The Bethlehem innkeeper deserved respect

One of the featured contributors to the collection of Christmas stories published in The Mailboat in the early 1990s was Capt. Josiah William Bailey II of Morehead City, N.C. 

These small storybooks are now of a prized collection at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center on Harkers Island, located in Down East section of Carteret County, N.C. 

Capt. Bailey, by bringing humor to his writing, made a case that the Bethlehem innkeeper was not a Christmas curmudgeon. 

Rather, the innkeeper was a fellow who should go down in history as a “kindly, generous good man,” Capt. Bailey asserted.

 

After Baby Jesus was born in the manger, Capt. Bailey acknowledged that angels, shepherds and wise men arrived to celebrate the Savior’s birth. However, his version of the story includes the presence of a few other notable yuletide characters. 

As Capt. Bailey told it: “A little boy with a drum came by a-beating the dang thing and singing ‘a-rumpa, dum, dum, me an’ my drum.’ While all this was going on, a dern reindeer with a red light up his nose was prancing around outside trying to direct traffic.”

 

“The folks up there in the inn must’ve thought it was an all-night tent revival out back there. But the innkeeper never uttered a word. He just put up with it. This sort of thing went on for several days, people coming and going, milling around, angels singing, sheep a-bleating and that youngern and his drum…a-rumpa, dum, dumming.” 

“Seems to me,” Capt. Bailey said, “when you think seriously about it, he (the innkeeper) should be revered, not reviled (for having ‘no room in the inn’).” 

By offering shelter in his stable, the innkeeper “was the first to offer hospitality, kindness and compassion – in short, LOVE – to Jesus, even while in His mother’s womb, and he did it not knowing it was HIM, not in hopes of any reward (earthly or heavenly).” 

“It was an act of unself-conscious, sublime purity. Impelled only by a sense of identity with fellow humans in distress, he did what he was able to do in the circumstances; it was a generous and benevolent gesture from the heart.” 

“That is the very embodiment of the message for which that little baby was born, lived and died. The innkeeper, whose name is unknown…was the foreshadow of the ministry of the haloed infant born in his stable.” 

“This year, as you hear and sing “Away in a Manger,” remember kindly the generous, good man whose manger it was,” Capt. Bailey said.

 

Capt. Josiah Bailey was a fun-loving coastal North Carolina guy who chose a laid-back lifestyle. His primary business was operating a 55-foot sailing vessel to transport tourists from Morehead City over to Harkers Island and out to Cape Lookout National Seashore. 

Capt. Josiah Bailey died in 1993 at age 71. Among his many accomplishments was qualifying as a storyteller worthy of being included in the exclusive group of “Fish House Liars.” 

Bailey’s father, Josiah William Bailey, represented North Carolina in the U.S. Senate from 1931-46. 

 

Today, Carteret County’s most celebrated storyteller is Rodney Kemp of Morehead City, one of the charter members of “The Fish House Liars.” 

One of his favorite Christmas yarns, also included in the The Mailboat collection, embraces the rural heritage and culture of Carteret County.

 

The story begins on the Harlowe farm of Harry Lee Taylor, located in the “northern reaches of Carteret County.” 

As Rodney tells it: “Mr. Harry Lee Taylor’s shoulders hunched forward to protect against the bone chill of an early 1900s December morning. He whistled for his horses, Old Baldy and Charlie, to commence the annual trip from Harlowe south to Beaufort.” 

The buckboard would carry him about 14 miles into Beaufort to “do his buying and trading for his family’s Christmas gifts.”

 

“Mr. Harry always said ‘buggy time was thinking time’ and his thoughts this morning were on his wife, whom he always referred to as Miss Aleta, and his nine children.” 

Taylor pulled to a stop in front of the Carteret County Poor Home and Orphanage, located some three miles outside of Beaufort. He noticed a young boy standing away from the others. He was sobbing. 

Rodney said that Taylor approached the caretaker and inquired about the boy. The caretaker said the boy arrived about a month ago; both parents had died unexpectedly. “He’s 12, small for his age. He don’t eat much. He just stares down the road and cries. Name’s Norton.” 

Taylor adopted Norton on the spot, telling the boy: “I need somebody to help me drive that team of horses. You interested?” 

In Beaufort, the first stop was at the Davis House on Front Street, where Miss Sally Ann Davis had hot baths in the back for a nickel. “Norton needed about a quarter’s worth,” Rodney said. 

After a day of shopping in Beaufort, Norton guided Old Baldy and Charlie back to Harlowe. It was late when they arrived but one of the Taylor boys was still awake. He peeked out his window and announced: “Daddy’s letting someone drive his horses. You’ve got to be mighty special to get to drive Old Baldy and Charlie.” 

“Mr. Harry lifted Norton down off his seat and placed him on the porch in front of his wife…and said: ‘Miss Aleta, for your Christmas present I’ve made you the mother of a fine son.’” 

“She smiled that approving smile of love and said, ‘I thank you for a painless delivery.’” 

“Then, she opened her arms and took Norton into her heart as great tears of Christmas joy burst from both of them,” Rodney wrote. 

“Of all of Harry Lee Taylor’s five sons, the old-timers used to say that Norton was the one who was most like him.”