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Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM
Circumstarces cc Irterviw
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Wayne Walden
mnmEss 51 Bank St. New York City
DATE November 1, 1938
SUBJECT "BIG FRED" TELLS A TALE: "A BAPTISM THAT DIDN'T TAKE"
1. Date and time of interew
October 30, 1938
2. Place of interview
on 14th Street, New York City
3. Name arid address of informaat
Fred Roys
113 Seventh Ave. New iork City
4. Name and address of person, if any, wqe put you in
touch with informant,
(See previous interview "Big Fred T@lls a Tale" 9/16/38)
5. Name and a:idress of person, ii any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc,
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
FO:g-
Personal 111'.:tor.v of infort
STATE New York
NAME OF °UM Wayne Walden
ADPIESS
DIVIE
51 Bank St. New York City
November 1, 1938
FOLKLORE
NE v YORK
SUBJECT "BIG FLED" TELLS A TALE: "A BAPTISM THAT DIDN'T TAKE"
1. Ancestry Real American type.
2. Place and date of birth
3. Family
4. Place-:, ,Aith datc,L
5. Education, with daes
About 60 years old
Common School
6. Occupations and ;'t.ccomplisliments, with date. Lumberjack, longshoreman,
teamster.
7. Special skills and interests
At present caretaker of building at
113 Seventh Ave. New York City.
8. Community and religious aC tiVit ICS
9. Description of informant Large and rugged.
10. Other Points gained in interview
FORM C
Toxt of I-,tervioo,
FOLKLOPE
NO, YORK
STATE New York
NAN,E OF liV0.1:E2 Wayne Walden
ADDRESS 51 Bank S. New York City
DATE November 1, 1938
SUBJECT "BIG FRED" TELLS A TALE": "A BAPTISM THAT DIDN'T TAKE"
Several of us were standing in front of the "Crusader"
on Fourteenth Street and our rather desultory conversation finally
turned to "gettin' religion." It was then that big Fred opened up.
Said he:
Them religious revivals they used to have, you don't see
much of that sort of goings-on nowadays; but in them days they was
great doints. When I was a kid we used to look forward to 'em like
we did the circus. Sometimes they was as good as a circus. It was
a case of come to Jesus everybody. You had to come in or they'd
hound the hell out of you if you didn't. The woods was full of
Billy Sundays, and if you could stand out against their persuadint
you, you was a good one. You had to have what they call stamina.
Generally when some of those old hens got a hold of a guy, he was a
goner, 'cause the women then went into the revival business with
both feet. When they took out after you, -there wasn't much use a
funninl.
But there was one old codger they had a devil of a time a
snarini. He wouldn't fall for their bait at all. They tried every
which way to get him, but old Rufe7Rufus Gray his name was- was one
guy they couldn't bring into the fold. He hadread Bob ingersoll,
I guess, and didn't seem to give a damn if his soul was saved or
not. Pie in the sky couldn't move him. The chase went on for years,
revival after revival, and still old Rufe couldn't be swayed from
the paths of wickedness he preferred to travel. His soul was getting
blacker and blacker with accumulatin' sins, but still the old cuss
hung back. The stubborn old geeser seemed sure as hell -bound -for
hell and the bettin' was odds against his ever being corraled.
Well, it finally happened that a revival came on and,
whether the Bible -pounder was more convincin' or whether the
sistern put on greater pressure in their persuadint whatever it
was, old Rufe-maybe he thought it was better to get it over with,
but anyhow the old guy shows signs of weakening. He give up arguin'
and told 'em 0 -Kay, that he was ready to submit at last.
Well, of course, landin' a hardshell old sinner, the likes
of him, caused a lot of rejoicint among the sistern and the brethren.
It was a great triumph, something to holler about. All that was
lacking now was the baptism. And for old Rufus it'd need more'n
a little sprinkling. It'd need a whole damned puddle of water for
him to be made pure and radiantl
The baptisings was most of the time done in a lake, about
a mile and a half from town. The preacher, and whoever would be his
helpers, would lead the converts out to where the water was about
arm -pit deep, and then dip 'em under. That's what they done to old
Rufe too -they leads him out to where the water was up to his whiskers
and then topples hin under. But he wasn't countin' on being ducked.
-3
So he comes up sputtering, and pawing, and madderyn hell. Soon
as he untangles himself from their hanging on to him, he starts
out swimmint to beat the devil himself, and when he gets out in
about the middle of the lake he turns his head and hollars out
"Yeah, you would, would you? You'd try to drown somebody, would you?
You gawd-damned fools.