I The monitor
" ■ ■ ■ - .— ■ . ..
▲ Weekly Newspaper devoted to the civic, social and religious interests
of the Colored People of Nebraska and the West, with the desire to con
tribute something to the general good and upbuilding of the community and
of the race.
Published Every Saturday.
Entered as Second-Class Mail Matter July 2. 1916, at the Post Office at
Omaha. Neb., under the act of March 3, 1879.
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor and Publisher.
Lucille Skagas Edwards and William Garnett Haynes, Associate Editor*.
George Wells Parker, Contributing Editor and Business Manager.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, 81.90 PER YEAR
Advertising Rates. 50 cents an Inch per issue.
Address, The Monitor, 1119 North Twenty-first street, Omihi.
Telephone Webster 4243.
THE UNSOLVED NETHAWAY
MURDER MYSTERY
Omaha has had a number of mur
der mysteries during the last few
years. Notable among these may be
named the Maud Rummelhart, the
Schroeder-Rapp, and the Ada Swan
son cases. In none of these were the
guilty parties apprehended. Fortu
nately, however, in none of these cases
did suspicion light upon any Negro.
We say “fortunatetly” advisedly, be
cause while crime should be regarded
as crime, by whomsoever committed,
and punished accordingly, by some
strange psychological process the av
erage white American seems to arrive
at the conclusion that a crime com
mitted by a Colored man is more
heinous than the same crime com
mitted by a white man. And, more
over, there is also this striking phe
nomenon that while a white man’s
crime is attributed to him alone and
is regarded as the act of an individual,
the crime of a black man seems to be
regarded as a corporate act and a re
flection upon the race to which he
chances to belong.
The same phenomenon is to be
found throughout the world wherever
there is a dominant class or race and
a dominated class.
In the United States the Negro is
the dominated class and this vicarious
suffering for the wrong-doing of
those of his blood is part of the price
he has to pay in his social evolution—
and progress. Hard as it is to bear,
this contumely is not an unmixed evil,
since it makes for race-cohesiveness
and race-purgation. Race cohesive
ness unites- us and we need to be
united. All our strength is in our
union; all our weakness lies in dis
cord.
Race purgation eliminates the un
worthy and makes the self-respecting
cautious as to their character and
behavior.
This racial vicariousness accounts
for the fact that our interest _and
sympathy are instantly aroused when
one of our race, although he may be
a total stranger to us, is accused of
crime. Not that we have any sym
pathy with crime or criminals) black
or white. Black criminals,, for the
strange phenomenon above noted, do
infinitely more damage to us as mem
bers of society, than do white crim
inals, and for that reason we are anx
ious to see that they are apprehend
ed, given a fair and impartial trial,
and where found guilty adequately
punished. It is most unfortunate that
in so many communities popular sen
timent seems to hold that a Negro ac
cused of crime is guilty until he has
proven himself innocent, rather than
the reverse and as the law presumes,
that a man is innocent until he is
proven guilty.
And this brings us to Omaha’s lat
est murder mystery, that of Mrs.
Nethaway, which occurred near Flor
ence in broad daylight, Sunday after
noon, August 26, and for which a
Negro tramp,giving the name of
Charles Smith and a stranger in Oma
ha, is held for investigation. The cor
oner’s inquest, which occupied three
days, has failed to connect the ac
cused in any way with the crime,
aside from the fact admitted by him,
that he was in the same vicinity Sun
day afternoon.
If, however, one had been governed
by the reports in two of Omaha's
dailies for several days following the
crime, even the most fair-minded
would have been inclined to decide
that Smith was the guilty man. In
some communities mob-murder with
all its degrading aftermath would
have resulted. All of which shows the
danger of “lynch law” and the neces
sity for suspending judgment in every
case until the facts are in.
