The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. NationNation, Carry Amelia
History
The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation
Nation, Carry Amelia
Nation, Carry Amelia, 1846-1911; Social reformers -- United States -- Biography; Temperance -- United States
When I had time I told him I wanted some one to wash dishes. He
consented to stay, and I felt at that time I must care for that poor creature
or he would die. He stayed with us three years and proved to be a
jewel. All the rest of my help was colored, and generally speaking, white
and colored help do not assimilate, but they all had profound respect for
Smith. He soon owned his horse and did the draying for the hotel. Then
he got to be a clerk, and bought pecans for the northern market. All his
family had died from consumption, and he was traveling for his health.
He left us for Pierce's Sanitarium, Buffalo, N. Y., and stayed there some
time for treatment. He ran a little booth by the Niagara Bridge, and soon
accumulated quite a little sum. He became a Christian and married. I
often got letters from him expressing so much gratitude. He was an
infidel when he first came, and he said it was my influence that made him
a Christian.
I often had the Orthodox Jews to stop with me. They ate nothing
that contained lard; their food was mackerel, eggs, bread and coffee. The
rates were two dollars a day, but I charged them only one dollar, and
allowed them to pay their bills with something that was in their "pack."
My other guests would often regard them with almost scorn, but when
they were at their meals I would wait on them myself, showing them this
preference, for I could not but respect their sacrifice for the sake of
their religion. I have always treated the Jews with great respect. Our
Savior was a Jew and said: "Salvation is of the Jews." They are a monument
to the truth of the Scriptures, a people without a country; and
though they are wanderers upon the face of the earth, they retain their
characteristics more than any other people have ever done. If an Italian,
German or Frenchman comes to America, in a hundred years he becomes
thoroughly an American, losing the peculiarities of his descent. But
wherever a Jew goes no matter how long he stays he remains a Jew.
This can be said of no other people on earth.
I know by experience that the Jews are tricksters, but they have
almost been forced into their cupidity in getting money, yet the greatest
promise of deliverance in the Bible is for that nation. The foundation
stones of heaven and the pearly gates are named for the twelve tribes. No
Christian should scorn a Jew.
One day I was driving down the street of Richmond in a buggy, and
Mr. Blakely the merchant I dealt so much with, and also a member of
the Methodist church, stopped me, saying that he had something to say
to me:
"Your friends are becoming very uneasy about the state of your mind.
You are thinking too much on religious subjects, and they asked me to
warn you." This gave me a blessed assurance, and I laughed very heartily,
saying:
"Your words are indeed a blessing to me, for if I have a religion
that the world understands, it is not a religion of the Bible."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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