The Monitor
A Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of the Eight Thousand Colored People
in Omaha and Vicinity, and to the Good of the Community
The Rev. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
$1.50 a Year. 5c a Copy. Omaha. Nebraska, March 25, 1916 Volume I. Number 39
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Twenty-Fifth Infantry
Wins Athletic Honors
Champions of Six Regiments Com
pete in Exciting Finals of Tour
nament in Honolulu.
THE COLORED REGIMENT WINS.
Scores Nearly Half of All the Points
Made by Combined Competitors
Two Omaha Boys in Contest.
HOW THEY ENDED
Twenty-fifth Inf.70 points
First Infantry.40 points
Second Infantry.29 points
Coast Defense.14 points
Honolulu, H. T., March 24—The
Twenty-fifth Infantry February 26,
made good its promises to carry off
the major honors of the big military
athletic meet, finishing in the finals
against three other regiments with
seventy points to its credit out of a
total of one hundred and fifty-four.
In addition, Gilbert, of the Twenty
fifth, smashed the Island record for
P- the 100-yard dash to smithereens and
set a local mark equal to the best
ever made in the world.
The finals attracted a great throng
of spectators to Alexander Field. In
terest in the meet had steadily in
creased with each day’s preliminaries
and all who had been out to see any
of the preliminary events were out
early for the finals, besides several
hundred who were out for the first
time.
Time and time again the spectators
swarmed on to the field, but promptly
left at the request of the officer in
charge. There was really nothing for
the guard company to do in keeping
back the crowd and only good natured
taunts were hurled back and forth by
the men of one regiment to those of
another, as some favorite measured
up to their expectation.
Crowd Out Eearly.
At nine o’clock sharp the first event
took place. There were tardy ones
who lamented their misfortune, and
well they might, for Gilbert of the
Twenty-fifth Infantry held the bleach
ers spellbound as he raced down the
cinder track in record time. He ran
W
in magnificent form and smashed his
newly established record of nine and
four-fifths seconds by setting a new
one of nine and three-fifth seconds.
No Mistake Possible.
Five stop watches caught the world
record time of nine and three-fifth
seconds.
The Twenty-fifth Infantry went
mad with joy and pounded their ap
preciation on the back of Gilbert whp
is a perfect type of the sprinter. He
is tall, wiry, and hasn’t an extra ounce
of flesh on his body. His every move
ment indicates speed.
Parker of the Twenty-fifth Infantry
ran second and Bray of the First In
fantry was a close third.
(Continued on seventh page.)
FOSTER’S DECISION INSULTS
INTELLIGENCE OF CITIZENS
Language of City Ordinance, Dictionary and Fadts
Discredit Him.
Do You Agree With This Learned Judge?
We Simply Appeal to Honest People With Ordinary
Common Sense.
ORDINANCE NO. 9094.
An Ordinance Prohibiting Public Exhibitions in the City ot Omaha, and
Providing a Penalty for the Violation Thereof.
Be It Ordained by the City Council of the City of Omaha:
Section 1.—It shall ba unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to
publicly show or exhibit in any place in the city of Omaha, any picture or
series of pictures by any device-known as mutescopes, kinetoscope, cinemato
graph, kinemacolor, penny arcade moving picture, or any vaudeville act,
drama, play, theatrical song or stage or platform performance or any adver
tisement or bill board display which tends to incite race riot or race hatred,
or which shall represent or purport to represent any hanging, lynching, burn
ing or placing in a place of ignominy, any human being, the same being incited
by race hatred.
Section 2.—Any person, persons, firm or corporation violating any of the
provisions of this ordinance- shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on
conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not less than one dollar nor more
than one hundred dollars.
Section 3.—This ordinance shall take effect and be in force from and after
fifteen days from its passage.
Passed: Decemher 21. 1915.
JAMES C. DAHLMAN,
Mayor and President of City Council.
Attest:
T. J. O’CONNOR,
City Clerk.
I hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the orig
inal document now on file in the City Clerk’s office.
T. J. O’CONNOR, City Clerk.
LYNCHING, AS DEFINED BY WEBSTER.
“Lynch, v. L; lynched; lynching: To inflict punishment upon, especially
death, without the forms of law, as when a mob captures and hangs a sus
pected person.
“Lynch-Law. Formerly Lynch’s law. (Said to be derived from a Virgin
ian by the name of Lynch who took the law into his own hands. But the
origin of the term is very doubtful) Act or practice by private persons of
inflicting punishment for crimes or offenses without due process of law.”—
Webster’s New International Dictionary.
“Gus” is shown in the photoplay in the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, who
strike him down, throw his body on a horse and, galloping to the home of
the Mulatto Lieutenant-Governor, hurl what purports to be the corpse of the
offender, with a warning placard pinned theyeon, on the door-steps of the
house.
If this is not a lynching, or does not “PURPORT” to be a lynching,
WHAT IS IT?
Police Judge Charles E. Foster decided that there was nothing shown in
“The Birth of a Nation” which violates the ordinance.
Such a decision dazzles one’s eye with the brilliance of its asininity.
1 r v
Use the Monitor to Reach the
Colored People of Nebraska.
It’s their Only Newspaper.
From Fair Nebraska
to Sunny Tennessee
Incidents of the Trip and Impressions
Received by Editor on First Visit
to the Southland.
MEMPHIS, AN OLD MODERN CITY
Provisions Made For Separation of
the Races Impress an Outsider
as Strangely Inconsistent.
Did you ever notice that typograph
ical errors sometimes make you say
what you did not say and had no in
tention of saying?
Well, that is what happened last
week.
I said “A Mission does not appeal
primarily to the emotions, but to the
intellect and will. All sensationalism
is rigidly excluded.” But the printer
made me say “all sentimentalism is
rigidly excluded.” Quite a difference,
isn’t there?
The printer says the trouble was
not with him, but with the proof
reader, and I guess he’s right. It’s
natural to dodge responsibility or to
lay it on the other fellow, isn’t it?
And speaking about “sentimentalism”
the individual or people who is void
of sentiment, the right kind of senti
ment, is to be pitied. Sentiment de
pends upon environment. As one no
tices the conditions nuder which some
people exist he wonders what in the
world there can possibly be to awaken
any wholesome sentiment in them at
all.
Swampy Arkansas.
This was the thought which came
into my mind as the train sped on
towards Memphis, and it became light
enough for me to see out of the
sleeper window. Yes, I had a sleeper
right into Memphis, and out again—
although in getting out there was a
little embarrassment, which really
turned out to my advantage and of
which I shall tell you later.
For miles and miles we ran through
the dreariest swamp land. That was
in Arkansas. Here and there were
houses propped on “stilts,” with water
all around. How the people exist in
Such places, passeth all understand
ing! _
“And yet they seem to be fat and
thriving,” said the porter, who knows
the country well.
“I should think they’d die of ma
laria and chills and fever would hold
high carnival among them,” I said.
“You would think so,” he replied,
but they stand it all right. It’s all
in getting used to things.”
Guess he’s right, but sometimes its
difficult to get used to some things.
Through this section I saw nothing
but uninviting cabins and paint-im
ploring shacks—many of them aban
doned—only temporarily, however, be
cause of high water. Now and then
I saw a shiftless-looking resident or
inhabitant of that section. Now, one
who called himself or supposed him
(Continued on third page)