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 assistants, 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 killed 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."