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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (May 3, 1919)
The Balancer of The Universe A Drama of the Race Conflict in Four Acts by B. Harrison Peyton CHARACTERS Mauricio Crispin, a dancer from the Argentine, age 25 years. La Corusca, Senora Crispin, his Ar gentine mother, age 42. Agnes, their American guest and dancing pupil, age 22. Mrs. Vincent Widener, a woman journalist, age 35. Period: Present. Place: ProvI V dencia, a city on the Pacific coast. Act II—Scene 1 Crispin: Yo estoy aqui, madre. Corusca: Mauricio, I was perfectly satisfied Senorita Agnes had come back with young Bland from her trip to the telegraph office. I don’t find her in her room, and it has been cer tainly more than two hours since she and that youngster, Bland, left here together. Crispin: They returned and sepa rated fully an hour ago, madre. The senorita, for the past forty minutes, has been wandering alone back and forth there along the ocean shore. Corusca: And with such a wind driving in from the water! What can have possessed her, Mauricio? Crispin: Come, madre; you can see her through the study window. Isn’t she the very embodiment of distraught loveliness, madre pequena—a solitary slender figure, with disheveled hair and flurrying garments, bending — — against the wild, adverse winds of vicissitude, and stopping now and then to commune with the ever despairing waste of waters? Look! how it is as though the ocean’s sorrow mighty dis tress and eternal lament—be one of her own, and she half inclined to plunge into its condoling embrace as she might into a briny deep of tears! Corusca: Pomre desafortunada! Poor, dear girl! Go, hi jo mio, and apprize her the letter she expected is come. Crispin: Certainly, madre. I fear she has been outdoors somewhat too long already. I’ve been watching her between my endeavors to scan this magazine. Corusca: The Advance? Crispin: Yes, The Advance. Corusca: I haven’t found time as yet to road that number, Mauricio. Crispin: Then do so now. In it, / is published an open letter, madre, to ' white fellow Americans, written by the president of the American Asso ciation for the Abolition of Race Op pression, and marked by a logic and truthfulness that are fairly overpow ering. But let me haste to bring Senorita Gorland. Corusca: I thank you, muchaeho mio. The senorita, I dare say, will follow you quickly enough the instant she learns of the letter from her home. Crispin: Oh, I won’t be gone half a second, madre. Corusca: (Who, after having seat ed herself at the table, reads aloud from the magazine:) This is an ap peal not for any privilege, indulgence or preference of any kind, but for simple justice. No community can treat any considerable body of citizens unjustly without suffering the conse quences. We all suffer, white and Colored alike, and as there are more *■* white, so they suffer more. During the civil war, “every drop of Negro blood drawn by the lash in slavery, was paid by another in white blood drawn by the sword,”—and the peo ple— SCENE II Such Is the Augury of Anemone. (Enter Crispin and Agnes. Agnes wears the fur overcoat and a spray of anemone on the breast.) Crispin: ’Tis quite possible, then senorita, I’ve been given a false im pression in regard to the matter? Agnes: Oh, no, senor; it isn’t that I think you’re under a misapprehen sion; I know ij’s perfectly true the representative has both-—a daughter and a small son. Corusca: The letter—your anxious i £ •*: Brandies Stores :j: I I t Our Annual f ? £ :j: May White Sales :|: ? ’*• Are Now in Progress $ ? I S A Ij! Of marked importance are .j. ;l; the savings to be found in ;j; J these .sales events— £ 4 Corsets Gloves Hosiery % X | Silk and Muslin Underwear ;|; % Domestics Linens i % 4 4 White Goods X l i ly awaited letter, senorita. Agnes: It’s arrived at last! Thank you, senora! Crispin: Madre, I met her on the way indoors, and almost at the en trance. Corusca: But, what, Mauricio! a sprig of anemone pinned on her breast? Crispin: Ah, madre! only too true, over her heart is the symbol of fading hope! Bland stopped at the florist’s shop and bought it for her; she proved such a drooping spirit! Corusca: Oh, I”m very much con cerned, senorita, on‘account of your little brother’s illness. I’ll wait to learn whether the doctors still have hope of a turn for the better. Crispin: I notice, senorita, the let ter is typewritten as always. I must hold Sonor Got land many times guilty of letting the business habit of dicta tion infringe on the intimacy of family