The New York Age

An Ungrateful Preacher.

On Friday of last week a case was tried in the City Court in which the Rev. William B. Derrick, D. D., appeared as defendant. It seems that while the reverend doctor was the pastor of Bethel Church, in this city, he became possessed of the idea that as the sermons of Beecher, Talmage and other great pulpit orators were published abroad and handed down to posterity by short hand reporters, his own fervid religious utterances were deserving of similar dissemination and preservation. To that end a stenographer soon appeared at a table near the pulpit and proceeded to take notes of Dr. Derrick's Sunday struggles with "English as she is spoke."

This continued for some time, but when the stenographer presented his bill the funds were not forthcoming in settlement. The claim for services was then put in the hands of a lawyer and at the trial a verdict was rendered against the ambitious preacher.

In his testimony given at the trial, as we are reliably informed, Dr. Derrick saw fit, in his endeavor to avoid liability for this claim, to express a doubt as to whether The Age was a newspaper published in the interest of the colored people. And he furthermore explained that he did not endorse or approve of the paper, or words to that effect. Now, in reply to this uncalled for attempt at disparagement, we have to say that The Age never requested any approval or endorsement from Dr. Derrick, beyond the payment of a bill of forty dollars for advertising a concert, which our collectors have vainly sought to collect from him during the past year.

The Age has invariably treated Dr. Derrick with the utmost fairness and indulgence, both in its news and editorial columns, while in its business relations it has extended toward him a generous forbearance. These aspersions upon the representative character of the paper, coming from him, therefore, savor somewhat of ingratitude.