MONI/fOR
o
A Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of the Eight Tl 5 *and Colored People
in Omaha and Vicinity, and to the Good of the C ~ munity
The Rev. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Edr ®
$1.50 a Year. 5c a Copy. Omaha, Nebraska, July 29, 1916 Vol. II. No. 5 (Whole No. 57)
Krutown People
Water-Loving
Hut a Visitor’s Olefactory Nerves
.Must Not Be Too Sensitive When
He (Joes Sight-Seeing.
CHILDREN NUDE AND HEALTHY
(iuy B. Robbins Continues Some of
His Interesting Articles on Li
beria and Her People.
Reserving Monrovia for a later ar
ticle, this will deal with Krutown,
which is the largest native town ad
jacent to Monrovia. It is located at
the foot of a hill on a low sandy beach.
The Krus are a water-loving people
and generally build their towns at
the watr’s edge. Despite the natives’
love for water, the town is very
filthy, but if a vistor can deaden his
olefactory nerves he will find many
things of interest.
The streets are narrow and lined
with thatch huts and small stands
upon which are offered the wares of
the native merchants; chiefly food
stuffs, notions and wood. There is
only about one straight street in the
town, the others wind in and out
among the cluttered huts and houses.
Many are only narrow paths.
Children iNunc* and Healthy.
The people have pleasant, intelli
gent faces. Nude children play about
the streets and on the beach. They
are healthy-looking and fat. Their
abdomens are exceedingly large, due
to over eating. Some have a row or
two of beads around their bodies just
below their large stomachs. They
are very friendly and if you give one
a penny a crowd of youngsters, just
like American “kids,” only these are
undressed kids, surround you say
ing “Howdo” and looking for more
“coppers,” as they call pennies. In
America boys mean something entire
ly different by “coppers.”
How a Mother Feeds Child.
It is interesting to see a mother
feeding her child who is old enough
to take solid food. She lays the child
on its back in her lap. Then she takes
a mushy brown paste on her fingers
and forces it down the child’s throat.
All its crying and kicking will not in
terrupt the mother until she thinks
it has had enough. This she deter
mines by feeling the youngster’s large
round stomach. If the rotundity
seems sufficient the food-forcing pro
cess ceases.
Physically Superior to Americans.
It is marvelous that people can live
with no regard whatever for sanita
tion and cleanliness. Nevertheless,
the Krus seem to thrive on the dirt.
Doctors say that their health is pre
served by the large quantities of pep
per they eat with their food. As
compared with the people of this
country they seem physically super
ior. This may be accounted for by
the high death rate among the in
fants. At that stage of development
it is “the survival of the fittest.”
Thus only the strong mature.
Eighth Illinois Has
Trouble With Texans
Resent Taunts and Insults F'roin
Soldier and Civilians.
San Aantonio, Tex., July 29.—Four
soldiers, members of the Eighth 111i- |
nois national guard, were shot Sun
day by a squad of the guard that had
come to the rescue of a white man
the soldiers were attacking near the
militia camp.
None were seriously injured, all the
bullets striking in the legs.
The trouble began when Herbert
Henne, a lawyer of New Braunfels,
Tex., went to the military camp. He
passed in an auto a group of Negro
soldiers on the the street that extends
from the army post to the camp. An
instant after, one of them threw a
rcsk after him. It struck the rear of
his car. Henne alighted from his
car and was chased by the soldiers.
Members involved in trouble told
officers investigating the incident
that they had been goaded into a dis
play of their resentment by a series
of derogatory remarks made to them
by the white soldiers and civilians as
they passed along the street.
A thorough investigation by head
quarters of the Second Illinois brigade
is being made. None of the
injured men in the hospital are in a
critical condition. Quiet prevailed at
the camp of the Eighth.
COLORED CONVICT WHO SAVES
GOVERNOR’S LIFE FREED
Little Rock, Ark., July 29.—When
Gov. George W. Hayes gave Hezekiah
Porter, a Helena Negro, a pardon
from his twenty-one years sentence
for manslaughter imposed in 1909, he
revealed a story of his own escape
from drowning at the state penal
farms at Cummins, six weeks ago.
The governor was fishing when the
boat in which he was sitting cap
sized. Porter rescued him from the
deep water.
SON OF RUSSEL TAYLOR
SHOT WHILE HUNTING
(Special to The Monitor.)
Empire, Wyo., July 29.—Russel, the
fourteen-year-old son of the Rev. and
Mrs. Russel Taylor, the Presbyterian
minister here, was accidentally shot
in the arm while hunting Monday,
July 24. Russel was taking his shot
gun out of the buggy when somehow
it was discharged, the full charge
lodging in his arm. With singular
presence of mind, his sister, Theodo
tia, two years older, bound up the
wound to stop loss of blood until med
ical aid could be secured.
