The Monitor
A Weekly Newspaper devoted to the civic, social and religious
interests of the Colored People of Omaha and vicinity, with the desire
to contribute something to the general good and upbuilding of the
community.
Published Every Saturday.
Application made for entry at the Postoffice, Omaha, Neb., as
second-class mail matter, under Act of Congress, March 3, 1879.
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS. Editor and Publisher.
Lucille Skaggs Edwards, William Garnett Haynes and Ellsworth W.
Pryor, Associate Editors.
Joseph Lacour, Jr., Advertising and Circulation Manager..
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, $1.00 per year.
Advertising rates, 25 cents an inch per issue.
Address, The Monitor, 1119 North Twenty-first street, Omaha.
APPRECIATION.
We are grateful for the many kind
expressions which have come to us
concerning our first issue. It is grat
ifying to know that we have pleased
our readers and patrons. We shall
strive not only to maintain the high
standard we have set, but to improve
it. To do this will require not only
diligent work upon the part of the
staff, but also the hearty co-operation
of our subscribers and advertisers.
We want all our readers and patrons
to feel that The Monitor is “OUR
paper.” We want them to take a
personal pride and interest in it, and
to feel perfectly free to make sugges
tions and criticisms which they be
lieve will be for the betterment of
the publication. We may not always
see our way clear to act upon every
suggestion given, but we shall be
nevertheless grateful for them and
are sure we will profit by them.
We desire to thank at this time an
those who so heartily and cheerfully
worked with us in getting out such
a creditable edition as our first issue
proved to be. To our associate edi
tors, praise and thanks are due for
their painstaking work. Our publish
ers, the Waters-Barnhart Printing
Company, placed their knowledge and
skill unreservedly at our service.
Joseph I>aCour, Jr., w'ho is in charge
of our advertising and circulating de
partments, gave most valuable assist
ance; and although midsummer is a
dull advertising season, the merchants
received us most kindly and were
generous in their patronage as well
as in their expressions of good wishes
for success. All these agencies con
tributed to the success of our first
issue, which has been so favorably
received by our readers and warmly
commended by the local press. For
the assistance given and the words
of commendation spoken, we take this
opportunity to express our grateful
appreciation.
_n_
We publish today a cut of Silas
Robbins, the first colored lawyer to
be admitted to the bar in Nebraska.
Mr. Robbins was born in Winchester,
Ind., in 1858. His academic training
was received at Union Literary Insti
tute, a school founded by the Quak
ers, near Spartansburg, Ind. He
read law in the office of Canada &
Canada, a leading law firm of Win
chester. William A. Canada, of that
firm, is now United States consul at
Vera Cruz. Subsequently Mr. Rob
bins taught school in Ohio, Kansas,
Missouri and Mississippi. While
teaching in Missouri he continued his
legal studies in the office of Albert
Burgess, a graduate of the University
of Michigan, and a highly respected
colored attorney of St. Louis. In 1884
Mr. Robbins became principal of the
school for colored children at Wood
ville, Miss., where he remained four
years. He was admitted to the bar
in Wood ville in 1888. In 1889 He
came to Omaha, where he has since
resided. Here he was admitted to
practice in the state and federal
courts in 1889 and in the supreme
court in 1890. Some years ago, in
speaking to us of Mr. Robbins, no
less a distinguished member of the
American Bar Association than the
late James M. Woolworth said. “Mr.
Robbins is a man for whom I have
a high regard. He is a man who
knows law.”
Despite this fact, Mr. Robbins’ prac
tice has never been sufficiently lucra
tive nor exacting to demand all his
time and attention. He has found i)
necessary, or expedient at least,
augment his income by devoting con
siderable attention to real estate. Mr.
Robbins is a man of a fine mind and
high character. Guy, his eldest son,
is secretary to the American legation,
Monrovia, Liberia.
Mr. and Mrs. Robbins have an at
tractive home at 2883 Miami street.
-o
The thrifty members of our race
are rapidly acquiring homes of their
own in this growing city. It is grat
ifying to point to the many attractive
homes in good repair and with well
kept lawns which so many of our
people own or are buying. It is the
duty of every one who has an inter
est in the growth and betterment of
the city to encourage this spirit,
rather than to discourage it by put -
ting barriers in the way. What do
you think about it?
-o
The jitneys in other cities are also
having troubles of their own, and
for their narrowness and littleness
they deserve it.
OPINIONS ABOUT THE MONITOR.
An admirable little sheet is The
Monitor,” the race organ for the col
ored people of Omaha, edited by the
Uev. John Albert Williams, which
starts publication today. It will be is
sued each Saturday.
The associate editors are E. W.
Pryor, steward of the Commercial
club, who has a department on “Cul
inary Hints and Recipes;” William G.
