JOHNSON INTERVIEWED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 449, 19 January 1909, Page 3

JOHNSON INTERVIEWED.

Coloured Champion Unpopular In Sydney.

Literary Consolation

Auckland, "January ir

A Sydney paper to hand contains a laughable interview with Johnson, the coloured pugilist. Prior to his departure the champion expressed his views relative to the ethics of his profession. “ Since I beat Burns,” he observed, “ the people of New South Wales have suddenly taken a great dislike to me. Though he got a great walloping, Burns is more popular here than I am, and all because he does what you Australians call the ‘ penitent smoodge.’ However, I never expected to find sympathy here, as my colour is against me. When distressed by criticism of this sort 1 simply turn up one or two of my favourite books —Shakespeare’s ‘ Titus Audronicus,’ Bunyan’s ‘ Pilgrim’s Progress,’ or Milton’s ‘ Paradise Lost,’ and there I find plenty of consolation to soothe away any irritation.

“ You may be surprised that I should turn to literary work when annoyed instead of seeking sympathy from the Church to which I belong. Of course you know lam a Methodist, and our church is regarded as second to none in America, or in the world. It is the world’s champion church. When I arrived here in Sydney first of all I expected to be well looked after by my fellow-religionists in Sydney. Well, do you believe it, not one of the Methodists called on me. At first I resented this very much, and I fretted a lot, so that my manager had fears lest I should go back iu my training. However, a week or so convinced me that the Methodists over here are quite a different crowd to what I have been accustomed to, and I feel glad now that I had brains enough to find consolation iu reading a few chapters of ‘ Pilgrim’s Progress’ instead of publicly rebuking the sect to which I belong. Outside the conduct of the local Methodists in not inviting me to church, there is not a single one, so far as I can learn, signified his intention of witnessing the fight. ’ “ In America, whenever I had a ‘ scrap ’ I could always couut on solid support from my denomination. However, lam not going to be nasty about Sydney's people. The majority ot you are all right, but as I am a descendant of Ham I must bear your reproaches because I beat a white man. Could any Christian nation have extended a more inhospitable welcome to a victor a great contest ? When I won I fully expected to be feted. That was my due. However, you spurned me.” The Rev. W. G. Taylor, of the Sydney Central Mission, seen it reference to Johnson’s statements, said he had no idea that Johnson was a member of the Methodist Church. He was not debarred from attending the services of the Church. In fact, he believed that Johnson, shortly after his arrival in Sydney, did put in an appearance once, and was seen engaged in earnest prayer. Asked if it was a tact that Johnson was not welcomed on arrival, Mr Taylor said, “ Certainly not. How were we to know that he was a Methodist at all ? Every Methodist when he leaves one place gets a letter which he presents at the next place he visits : Johnson did not present his credentials, and we took no more notice of him than of any other stranger, but did not draw the colour line at all. We have men of many colours in our church.”