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.
Entered as Second-Class Mail Matter July 2, 1915, at the Post
office at Omaha, Neb., under the act of March 3, 1879.
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS. Editor and Publisher.
Lucille Skaggs Edwards, William Garnett Ilaynes and Ellsworth W.
Pryor, Associate Editors.
Joseph LaCour, Jr., Advertising and Circulation Manager.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES. $1.00 per year.
Advertising rates, 50 cents an inch per issue.
Address, The Monitor, 1119 North Twenty-first street, Omaha.
KEEP TRYING AND GET
TOGETHER.
Some earnest women of the city
have undertaken the establishment of
an old folks’ home. To accomplish
this they formed themselves into an
association a few years ago and have
been regularly incorporated. Some
small payments have been made upon
a property which should be the nuc
leus of a large and useful institution,
and the home has been conducted with
the usual vicissitudes of all such laud
able undertakings. The association
has competent officers and a wise and
thoroughly reliable advisory board.
A call has been issued, to which at
tention is called elsewhere in this is
sue, for a meeting on Sunday after
noon for the purpose of letting the
public know just what this association
is trying to accomplish and why it
should have the hearty co-operation of
our race in this city.
We sincerely hope that our public
spirited men and women will attend
this meeting and take an active, sym
pathetic and substantial interest in
this institution which has been under
taken with the best of motives. We
believe that there ought to be some
common charitable institution owned,
controlled and supported by our peo
ple in this city, which will demon
strate race capability and race unity.
We spend immense sums in amuse
ment and in having “a good time.”
Why not give a portion of what we
spend on our own selfish needs to the
pirchase, maintenance and upbuilding
of some creditable charitable institu
tion?
If it is urged, as it may be, that at
present there are very few among us
who are in need of, or would accept
the care of, such a home, it can be
said that even if there be two or three
who instinctively shrink-—because we
are a proud people in many praise
worthy respects, and we thank God for
it—from going to the county hospital
to end their days, who would be hap
pier in a home of this kind, then it
is worth while to maintain it. More
over, it will demonstrate a willingness
upon our part to support our own,
which will have a good influence upon
our own lives and will have a most
salutary effect upon the community
in which we live.
Then, too, if the present need for
such an institution, or institutions, for
we believe that there are others that,
after awhile if not now, will be need
ed and should be begun, what of the
future? Ought we not make a be
ginning with an eye to the future,
when the need will be greater?
Others may urge the objection that
we are taxpayers and as such support
county and city institutions, where
our own sick and indigent are equally
entitled with all other citizens to re
ceive the benefits thereof. Granted.
So are other classes of citizens tax
payers and yet they contribute to
their private charitable and eleemo
synary institutions, as well, and are
spiritually enriched by so doing.
Why should we be excepted?
-o
SHOW PHENOMENAL GROWTH.
Commenting on the almost astound
ing figures showing the property hold
ings of Negroes in the United States,
as compiled and presented at the
recent National Negro Business
League’s convention in Boston, Mass.,
which figures were also published in
The Monitor a few weeks ano, the
New York Churchman says:
“These figures show a truly phe
nomenal growth in prosperity and in
useful activity, and perhaps it is safe
to say that on the whole there has
been an equal advancement in the
average of educational attainments.
More Negroes than ever are now fit
ting themselves to take the best pos
sible advantage of their opportunities,
and the achievements of some of them
in the arts and in the professions have
adequately proved the potential racial
capacity for the assimilation and ex
position of lofty ideals.”
An intelligent and sympathetic
study of social, religious, educational
and economic activities among col
ored Americans will be a revelation
to those who have been inclined to
consider this social group as non-pro
ductive, non-progressive and shift
less.
-—o
The police department of our city
is to be congratulated upon the ad
mirable manner in which they han
dled the immense throngs which
crowded our streets during the Ak
Sar-Ben festivities. Omaha crowds
are good-natured, of course, but it
takes tact and skill and patience and
level-headedness to handle even an
Omaha, or rather Nebraska, crowd
running up into tens of thousands
without a serious accident. Here’s
congratulations, then, gentlemen, to
the police department of our citv. I
-n
The Bee calls attention to the fact
that there were more trail hitters dur
ing the evangelistic stunt pulled off
in Paterson, N. J., than in Omaha.
Fie on thee, Brother Victor, dost thou
not know that Paterson had many
more in need of hitting the trail than
are to be found in this proud city of
thy nativity?
-o
Were we in it? Of course we were.