Haynes, who has a column on "Sci
ence Notes," and Mrs. Lucille Skaggs
Edwards, who edits the section, “For
Our Women and Children.”
The first issue shows The Monitor
to be a well-gotten-up, live journal. It
is to be devoted to the civil, social and
religious interests of the colored peo
ple with the desire of contributing to
the general good of the community.
General race news is chronicled. News
of the local five colored churches is
given. Lodges and fraternities have
their notices and individuals have a
section in which to express themselves
through letters.—The World-Herald,
July 3rd.
The first issue of the Monitor, a
news paper edited by the Rev. John
Albert Williams and devoted to the
interests of the colored people of Oma
ha, came out yesterday. It is an un
usually neatly prepared publication
and is filled with excellent reading
matter. Mr. Williams is assisted in
his work as editor by Lucille Skaggs
Edwards, William Garnett Haynes
and Ellsworth W. Pryor, each of whom
conducts a department in the paper.
—The Omaha Sunday Bee, July 5.
INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE.
Let us suppose the existence of an
island where, fire being extinguished
the people had to pass their days in
cold and nights in darkness. A be
nevolent person comes with a torch
and offers light to any one who wish
es it, enjoining only that those per
sons so blessed should take their
torches into at least two darkened
dwellings. It would not be long be
fore all the island would have light,
the progression being 1, 2, 4, 8, 16.
32, etc.
Now this is precisely the position
the Christian holds in reference to
this darkened world. He is to let his
light so shine that others may not
only see, but kindle at his flame. He
is never to cease his labors until (not
merely two bet) all around him ex
perience heaven’s blessings. And so
each one thus blessed would become
the center of innumerable rays.
Were such a system carried out,
the world W'ould soon have no dark
spots, but as it is, there are only a
few bright ones. And why so?
There is an evil spirit, whose hat
red against God’s light is such, that
he instigates his followers not merely
to extinguish the light of God’s truth
in themselves, but to do the same to
those around them; so that unless
these centers of widening evil be re
sisted, the church shall become like
Pergamos or Thyatira, where the
stork builds on the ruins of God’s
house, and the Turkish mosque takes
the place of ‘‘Christ’s holy Temple.'■
We see then around us two principles
advancing with arithmetical precision,
the one calculated to change earth to
Heaven, the other to change earth to
Hell.
What then shall we do? Stand by
unconcerned? Hide our light under
a bushel and so he responsible for the
darkness such conduct occasions? Say
we have no influence? No; let us be
up and doing. The drop of rain will
teach us a lesson. The spark of fire
will rebuke our lethargy. The grain
of wheat will shame us to exertion.
Let us, if we would keep the light that
now shines on us, remember that the
condition of possession is its distribu
tion to others.
God gives us our daily light as we
give to those who need our assist
ance. Says I)r. Arnold: “Two or three
decided persons steadily and quietly
acting as they think right, wrill be a
leaven to the w'hole mass, and the
bad shall Ire left in that state, they
shall meet hereafter—a minority of
unmixed evil.”—Church and Home.
HOW TO SAVE.
There is only one safe way to save
- -and that is to obligate yourself to
do so.
If you haven’t a wife, get one.
If you haven’t a home, get one.
Iluy something on a contract which
compels you to make regular install
ments in payment—something tangi
ble, like land which will not run away, |
or insurance which, if you should die,
can be cashed in by your widow.
Most men cannot save unless they
have to—they yield to temptation to
spend when they needn’t.
The dollar saved should be an in
vested dollar. A nimble dollar. Not
a hoarded dollar. The miser is more
contemptible than the spendthrift.
Saving means that when you are
old you have something. You do not
have to drudge pitifully to keep out
of the poorhouse. It means that you
can give your children advantages of
education and the hope of a career. It
means that you and your wife can
round out your alloted span of years
with your heads in the air, beholden
to none.
It means that when you die your
trustful wife, the woman who has
found in you the shield and shelter
against the menaces and chill of the
world, will find that her confidence
was not misplaced, that you built a
shelter- -a home which would endure
even after death had claimed you.
Your worldly responsibilities do not
end with the grave.
How desperate is the heart of the
man who awakes in the morning from
distressful slumber to the bitter
knowledge that there is no food to be
had that day for his children!
Rut. how remorseful should be the
heart of the man who lays himself
down at night with the thought that
“if I should die before I wake” there
would be no food for wife or children
but the bread of charity or the meat
of toil! —Woodmen News.
As is generally thought, liquor can
be obtained in Maine only and osten
sibly as medicine. As a New York
man was purchasing a toothbrush in
a drug store in that state a big, raw
boned fellow entered with a four gal
lon demijohn. He slammed it down
on the counter in front of the drug
gist, and, handing him a bit of paper,
said: “Kill her up, Henry; baby’s
took bad.”
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