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 and William Garnett Haynes, Associate Editors.
George Wells Parker, Contributing Editor and Business Manager.
Joseph LaCour, Jr., Lincoln Representative, 821 S. St., Lincoln.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, *1.50 PER YEAR
Advertising Rates, 50 cents an inch per issue.
Address, The Monitor, 1119 North Twenty-first street, Omaha.
Telephone Webster 4243.
CHRISTMAS AND ITS MEANING
The world today keeps Christmas
tide and happy should the season be.
And happiness there is. And yes,
there is sorrow and pain and suffer
ing. too; but even these are modi
fied by the spirit and atmosphere of
Christmas. While all feel the spell
which softens and humanizes human
ity, is there not grave danger of our
forgetting whence comes this gracious
influence, the magic power of this
welcome season?
Let us then, for the present become
theologians. This is a big word, isn’t
it? Yes, much bigger than any of us
can fully understand and yet so small
and simple that we can in a real
sense grasp enough of its meaning
to help us. And all who think, as think
\vc must, of God and the world and
man, and their necessary relations,
are thelogians. Theologians are think
ers about God and man, and the re
lations that exist between God and
mankind; and in this sense, we are
all theologians. Not profound, learn
ed or scientific theologians—because
it requires special talents and diligent
study to become such—but theologi
ans, nevertheless.
Christmas forces us to be theolo
gians. It makes us think of God and
of His love for the world; and the
manifestation of that love for the
world in a language that all mankind
can understand and which appeals
to the human heart and that is in the
language of “The Word Made Flesh,”
a tiny, helpless, infant life, The Holy
Babe of Bethlehem.
And this fact, the wondrous Fact of
the Incarnation, is God’s answer to
the world which through the ages all
along had felt its need of and longed
to know a God who knows and under
stands and Who could enter into hu
man life. The mystery of the Incar
nation and of the Holy Nativity, of
which Christmas is the standing me
morial and witness, is God’s answer
to humanity’s longing. It means the
entrance of a new power into human
life enabling it to rise to undreamed
moral and spiritual heights.
Since man could not reach up to
God, therefore God came down to
man to lift him up unto Himself.
Christmas is therefore first and
foremost a religious festival. Let us
observe it as such. It witnesses to
the fact of God bending low to be
near to man, that man might be ex
alted in his nature and in his deeds
to be near to God.
This is the meaning of God’s great
Gift to the world, under whose magic
power the world must grow softer
and nobler and sweeter every Christ
mastide.
“We hear the Christmas angels,
The great glad tidings tell;
Oh, come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord, Emmanuel.”
CHIEF SAM’S EXPEDITION
On the front page of this issue is
he story of the return of the Liberia,
the vessel in which the followers of
Chief Sam embarked three years ago
to find domicile and perhaps found
an empire in the land of our fore
fathers, Africa.
The unsuccessful issue of the ex
pedition has its pathetic side. The
avidity with which members of our
race throughout the Southland em
braced what appeared to them a gold
en opportunity to escape from galling
conditions in the United States and
establish a home amid more congenial
surroundings is singularly suggestive
of the disquietude which disturbs
thousands of our race.
Grant that Chief Sam’s followers
were ignorant, that does not do away
w ith the significant fact that they
were discontented and sought to bet
ter their condition. Grant, too, if
you please, that Chief Sam was a re
ligious fanatic, and that his well
meant plan was poorly laid and ill
digested, the fact remains that his
expedition was only possible because
it satisfied a similar desire to those
which have lead to the planting of
colonies throughout the world since
history began.
Students of history know that other
expeditions which seemed just as im
practicable, foolish and unsuccessful
as this, have blazed the way for ad
vancing civilization. Profiting by the
mistakes of their predecessors, other
bold and adventurous spirits have ven
tured forth and become empire build
ers.
Who dare say that Chief Sam’s ex
pedition may not have a most import
ant bearing in the future colonization
of Africa.
That which appears as failure is not
always failure.
GREETINGS
“Toyland, Joyland,
Little girl and boyland,
Once you have crossed o’er the bor
ders
You never return again.”
This was the chorus of a marvel
ously Bweet song sung in the beau
tiful play of Toyland, which traveled
this country some years ago. It was
the kind of a song that hurt. It
twisted its tender yearnings into the
hidden comers of memory, worming
out old faded hopes and stirring the
ashes of smouldering loves. It tug
ged at the tendrils of the heart and
brought a feeling akin to pain. It
was a beautiful song, Oh, so beauti
ful—but it wasn’t true. We can re
turn again and again, for the bor
ders that mark the boundaries are
but imaginative mists.
Today, Christmas Day, we ford the
river of Time and sweep over the
hills of Youth, and with dancing eyes
behold once more sweet Toyland, the
lovely home of childhood’s happy
days. It hasn’t changed a bit. The
little toy engine rushes headlong,
scattering the tiny tin soldiers and
wrecking the Noah’s Ark, as it did
in the days of yore. The bright faced
doll looks at you with the same glad
surprise and the little red range still
hints at feasts that shame the dreams
of Lucullus. The Christmas tree
stands dazzling in the corner and
childish laughter rings louder and
sweeter than the Yuletide bells across
the glistening snow. The years melt
away and we are all children again,
Human flesh may age, but the mind
can remain eternally young. And
so our Christmas wish for all our
readers is that the magic of this
happy season may sweep all worry
frome the brain, distill new sweet
ness in the heart and wreath a lin
gering smile upon the face. You may
have crossed the borders, but you can
return again. Above the portals of
lustrous pearl Love has painted the
single word, PERPETUAL.