correspondence. Corusca: I heard you and Senorita Agnes speaking of someone’s daugh ter, Mauricio. Whose daughter was it? Crispin: Terry Whiteside’s, madre. The senorita witnessed the entire af fray that took place between Anthony and the representative, and just this evening has confirmed us in our con viction that Whiteside, and not An thony, should be held responsible for the panic. Corusca: < aramoa! Anri she never mentioned it before! How odd! Rut Rut I’ve always felt sure of the dear boy’s innocence. Mauricio, we must send the senorita’s statement to the newspapers. However, speaking of the congressman, you were right after all, Mauricio, in your surmise that he has a little daughter? Crispin: Yes; so Senorita Gorland assures me. Corusca: And no longer than the other day, I was informing Senorita Agnes of the particularly sad story concerning his tot of a son which Whiteside related to us in his letters; and how distressfully he importuned us. Mauricio, to come to his home in Shadow City and dance El Toreo y la Malaguena for the benefit of Raby Sunbeam, the little boy, whom the family thus has rechristened because of his brightly smiling presence and endearing good nature. Crispin: And you didn’t forget to tell her, madre mia, how near I came to disbelieving my own ears when you stated to me the magnificent in ducements he offered us? Corusca: No, muchacho querido; nor how promptly we seized upon the excuse that we were iron-bound at the time by a most important local con tract; although simultaneously, we did feel it a pity indeed that there wasn’t then to be obtained in all America an other pair of danzarines who claimed thorough adeptness in the graceful finesse of la Malaguena. Crispin: For the love of God, sen orita! My life! there’s but one shock that can have gone all through you like that! Corusca: Oh, caramba, querida! It’s rending your very heart-strings! Can the worst we feared have happened ? Agnes: They have lost all hope— the doctors—and are in daily dread of—mv brother’s death, Senora Cris pin! Oh, Godfrey! Godfrey our poor, dear, little boy! Corusca: Amora mia, Senor Gor land, your father—of course he wishes you to return home? Agnes: Immediately—by the very first train—yes, senora. Oh! if my brother—if Godfrey should die before I arrive there! If—if—if— Corusca: God forbid, nina querida! Hut you can hardly catch a train for Shadow City within less than four or five hours at the least. Have faith in the Almighty Maker’s infinite mercy! Don’t keep on grieving your self this way, hija. Rather go up to your room and make ready to leave. Ahora bien, preciosa, pequena enoja mia, shall Mauricio help you up the stairs for me? Crispin: May 1, senorita? No, no, senor; I can manage well enough. Crispin: Hut now you’ve crushed the anemone. Agnes: I thank you immensely, senora. Andrew wdl look after my luggage for me—won’t he? Corusca: Of course. I’m going out back right now, and I’ll speak to him about it, querida mia. Agnes: And, senora, won’t you please telephone to the railway sta tion to inquire at what time the first > through train will leave for Shadow J City ? Corusca: Ciertamente, ciertamente, muchacha mia. Moreover, I shall light willingly bring you an aswer just as soon as I have received it. Ah! but believe me, favorita mia, you haven’t any idea how deeply pained I am at the thought I’ve got to bid you good by after so fleeting a companionship. (END SCENE TWO.) DOCTOR CASSELL’S MISSION TO AMERICA ' The Distinguished African Who Will Visit Omaha Next Week and Some thing of the Mission Which Brings Him Across the Seas. OMAHA SHOULD BE INTERESTED ABOUT two months ago, George Wells Parker, business manager of The Monitor, received a letter from i Hon. John E. Bruce of New York, informing him of the arrival in this country of Doctor Nathaniel H. B. Cassell, a native African of eminence ond president of the Liberian univer- | sity. Out east, and especially around lit- | tie old Broadway, the people don’t | know much about Omaha. Whenever they hear the name, they are apt to have fleeting visions of Bufalo Bill, wild Indians and tomahawks. For this reason it is seldom that great foreign- ] ers with great missions come any fur- | ther west than Chicago and for this reason, Dr. Cassell was not booked for points further west. Mr. Bruce, how ever, had learned through The Mon itor and other sources that Omaha was a wide awake and thriving city and that she had among her population a large number of Colored people who were industrious and deeply interested in racial movements, as well as a