We hope that the murderer or mur
derers of both Mrs. Nethaway and
the aged Mrs. Anderson, who was
mysteriously murdered the Saturday
night preceding that of Mrs. Neth
away will be apprehended and pun
ished. We hope that it will be clearly
proven that no Negro had anything
to do with either case, because of the
adverse sentiment which adheres to
the many for the wrong doing of the
few.
The Monitor is strengthened in
the opinion expressed last week that
Smith is not the man who murdered
Mrs. Nethaway and wc hope that sub
sequent developments will prove this
opinion to be correct. If, however,, he
be guilty then he should pay the full
penalty for his crime.
SubacrlTie for The Monitor. $1.50 a
year and worth it
GROWING FAIR-MINDEDNESS
While all right-thinking people de
plore the recent outbreak at Houston,
Texas, The Monitor notes with pleas
ure, as a most encouraging sign, the
disposition on the part of the press,
in all sections of the country, to rec
ognize the fact and frankly state that
the trouble was by no means one
sided. There seems to be the dispo
sition to lay the blame for the out
break upon the brutality of the Hous
ton police. While not holding the men
of the Twenty-fourth blameless, their
splendid previous record for good be
havior, leads the leading papers of
the country to fearlessly state that
the soldiers were not responsible for
the conditions and incidents which re
sulted in the outbreak.
For example, the Commercial Ap
peal of Memphis—a most unexpected
quarter—in a strong editorial under
the heading, “Police Intelligence
Needed," charges that the riot is “the
result of booze, stupidity and the lack
of a policeman recognizing the dig
nity of his own work.” It goes on to
point out that because of their super
ior advantages “the peace of the
South depends upon the conduct and
intelligence of the white people" and
notes that “they should see to it that
occasions for rioting are more and
more eliminated.”
This would seem to indicate a grow
ing fair-mindedness which is much
needed and which will go a long way
towards correcting evils, righting
wrongs and adjusting misunderstand
ings wherever they may arise. At
the same time it shows the advantage
of having a good reputation, either as
an organization or as individuals.
PLAYTHINGS OF FATE
Man is the greatest joke in all the
universe and his efforts to dictate to
destiny make the gods hilarious.
“This is a white man’s country,”
-creeched the far West many years
ago, “and John Chinaman must go.”
He went because he was poor and
weak and defenseless, and the white
man blew out his chest, like a toy bal
loon. He was the IT of Eternity; the
FINALE of things mortal and im
I mortal. Fate laughed and stirred her
i brew with calm collected hand. She
! let this bumptious spawn of earth
dream on and made no haste to cure
his cold conceit. His country pros
pered and swept on to wealth and
mighty power. He was ready to
I build another Babel and wrest the
) sceptre from the hands of God and
j teach him how to rule “a white man’s
! world.” Trouble started in countries
1 far away and that which was a whirl
; pool for a few nations became a mael
; strom that has engulfed the world.
The labor markets of the earth have
been drained for fighters and still
the insatiate appetite of war crys,
“More! Yet More!” But laborers
are as important as fighters and
whence must come laborers to fill
the thinning ranks of industry? The
West looks across the calm Pacific
and says, “John Chinaman.”
Fate smiles her smile inscrutable
and stirs her brew. The gods laugh
and roll the loaded dice upon the table
| of time. Fraternal hate has made the
white man lose his reason; made him
to forget his conceit in the hope of
crushing nations of his own kith and
kin. A white man’s earth is to mean
either Teuton or Saxon; it cannot
mean both. It will probably mean
! neither. So Sam and Greaser and
John Chinaman must learn the art
of labor, the basic art that leads up
ward to the pinnacle that has proven
too dizzy for the fairer race.
CURSES RETURN TO
PLAGUE THE INVENTOR
Due allowance can be made for in
temperate speech by people laboring
under great mental strain and excite
ment. For this reason we would be
charitable with C. L. Nethaway who
reeated such a scene both at the
funeral of his wife and when he ac
companied the detectives and sheriff
to the spot where her body had been
found. His dramatic and well-staged
actions are perhaps excusable under
the circumstances, but when he sol
emnly invokes God to “curse the whole
Negro race,” it is well to remind him
that curses like chickens, return to
roost and that it has been known
where curses return to plague the in
ventor.
