READING AND COUNTING FOR NEGROES.
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.
PRAYING FOR MONEY.
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.
PRAYING FOR CONVERTS.
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.