large number of philanthropic whites who are always willing to assist meritorious causes. He therefore ask ed Mr. Parker if he did not think that Omaha would be interested in having Dr. Cassell as her guest and if Omaha might not assist him in se- j curing a part of the $200,000 which ] he is trying to raise for Liberia col- ] lege. The answer was: Have Dr. Cassell come by all means. And the doctor is coming May 4. In last week's issue was published a short article upon Liberia as the land of promise for the American Negro. Then, too, was published an account of some of the trials of this little black republic of distant Africa. No men tion was made of the fact that when Liberia cast her lot wdth the allies, she forfeited her trade with Germany, which was practically 90 per cent. Now that the war is over and peace | has been declared, Liberia finds her self in a very, very difficult position. Her trade is gone and the nations are J so busy arranging the conditions of j peace, that they have not had time to j consider the predicament into which I Liberia has fallen. She has arranged for a loan with the United States government by which she hopes to tide herself over this period of commer cial depression, but she must raise j $200,000 for her university so that ; she may continue the work of educa- j tion. To secure this sum for Liberia i university is the reason why Doctor i Cassell is in America. What will Omaha ‘do to help ? She can do much and it is our earnest desire that Dr. Cassell raise from $500 to $1,000 here in our city. We j want every Colored man and woman and child to donate something for this cause, no matter how small may j be the offering. Doctor Cassell will j speak at several of our churches here and eveiyone should hear him. He is a cultured and highly educated gen tleman, an orator and a scholar. He will have something of interest to tell us about our own people in Africa, [ of their burdens, their hopes and their j accomplishments. Everyone should hear him and everyone is asked to help in the cause. Rev. John Albert Williams, George Wells Parker and Fred C. Williams have arranged the program of Doc tor Cassell’s stay in the city and are resting assured that Omaha’s Col ored citizens will rally and support the cause which will be presented ably by the distinguished visitor. Any persons who may not be able to hear Doctor Cassell, may send con tributions to him in care of The Mon itor. --- See that your home is the neatest in i your block. Telephone Rates Must Be Higher Increased Operating Expenses Require More Money Telephone expenses have gone up rapidly the last few years. j Telephone rates have not advanced in proportion to the cost of furnishing the service. The cost of furnishing telephone service has advanced because of the increased cost of material to the telephone company and the in creased living expenses of employees. Everyone realies the necessity of paying more for rent, for food, for clothing, for wages and for transportation. * The telephone industry has been affected by the same conditions which have produced higher prices in all the necessities of life. If this Company in to continue to furnish dependable tele phone service to the public it must obtain such rates as will produce a revenue sufficient to cover the cost of providing the s rvice. NEBRASKA TELEPHONE COMPANY j OMAHA’S GUEST May 4 to 9 I Rev. Nathaniel H. B. Cassell President of Liberia College Dr. Cassell is in this country to raise $200,000 for Liberia College. Because Liberia entered the war on the side the allies, the little black republic lost practically all her trade, 90 per cent of which was carried on with Germany. Her revenues have been cut off and she needs money to educate her young men and young women. WILL YOU HELP? No matter how small may be your contribution, send it to DR. N. II. B. CASSELL, Care The Monitor, 304 Crounse Block, Omaha, Neb. and he and Liberia will thank you. Let every reader of The Monitor, both in Omaha and out, send something for the cause. Hear Dr. Cassell Talk About Africa SUNDAY, 11 A. M. Trinity Cathedral, 18th and Capitol Ave. SUNDAY, 4 P. M. N. A. A. C. P. Forum, Grove M. E., 22d and Seward. SUNDAY, 8 P. M. i St. Philip’s Church, 21st and Paul. MONDAY NIGHT, 8 P. M. ! Bethel Baptist Church, South Side. TUESDAY NIGHT, 8 P. M. St. John’s A. M. E. Church, 24th and Grant. WEDNESDAY NIGHT, 8 P. M. Zion Baptist Church, 24th and Grant. THURSDAY NIGHT, 8 P. M. f Combined Masonic Lodges, Rough Ashler Hall, 22d and Cuming Street. No Admission Charged Voluntary Contributions