Taken from Charlotte Observer
Leesville, S.C. Oct. 10—A strange case of apparent dual personality is attracting such attention here that a committee of physicians and psychologists is preparing to examine the subject—Major Perry, 90-year-old negro and former slave, who is illiterate when awake but who delivers scholarly sermons in perfect English when asleep.
Major Perry lives four miles north of Leesville in the lower edge of Saluda County. In appearance he is a typical ante-bellum negro, ceremoniously polite to all “white folks,” and quaint and engaging in his manner. While awake he speaks in dialect of the unlettered negro, and finds it is impossible to quote even so much as a verse in the Bible. But when he drops into the strange trances that he seems able to summon at will, he becomes an entirely different person. He speaks with the precision of a student of English, and quotes entire chapters form the Bible without error or hesitancy.
Case Is Proved
These statements are vouched for by the Rev. Frank M. Graham, evangelist of Greene County, Georgia, who recently visited Major Perry at his home near here; by J.Q. Holder, who prepared an article on the strange old negro for The Twin City News of Leesville, and by the Editor of The Edisto Perry to study the negro who preaches in his sleep. Many others also have heard the messages that fall from the lips of the old man as he lies in a trance.
Evangelist Graham has known the old negro for years and believes that he is endowed with two personalities, one being in control when he is awake and the other when he is asleep.
The more superstitious advance the theory that Major Perry received a “call” to preach, but refused to heed the call. The Holy Ghost, however, not to be outdone, takes possession of him when he is asleep, they say, and uses him as a mouthpiece to deliver messages from God to men upon the earth.
No Two Alike
The suggestion made that Major Perry has learned a sermon couched in chosen words, which he delivers while shamming a trance. The answer to this is that no two of his sermons are the same, and each contains different quotations from the Bible. The quotations are not confined to any particular verses or chapters but range through all the books of both New and Old Testament.
Dr. Graham, in describing Major Perry’s method of preaching in his sleep, says that the old man will lie upon a couch and almost immediately drop into a trance. In about 15 minutes his lips begin to move, and the words of a hymn issue forth. When the song is done, the sermon begins and continues steadily until the speaker is finished.
J.Q. Holder, writing in the Twin City News, said:
“Living four miles north of here is one of the most wonderful human beings in the world. Though 90 years old, a former slave, able neither to read nor to write, yet he preaches a sermon almost every night of his life. He takes his text, giving chapter and verse, and has never been known to make a mistake. He quotes the Bible as correctly as the best educated man. One strange thing is that when he awakes, he remembers nothing about what he has preached.”
From the front page of The News Record, Marshall, N.C., Friday, Oct. 16, 1925. “The only newspaper published in Madison County.”
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92074087/1925-10-16/ed-1/seq-1/
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