“We have more friends than foes
within the Anglo-Saxon race.”
If-—
Obvious Observations
This kind of weather has California
looking like pink lemonade at a Ger- 1
1 man picnic.
The food dictator has left bread
about where it was and says, accord
ing to the press, that the government
cannot regulate prices of meat. What
! is a food dictator good far, anyway ?
How many cans of canned goods
| have you canned since the canning
I season commenced ?
The government says it is going to
! scatter companies of Colored infantry
throughout all the cantonments,
i That is much better than having one
I jm-crow camp, don’t you think?
Get ready for Ak-Sar-Ben. Some
time this fall, believe me, Mabel.
School has started again and there
are about 100,000 mothers in Omaha
who feel as relieved as an English
town after a flock of air raiders have
gone by.
Let us hope that Omaha's new
school principal from Oklahoma does
not try to start something with Oma
ha's way of handling school affairs.
The Nethaway murder has created
lotF of interest, but people are not
watching Smith half as much as they
are watching a certain man whose
name starts with the fourteenth let
ter of the alphabet.
Sergeant Bailey has left the court
house and gone to the quartermaster’s
department. Wonder if Mike Clark j
is going to put another man in there ? |
The editor of this column has fall
fever and after thanking you for J
your favor, he will take a trip to St.
Joe.
SKITS OF SOLOMON
Canning and Preserving
Canning and preserving are the fall
sciences of getting away with a huge
slice of mazuma and having mighty
little to show for it. Whenever a
housewife declares she is going to
put up a “few” tomatoes, a little corn,
a glass or so of crab apple jelly, and
a few jars of grape jell, watch out.
There is something doing. There is
going to be an assault on your pocket
book that will make German’s attack
at Verdun look like a schoolboy’s
| sham battle. First, madame will
; “borrow” five beans to buy some jars,
[ because she must have jars. Next
.-he starts getting two bits and fifty
cents a crack for a basket of this or
that. This or that obtained, she must
have sugar and nothing less than a
hundred pound sack can fill the bill.
Then she starts cooking and shows
about as much mercy for the gas
! meter as a hungry man shows for a
slice of pineapple pie and a ham
j sandwich. When hubby comes home
and finds no nice dinner, wifey says
she has been busy canning and the
time got away. She pats him on the
j cheek and tells him all about the
: brandied peaches he’ll eat next win
ter and he swallows the mush. Fi
I nally the madame gets through and
1 she has fifty jars of garden fruit
that have costs her just fifty beans.
She could duplicate the whole bunch
at the corner grocery for a ten dollar
note, but that doesn’t phaze wifey.
She is going through the same stunt
next year. If hubby is wise, he’ll
stand the gaff again, because any
wife will give up a vacation in order
to can. When hubby figures both
he will find its fifty-fifty at least,
and if either has a shade of a lead, it
is fixing the peaches for hubby’s
tummy next December.
WILLING TO HELP
Mr. Wakefield's suggestion made in
last week’s Monitor has struck a res
ponsive chord. Several have called
us up expressing a willingness to sub
scribe towards a fund to insure
Charles Smittf, held as a murder sus
pect, a fair trial. The following is a
typical statement of the sentiment
expressed:
“I don’t know the man. If he is
guilty he ought to be punished. All
I am interested in is seeing that he
gets a fair trial and if my help is
needed call on me.”
The Monitor is gratified at the
spirit manifested. We do not, how
ever, believe that there is the slightest
doubt that if the case should come to
trial Smith will receive absolute jus
tice.
George A. Magney, the county at
torney, is a man who sees that every
man, black or white, who comes before
him accused of crime gets a square
deal. Our democratic county attor
ney ever since he has been in office
in his dealing with men has proven
himself to be a democrat in the best
sense of the word.