ADVERTISING FOR
NEGRO TRADE
The current number of The Lay
man Printer contains an article,
“Reaching the Colored Man’s Purse,”
by Albion L. Holsey. In this article
Mr. Holsey discusses the importance
of advertising in Negro newspapers
in order to reach colored trade. He
speaks especially to large white man
ufacturing concerns. He quotes the
following from the “Woman’s World
Department in the Atlanta Consti
tution:
“The Negro woman cook is one of
the South’s best asse/ts. What is
the South doing to conserve her tal
ents and to perpetuate her?"
“The French chef, the German
baker, and the skillful Jap have had
their chance in the southern home,
but it is the meal prepared by the
Negro woman cook which piques the
appetite, tempts the taste and brings
from the world’s epicure the state
ment: ‘This is the best I ever
tasted.’ ”
He then points out what a splen
did opportunity is offered the manu
facturers of food products, washing
machines, and powders, laundry soaps
and kitchen devices to introduce their
products in the South and widen their
sales by reaching the colored cook
directly through the Negro news
papers.
Mr. Holsey’s article contains valu
able suggestions not only for manu
facturers of products that seek the
kitchen, but for those that fill all the
other wants of life.—The New York
Age.
Apropos of the above we beg leave
to note that The Monitor in Septem
ber published an editorial on “The
Value of Colored Advertising,” which
has been widely quoted by our ex
changes, some giving us credit and
others overlooking this courtesy de
manded by good newspaper ethics, in
I which it was shown what a rich field
colored patronage offers. The way to
reach this trade is by advertisng in
our distinctive newspapers.
We are pleased to see that this fact
is being prominently brought before
advertisers. The wide awake adver
tisers will be quick to take advantage
of this rich field.
Advertisers in Colored newspapers
get results. It is not a charitable, but
a well paying business proposition
"or enterprising merchants to adver
tize in Colored newspapers.
FOR A GREATER OMAHA
A little better than a month ago
the West decide the election of the
president. The great pivotal states
whose early returns apparently gave
Hughes the election, became a secon
dary consideration when the great
West was heard from. Power may
not yet have switched from East to
West, but the latter has proved up
and will become a competing factor in
national politics.
Less than a month ago China ap
plied for a loan cf 50,000,000 dollars.
She went first to Wall Street, but
while the matter was being consider
ed, the bankers of Chicago accepted
her loan without asking any part of
the country to help. Of course that
sum is not a very large one for a city
like Chicago, but it proves that the
Windy City is a new competitor in
the world of finance.
These two facts are mentioned to
bring to your attention the fact that
the West is winning her spurs and is
looming big. An English author said
recently that in twenty years W all
Street would be a little counting
house in a little village. Perhaps New
York will never drop to such a status,
but it is certain that the West will
eventually surpass her. Omaha will
profit by this advancement and grow,
for there is nothing that can stop
her. Let us grow with her and claim
a share of her material as well as her
aesthetic victories.
SONG OF SOLOMON
The Voice of Peace.
1. Hearken, 0 my Son, to the note
of peace that Der Kaiser bloweth
from his bass bassoon.
2. He hath walloped the Allies to
the black and blue and now slippeth
them a plateful of peace for a Merry
Christmas. He playeth Sandy Claus
for a horde of empty hoisery.
3. At first the Allies bellowed,
“Nevair!” but now they tap their
craniums and would think it over.
4. Much did Albion promise them
f they would draw the rusty blade
and swipe Der Faderland across the
bean, but Der Faderland was not
swiped.
5. Instead Der Faderland hath
taken their mazuma, their cities, their
furniture, and even themselves. Many
millions are now hoeing potatoes in
der eardgartens of Germany.
6. Every little burg kingdom that
jumped into the Allies band wagon
hath been messed up and chased out
of house and home. In the palaces
where the king held solemn court the
German soldiers now dance the rowdy
wriggle with the village girls.
7. Therefore, 0 my Son, it be
hooveth the Allies to listen to the
dulcet note of the coocoo bird, lest
when it coocooeth again their ears
will be stopped with the dust to dust.
8. They must now listen to what
Der Faderland will put in their socks
and not what Albion promised them
when she got though knocking the
daylights out of Der Kaiser.
9. It hath been a hard fight, O
my Son, but the bully of the sea must
lap the hand of the nation in the
sun.
10. The moral of this tale, O my
Son, is that thou must not try to run
the world unless the world desireth
thee to run it. Thou mayest have a
competitor.
WHAT’S IN A NAME.
“Who goes there?” the sentry
challenged.
“Lord Roberts,” answered the tipsy
recruit.
Again the sentry put the question
and received a like answer, where
upon he knocked the offender down.
When the latter came to, the sergeant
was bending over him. “Sea here!”,
mid the sergeant, “why didn’t you
answer right when the sentry chal
'enged you?”
“Holy St. Patrick!” replied the re
cruit; “if he’d do that to Lord Roberts,
what would he do to plain Mike Flan
agan ?”—Boston Transcript.