MOVES TO NEW QUARTERS
Savannah, Ga., July 29.—The Me
chanics Saving bank has moved into
its new quarters at 721 Broad street. |
Hundreds of new accounts were added
on the opening day. Mr. Fleming [
Tucker is cashier.
I
Danish We& Indies Pur
chased By United States
Valuable Strategic Acquisition. Pop
ulation Largely Negroes.
Washington, D. C., July 29.—Offi
cial announcement was made at the
White house Wednesday that nego
tiations have been completed for the
purchase of the Danish West Indies
by the United States from Denmark
for $25,000,000.
The three islnads of the Danish
W'est Indies, St. Croix, St. Thomas
and St. John lie due east of Porto
Rico and their value to the United
States is strategic from a military
point of view. The harbors of St.
Thomas and St. Croix are of first im
portance to the American navy, and
St. Thomas itself lies in the lane of
shipping from Europe to the Panama
canal. Important German and French
and English mail companies have
coaling stations there.
The total area of the islands is
1238 square miles with a population
of about 36,000, the bulk of whom are
Negroes. Spanish is the chief dia
lect spoken, English being used only
in the ports.
Negro uprisings have been a con
stant source of alarm to Denmark.
As early as 1733 a revolt began on St.
John's island. Three hundred Ne
groes, surrounded by French and
Danes, shot one another rather than
surrender. The constant revolts and
growing fear of the Negroes led to the
stoppage of the slave trade in 1792
and to a general emancipation in 1848.
The acquisition of the islands by
the United States has been the sub
ject of unsuccessful diplomatic nego
tiations since the civil war.
BLIND BOONE’S MANAGER
DIES SUDDENLY
Kansas City, Mo., July 2!).—John
Lange, known as the wealthiest Ne
gro in Kansas City, and thirty-seven
years manager of the Blind Boone
Concert Company, died here Saturday,
July 22, following a motor accident.
Lange was driving with two friends
in his car. At Sixteenth Street and
Tracy Avenue another motor car
bumped into his, bending the fender
of his car. As the other machine
speeded away, Lange gave chase.
Catching up, he demanded settlement
for the damage. He suddenly col
lapsed and died in a nearby drug
store.
Dr. L. J. Pierce of the emergency
hospital, who responded to the call for
the city lungmotor, was of the opinion
that fright at the moment of collision
may have caused a cerebral hemor
rhage that produced death later. Mr.
Lange was 76 years old.
DROWNED IN BLACK RIVER
Special to The Monitor.
Poplar Bluffs, Mo., July 29.—Clus
ter Shanklin, of this city, was
drowned Wednesday while swimming
in the Black River. The body was
found later by Mrs. J. H. Gatlin.
Unreal Among the
Colored Americans
Enmity of Democratic Administration
Changed Northern Sentiment and
Increasing Discrimination.
PROMINENT MAGAZINE WRITER
Critically Analyzes Chief Causes of
Racial Disquietude Over Present
Conditions.
Ray Stannard Baker, writing in the
World’s Work, notes six causes of un
rest today among Colored people,
namely: (1) The enmity of the Dem
ocratic administration at Washing
ton. (2) The changed sentiment of
the North. (3) Increasing discrimina
tion. (4) Poor educational facilities.
(5) Lynching and injustice. (6) Ra
•ial slander. He continues:
Duties Rather Than Rights.
“Ten years ago the optimistic, con
structive, educational program of
Booker T. Washington, the emphasis
of which was upon duties rather than
upon rights, was the dominant move
ment in the race and had, likewise,
he support of the wisest white men,
both South and North. It is still,
probably, the best influence among
the masses of the Colored people and
still has the support of leading white
people. But in one sense it has been
too successful. When it started it
was thought by many Southern people
that its purpose was to produce a kind
of super-servant; but it has, instead,
turned out independent, upstanding,
ntelligent men and women who have
acquired property, and have come thus
into sharper competition with the
whites.
Rights Rather Than Duties.
“The influence within the race—I
am speaking here of Negro public
opinion—which is now growing most
rapidly is no longer what may be
called the Tuskegee movement, valu
able as that continues to be, but it is
the movement toward agitative or
ganization—the emphasis upon rights
rather than upon duties. Ten years
ago, this movement was inchoate and
confined largely to a few leaders like
Dr. Du Bois; today the chief organ
ization, the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People,
'as a wide membership throughout
the country, with many branches, and
includes a large proportion of the
leading men of the race. It is also
supported by a few Northern white
men and women. This Association
maintains a strong publication called
The Crisis, which has the largest cir
culation of any journal devoted to the
'nterests of the Colored people—and
has employed men to appear before
Congressional and State legislative
committees in racial matters.
Leaders and Race Press Outspoken.
“The utterances of these leaders,
ike the editorials of th Negro press
—and few white people realize that
there are more than four hundred and
(Continued on eighth page)