IMPROVING ONESELF
As the autumn approaches our peo
ple ought to be planning to improve
themselves along educational lines.
We have whist and amusement clubs
galore—all right in their place—but
we need to pay more attention to in
tellectual improvement.
Women, don’t forget to register
September 12.
#
Our Women
and Children
ConiucUi by
Lucille Skaggs Edwards
DRESS FOR BUSINESS
(Mothers and school girls—espec
ially those of high school—will find
much sound advice in the following
article.)
The vice president of a great in
surance company took occasion recent
ly to talk plainly to some of his hun
dreds of girls, who were accustomed
to overdress, or to dress inappro
priately, or to use office time for
“prinking.” Such a thing does not
happen without good reason, for the
ordinary American business man is
always respectful of the rights, in
dress and similar personal matters,
of his women employees. He does not
speak unless he has abundant pro
vocation.
There is abundant provocation in a
great many offices. Girls are often
obliged to go to work before they be
come old enough or have had an op
portunity to form sound taste in dress
or anything else. Many of them go
frequently to the theatre or the “mo
vies,” where they see women—on the
stage or the screen—in the most elab
orate and striking costumes that
means and ambition can design. The
whole stage setting is often a mere
background for the dress parade.
Elaborately decorated windows of the
great and fashionable department
stores are constant sources of temp
tation. It is almost inevitable that a
girl with the love of beauty and finery
in her heart—and where is the girl
who has it not?—should go astrap
in the matter of taste in dress if left
to herself.
The point is that she should not be
left to herself. If her mother neglects
to tell her that in business there is no
place for very short or diaphanous
skirts, or fancy-colored shoes with in
ordinately high heels, or conspicuous
stockings, or picture hats—if her
mother so neglects her duty, her
father should see to it that she is in
structed; and if he fails of the task,
let the girl consider herself forutnate
if she fall into the hands of in em
ployer as sensible and as courageous
as the vice president of that insur
ance company showed himself to be.
—Ex.
THE LITTLE HORSES
By Nancy Byrd Turner
I Last night a sweet dream came to me
When dark had sealed the eyes of
men.
1 thought I was a child again
In our old nursery,
i From the warm hearth the flickering
fire
Made amber lights on everything,
Sent dusky shadows up the wall
Like fairies frolicking;
And back and forward, to and fro,
In cradling arms rocked very slow,
l heard a soft voice chanting low
The song it used to sing:
"Go to sleep, you shall ride
The little horses gay,
The black and brown, the gray and '
roan,
The sorrel and the bay!”
It was a dream within a dream,
For, sudden from the twingling flame,
Charging, their tiny flanks agleam,
The little horses came,
Their slim hoofs shod with silver
shoes,
A light wind tossing tail and mane, j
A saddle on each satin back,
A rosette on each rein—
lied for the black, green for the gray,
Blue for the sorrel and the bay—
And stirrups swung in wondrous way.
I waked. The nursery Was gone,
The shadows and the amber light;
Against my window, chilly white, .
Glimmered the solemn dawn.
But I couid smile, remembering
How all the little horses fleet
Raced down the rosy air to me
On bright-shod, flying feet:
The whinnying black, the gallant bay,
The splendid sorrel and the gray,
Their gallop tuned, in magic way,
To the old song sung sweet:
"Go to sleep, you shall ride
The little horses gay,
The black and brown, the gray and
roan,
The sorrel and the bay!"
CRITICISM IN THIS
CASE UNMERITED
Omaha, Neb., Aug. 29, 1917.
To the Editor, The Morp'tor: In the
issue of August 18th, under the cap
tion, “Helping the Race," the District
Grand Lodge No. 8 of Missouri and
Jurisdiction of the G. U. O. of O. F.,
is sarcostically taken to task and
help up to public ridiculee, because
they did not see fit to use either of
the Colored dance halls in Omaha.