We were there as torch-bearers, a
prophetic omen; we were there as
musicians; we were there as spec
tators, and some day, mark this
prophecy, we'll be there among the
Knights on horseback.
-o
When the conductor shouts, quite
blunt,
“Here there, please move up front!"
Don’t be grouchy, don’t be gruff.
But, smiling sweetly, simply MUF.
Letters From Our
Readers
THE WIFE OF MOSES.
Oct. 1st, 1915.
Editor of The Monitor:
Do not history and the Scriptures
tell us that Jethro was the father-in
law of Moses?
And did not Moses marry Zipporah,
one of Jethro’s seven daughters?
They lived in Midian, a territory on
the eastern arm of the Red sea. The
Midianites were descended from Mid
ian, the fourth son of Abraham, by
his second wife, Keturah. We find
them acting in alliance with the Moab
ites: east and southeast of them lived
the Moabites. The whole tribes were
destroyed except the young women
(Num. xxxi.).
And another tribe of Midianites was
established about the head of the east
ern arm (Elanitie Guif) of the Red
sea, among whom Moses found ref
uge when he fled from Egypt. The
name Cushites was sometimes given
to them.
They occupied a territory usually
considered as belonging to Cush, or
Ethiopia, which indicated a descent
from Midian, the son of Cush. God
rebuked the sedition of Miriam and
Aaron, and Miriam was stricken with
leprosy, because they spoke against
Moses, their brother, for having mar
ried an Ethiopian woman. Zipporah,
the same daughter of Jethro, was the
Ethiopian woman.
Moses took leave of Jethro after 40
years’ service, and his wife, Zipporah,
and her two sons, and returned to
Egypt. After many afflictions and
plagues, imposed upon the people be
cause of Pharaoh’s refusal to Moses
to consent to the Hebrews’ departure,
Moses finally was permitted to take
the Hebrews out of Egypt. Moses
was also followed by a large “mixed
multitude.” Doubtless there were
many Ethiopians among them.
Raineses II. carried his conquering
arms far into Africa long before
Moses. Annual slave-hunting expedi
tions were made into Ethiopia. He is
called the Pharaoh of Israelitish op
pression, and carried the Egyptian
arms in triumph to the depths of
Asia. After the twentieth dynasty
Egypt began to decline, and the coun
try was subdued in turn by the Ethi
opians and Assyrians, until nearly a
century before Egyptian independ
ence was restored. The Ethiopians
were the black peoples, known today
as Africans, and “Negro" is a modern
name given to the Africans.
MRS. LEMUEL H. ADAMS,
2504 Taylor St., Omaha.
Ambassador Walter II. Page was
piloting some friends from America
through the museum at Hastings when
he observed an unhappy attendant
wearing a military uniform, with a
helmet adorned with a chin strap, at
whom an inquisitive tourist was fir
ing all manner of silly questions.
Finally, as the tourist turned and
was about to quit the building, he
asked: “Say, what is that chin strap
under your chin for?”
The attendant sighed. "The strap is
to rest my jaw when I get tired an
swering questions,” he replied.
A Negro mammy had a family of
boys so well behaved that one day
her mistress said:
"Sally, how did you raise your boys
so well?”
“Ab’ll tell yo, missus,” answered
Sally. “Ah raise’ dem boys with a
barrel stave, an’ Ah raise’ 'pm fre
quent.”
There’s One Coffee
Sold in Omaha
that never fails to satisfy. It pos
sesses full strength, and is there
fore economical. It has a most
delicious flavor, therefore pleasing
the most particular taste.
Ask your grocer today for
Bird Brand Coffee
It’s cost is 36c per ponn<1, or $1 00 per
three pound can. It will not disappoint
you.
German-American Coffee
Company
l„. . . . 4
1 I appreciate the
j patronage of the j
colored people (
1 TJaiior ffiec/c j
I 151254 Dcdge St.
i •
wmmaammmmmBmmmnmmma
SWEET TONED
Schmoller & Mueller
Pianos anti Player Pianos
Sold direct from factory
to home, eliminating-, the \
middleman's profit, which ’
means a saving of $75 to
*150.
Many different styles to j
select from.
Sold on terms of $5.00 per
month.
Free Stool and Scarf. |
Schmoller <& Mueller
Piano Co.
1311-13 Farnam Street
Li
Phone Douglas 4287 j
I
i
Fontenelle
Investment Co.
Real Estate and Insurance 1
22<) South 13thSt., Omaha, Neb. j
(Over Pope’s Drug Store)
jCumicro Studio
Modern Photography •
1515-17 Faniam St. Omaha \
Phone Doug. 3004
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