was a " wide open " town, gambling had been carried on upstairs as a business. Porters,, waiters, barbers and politicians who held the best jobs had always found their way eventually to the Keystone. Likewise did the Negroes in business and the professions and workers in all the trades, as well as mail carriers, mail clerks, and the men of the army and actors. In short the Keystone was the meeting place for men in nearly all the walks of life. Always the freest city in the world for the black man, Chicago has the most Negroes in the mail service and the civil service; more Negroes carry clubs as policemen; more can be found in all the departments of the municipal courts, county commissioners, aldermen, corporation counsels, game warden a**istants, and so on down. Indeed, a Negro feels freer and more hopeful in Chicago than anywhere else in the United States. So it was such a crowd that Jean Baptiste encountered at the Keystone that day. There were two real estate men who had once run on the road with him and who had since succeeded in business; also there was another who was a county commissioner ; and still another one, an army officer. So, upon seeing him they did all cry : " Baptiste ! Well, well, of all things ! And how do you happen to be down here in the spring ? " " Oh, a little business," he returned, and joined with the crowd, bought a drink for them all, and was apparently jolly. Among the number was a gambler by the name of Speed. He shook the visitor's hand heartily, and when the visit with the others was over, he went to a table and, sitting down, beckoned for Baptiste. When the other responded, he begged him to be seated, and then said : " Now, I know what you are down here about heard about it the day he brought her home." Baptiste regarded him wonderingly. " Yes, I understand," he said, making himself comfortable as if to tell a long story. " You are wondering how / come to understand about your father- in-law, and if you are not in a hurry, I'll tell you a little story." " Well," said the other, " let's have a drink before you start." " I don't care," and he beckoned to the bartender. " Small bottle, a Schlitz," he said, and turned to Baptiste. " Make it two," said the other, and turned to hear the story the other had to tell. " It happened fifteen years ago," began Speed when their beer had been served. " I was a preacher then. Hold on," he broke off at the expression on Baptiste's face. " Yes, of course you can hardly believe it ; but I was then a preacher. I was the pastor of the church in a little town, and I won't tell the name of the town ; but it's all the same, I was a preacher and pastor of this church. I had not been long ordained, and was ambitious to succeed as a minister. The charge had not been long created, and was, of course, not much of a place for money. But it so happened that a quarry was opened about the time I was sent there and it brought some hundred and fifty Negro families to live in the town, and in almost a twinkling, my charge became from among the poorest, to one of the best from a financial point of view. The men worked steadily and were paid well, and their families found quite a bit of work to do among the wealthy whites of the town. " There were two young ladies living a few doors from where I preached, girls who made their own living, honestly, nice, clean girls, and I was much impressed with them. I sought, and finally succeeded in getting them interested in the church, and later began keeping company with one. Now here is where your folks come in. The Reverend McCarthy old Mac, I called him, was filling the same line he now is, Presiding Elder, and this church was in his itinerary. I was therefore under his recommendation. He had been visiting the church regularly, holding his quarterly conference every three months, and getting his little bit. It was shortly after I had started going with this young lady that McCarthy got awful nice and treated me so good until I became suspicious. Then one day it came out. " ' By the way, Speed,'he said. ' Who're those girls living near the church ? ' I knew who he was referring to because I had seen him trying to smile on them the day be- fore which had been a Sunday. But I pretends I don't know what or who he's talking about. " ' Who ? ' I inquired as innocent as a lamb. " ' Oh, those two girls living near the church,' and he called their names. "'Why, they are two young ladies who came here not long ago,' I said, and waited. " ' Is that all? ' he asked then, and I looked at him. He grinned, and said: " ' Aw, come on, Speed ! Be a good fellow. Now, are those girls straight ? ' and he specified the one I had begun going with. " ' Why,' said I, ' Reverend McCarthy, I am surprised at you to ask such a question, or to offer such an insinuation. Besides,' I went on, ' Why?' " ' Aw, now, Speed,' he laughed easily, his big fat round face shaking. ' Be a good sport and put me onto these girls. Now, I'll tell you what I want you to do,' he said, drawing his chair close to mine. * I 'll make it my business to get back over here next Sunday night, and I want you to "fix" it for me with that one, and ' he winked in a way I did not at the time understand but I did later ' I'll make it right with you. You understand,' he said, rising, ' I'll make it right with you' " I was never so put out in my life. Here was this man, a minister of the Gospel, and a Presiding Elder, who had just deliberately delegated me to make a previous engagement for him without regard to morals and with the girl I loved. I don't think he knew I was paying her court, but the moral was the same. " I was outdone ! But true to his words, the next Sunday night he was back! " ' Well, Speed,' he said when the services were over. 'What's the rip ? Everything O. K. ? ' He was very anxious, and I'll never forget his face. But, I was afraid of the old rascal, still I hadn't lost my manhood at that. So I says: ' Now, Reverend, you place me in a very awkward predicament. To begin with, I have the highest respect for those young ladies. And, again, even if I did not, I could not be expected to cohort as you suggested,' " l Aw, Speed,' he cut in. ' You're no good. Pshaw ! I just know the older of those two girls is not straight am positive of it. And you could ' fix things if you would,' and I detected a touch of angry disappointment in his tone. " Well, to get out of it, I told the old rascal what I thought of his suggestion and left him. I never saw him again until near conference, and then not to speak with him. I was confident that I had satisfied the people, and that I would be sent back without any argument. " So imagine when I went to conference and when the charges were being read off and I heard the Secretary call ' Reverend Speed to Mitchfield ! ' instead of the town from which I had gone. "I was just sick, man; so sick until I almost dropped dead on the floor! Oh, the agony it gave me! I finally got outside some way, and stood leaning against the church. How long I stood thus, I never knew; but the church let out by and by, while I still stood there and let me ex- plain. Mitchfield was a charge that contained exactly a dozen members the Reverend McCarthy came out and I looked up straight into his eyes. ... I knew then why I had been sent to Mitchfield instead of back to the charge I had been at. " Well, I went to Mitchfield, and by working around town by the day, in connection with the charge, I managed to make it. Some months later, I married the girl I have spoken of, and we began to keep house in Mitchfield. " It was pretty hard, and sometimes I don't wonder at what later happened. But to make a long story short, I was compelled to get work in a near-by town to make a living for me and my wife, and was gone all the week until Saturday night. At the end of six months, Reverend Mc- Carthy had taken my wife, and she had left me and was living in St. Louis ! " Baptiste was regarding him strangely. " Have you heard the the rest of it ? " the other paused to ask. " Well, Reverend McCarthy became the father of her two sons. One was k**ed some years ago, the other lives in St. Louis." " But what what became of their mother ? " Baptiste inquired curiously. " Her? What becomes of women who are deceived? If you visited St. Louis and the district, you might find her. She was there the last I heard of her." "And you?" " Me ? " the other repeated in a strangely hollow voice. " You know what I am. A gambler, and with an old score to settle with that man if I ever get the chance."