First, we wonder why that despite
the fact that within the last two years
there have been three Grand Lodge
sessions held in Omaha, two of which
used the city auditorium and paid
■V'
for it, that no mention is made of that
fact.
We wonder why no mention is made
of the fact that the G. U. O. of O. F.
engaged and used automobiles owned .
by Colored men; why no mention was
made of the fact that all our print
ing was given to a Colored industry’,
and that the bill for it was only seven
dollars ($7.00), less than the amount
paid for the hall in question.
We wonder why no mention was
made of the use of the Jacobs Hall by
our good people? It occurs to us |
that both the Mecca and the Alamo
are owned by our people, and the
other is owned by w’hite people.
We also engaged Colored musicians
which cost us $131.00. No mention
was made of the fact. We engaged
a Colored man to do hauling for us.
No mention was made of that fact.
Have we not been loyal to our race?
We engaged the Keep Dancing
Academy because of the drill, as the
floor space was far superior to the
other halls mentioned, and afforded
other advantages that neither of the
halls mentioned could afford. We
further state that the G. U. O. of O. F.
has never tried to show off before j
white, black or any other people. We
have performed our duty and if that
shows some one something new all so !
well and good.
Aside from all this, we are here
among white people. We seek em
ployment and help of them, we urge
them not to discriminate against us on
account of our color, yet some people
teem to think it good sound doctrine
for us to refuse to patronize white
people solely on the ground that they
are white, and that we shall not use
a hall simply because it does not be
long to Colored people, despite the
fact that such hall far excclls it in
every way for the occasion. This is
as false and dangerous doctrine as
any people, white or Colored, can
preach.
J. C. BELCHER,
! HOLSUM
AND
j KLEEN MAID
I Why Bay Inferior When
The Best
COSTS NO **r'RE?
JAY BURNS BAKING CO.
Phones: Office, Douglas 3841; Res
idence, Harney 2156
Reference—Any Judge of the Dis
trict Court of Douglas County.
E. F. Morearty
ATTORNEY AND COUNSELLOR
AT LAW
640 Bee Bldg. Omaha, Neb.
TRUNKS
THE BETTER KIND
Made from good clear lumber,
covered with fibre; well bound
on edges. Durable comers and
braces where necessary. Sturdy
locks and hinge*, 2 tray* nicely
cloth lined.
Priced at $10.00, $12.00, $18.50
and $15.00.
Freling & Steinle
“Omaha’s liest Baggage Build
ers”
1803 FARNAM STREET
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i n 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 ill m 111 m 11 m 11: i
| YOU SAVE AT |
I Kinney’s Big Shoe Store |
58 STORES—THATS WHY
E Indies’ Fancy Fall Shoes Have Arrived. All Colors and E
Styles. $5 to $8 Values, But Nothing Over $3.98
School Shoes
MOST COMPLETE LINE IN THE CITY
§ Misses Shoes—All Styles and Materials, 98c to $2.48
Boys’ Shoes, Black or Tan—All Styles, $1.29 to $2.48
Tennis Oxfords, 49c
= Free to All School Children—Big Yellow Pencils E
= Satisfaction Guaranteed.
IG. R. KINNEY CO., Inc. |
207-209 North 16th St.—Loyal Hotel Bldg.
“Be Sure You Are in Kinney’s Before Buying."
E Look for the Kinney Sign. Mail Orders Filled. E
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n A V' I i K= AT 9 NOT UNLESS YOU TAKE
IIU I Uli KZAI f YOUR MEALS AT
THE WASHINGTON CAFE
Mrs. L. Cuerington, Proprietress 1719 Cuming Street.
Our Growing
Popularity
Up-to-date methods, courteous atten
tion, clean, sanitary surroundings, five
; barbers who know thtir business. This
is what my shop offers you.
Omaha’s Most Successful Barber.
P. H. JENKINS
Omaha'** Moat Successful Telephone Red 3357 -
Barber. 1313 Dodge Street Omaha, Neb.
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