VESTIGES
Harlem Sketches
Rudolph Fisher
I
shepherd! lead us
Ezekiel Taylor, preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ, walked slowly along One Hundred and Thirty-third Street, conspicuously alien. He was little and old and bent. A short, bushy white beard framed his shiny black face and his tieless celluloid collar. A long, greasy, green-black Prince Albert, with lapels frayed and buttons worn through to their metal hung loosely from his shoulders. His trousers were big and baggy and limp, yet not enough so to hide the dejected bend of his knees.
A little boy noted the beard and gibed, “Hey, Santa Claus! Taint Chris’mas yet!” And the little boy’s playmates chorused, “Haw, haw! Lookit the colored Santa Claus!”
“For of such is the kingdom of heaven,” mused Ezekiel Taylor. No. The kingdom of Harlem. Children turned into mockers. Satan in the hearts of infants. Harlem—city of the devil—outpost of hell.
Darkness settled, like the gloom in the old preacher’s heart; darkness an hour late, for these sinners even tinkered with God's time, substituting their “daylight-saving.” Wicked, yes. But sad too, as though they were desperately warding off the inescapable night of sorrow in which they must suffer for their sins. Harlem. What a field! What numberless souls to save!—These very taunting children who knew not even the simplest of the commandments—
But he was old and alone and defeated. The world had called to his best. It had offered money, and they had gone; first the young men whom he had fathered, whom he had
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