r~=n The monitor psn
--.-■■■.-*«,
A National Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of Colored Americans \
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
$1,50 a Year. 5c a Copy_OMAHA, NEBRASKA, SEPTEMBER 29, 1917 _Vol. Ill, No, 13 (Whole No, 117)
People of Cincinnati
Defeat Segregation
An Effort to Force Them to Send
Children to Separate School
is Defeated.
DABNEY STATES CASE PLAINLY
* Colored People Object to the Idea In
volved in Segregation and
Jim Crowism.
Cincinnati, 0.—The Colored people
of Cincinnati have finally defeated an
effort made for over a year to compel
ail the children of the race to attend
the Stowe School, known as a Colored
school. This attempt at segregation
has been resisted by the parents foi
many months, but every obstacle had
been placed in the way of their secur
ing transfer or admission for the chil
dren to the other schools. When the
matter was put up squarely to the su
perintendent, no legal authorit} could
be found for forcing the children to
attend the Colored school and trans
fers were finally secured to the schools
of their choice.
The situation was summed up by W.
P. Dabney, in the Union, as follows:
“We wish it distinctly understood
that intelligent Colored people do not
object to Colored teachers, but they
do object to Colored schools, they ob
ject to the idea involved of segrega
tion, Jim Crowism, and prejudice in
public institutions supported by tax
ation, directly or indirectly, of citizens
of the community. They love Colored
teachers and they respect Colored
teachers, but feel that they should
be distributed among all of the schools,
just as the children should be free to
go to any school. There is a tendency
now to segregate Negroes in every
thing of a public nature, and we re
gret to say that some pi our Colored
leaders, spurred on by ambition and
desire for money, fight for their own
selfish desires rather than labor for
the general good. We have no Ger
man, Irish, Jewish, Italian or French
schools. Only the Colored people are
ranked as unworthy of association,
regardless of their ability, morals or
wealth. What a rotten system of
Christianity. If Negro children are
not up to standard, their competition
with white children will bring them
up to the standard. We want mixed
schools, which means teachers as well
as pupils."
CHICAGOANS PROTEST AGAINST
SEPARATE CANTONMENTS
Chicago, III.—Protesting against the
announced policy of keeping Colored
and white soldiers separately in can
tonments and insisting “that regi
ments be formed and training pro
vided without making any distinction
based on race, a letter of protest has
been sent to President Wilson, signet!
by the executive committee of the
committee on national citizenship de
fense.
IIAS SEEN FORTY YEARS
OF SERVICE
Philadelphia, Pa.—Charles T. Dor
sty, 70 years old, has just celebrated
the fortieth anniversary of his en
trance into service at the Union
League Club. He is one of the old
est employes in point of service, and
stands high in the esteem of employ
ers and fellow employees.
KNEW HIS BUSINESS
An English militant crusader stroll
ed into a barn when a young man
was milking a cow. “How is it that:
you are not at the front, young man?’’
“Because, ma’am,” answered the milk
er, “there ain’t no milk at that end.”
—Christian Register. J
PEDESTRIAN LEMME WRITES
FROM DES MOINES
Letter Received Too Late For Last
Week’s Issue.
Des Moines, la., Sept. 1C, 1917.
Editor The Monitor:
After many ups and downs I ar
rived in this city late last evening and
was a very tired man, but thanks to
my knowledge of hydrotherapy, I am
around today just feeling fine.
In my effort to reach here I traveled
just fifty-Beven miles out of my way.
I covered the following towns, and left
one or more Monitors in each of them:
Logan, Harlan, Jacksonville, Ports
mouth, Kimballton, Hamlin, Exira,
Long Branch, Guthrie Center, Panora,
Dallas Center, Grim and Camp Dodge,
Des Moines.
I just give you the above so you
might refer to the map and figure out
for yourself.
Camp Dodge is a wonderful place.
To emerge out of a wood on the top
of a hill and feast your eyes on it is
a pleasing experience. They told me
ihat it has an area of thirty-two
square miles and they also have beau
tiful golf links for the officers. Each
quarter is arranged to house 200 men.
The camp sits right down in a valley
and a beautiful stream of water runs
through it. On the side of the hill
going toward Des Moines is dotted
with tents picturesquely situated. The
commander there expects to have be
tween 40,000 and 50,000 men before
spring.
1 arrived in Des Moines and stopped
at the Thompson Hotel and was hous
ed very comfortably.
I changed clothing after having
hydro treatment and went out, enjoy
ed a good dinner at one of the nice
cafes of the city and then proceeded
to meet the soldier boys of our race
at Fort Des Moines, which was very
stimulating. 1 went out to the Fort
on Sunday and visited the Y. M. C. A
quarters there which Mr. De Frantz,
of Kansas City, presides over, and he
permitted me to sell The Monitor
there. I did so very, very successfully.
I am only sorry that I did not have
500 Monitors; I could have sold them
as easily as 100.
1 attended church Sunday night at
the M E. Church. Rev. 1’irt is the
pastor, a very able man.
I am going to have on the rest of
my journey post card pictures of my
self, made by a race man, Mr. Santee,
the official phologarpher at the Fort.
Enclosed you will find one of them.
I huy them in thousand lots. Mr. San
tee has a large gallery in Kansas
City, Mo., also here. He is a very
progressive man.
Tomorrow I expect to arrange with
one of the busiest drug stores it has
been my pleasure to see, conducted by
either white or black, in years, to take
an agency for The Monitor. The pro
prietor expressed a desire to do the
same. It is the McCrea Drug Co., on
10th and Center streets.
1 had a very agreeable surprise at
Fort Des Moines Sunday. 1 found I
had a son there in training, Albert J.
Lemme. Just imagine my surprise
when I found it out. 1 was one of the
happiest fathers in the world, because
it was my boy. He left Sunday night.
I also had the pleasure of shaking
hands with the first gift the Negro
race has given to Uncle Sani and the
French government—the hospital
corps which left Sunday night for
France. They are as fine and well
trained a set of men as you would
ever want to see. 1 wished them God
speed and good luck.
1 sold the Daily News on the streets
here today and made quite a hit with
the Des Moines Press Association.
I am sorry, but I have to wait here
until Tuesday morning on account of
my stuff to work with; so greet me
with papers at Grinnell, Iowa, for Sat
urday afternoon. I am trying hard
to get subscribers, which I hope to do
before I leave here.
Wednesday, Sept. 19, ’17.
Well, Dear Editor: 1 have been out
: !l day plodding and find that I am too
close to home to do much for The I
Monitor, except to establish an agency, j
The people here all take the By
stander and say of course that they
would buy The Monitor if it were on
sale here somewhere, but they seem
to have been done by some man who
took their order and some money for
an out-of-town paper, and who didn’t j
deliver the paper, and so that being j
the case, they don’t like to trust any i
one else. And, believe me, he did his
work well.
1 was out to the Fort again yes
terday and saw the boys pass in re
view before a major general; and, say,
it was grand. They did it like vets.
1 also saw Lieut. Peebles and he
looks just fine in his uniform—“a sol
dier to the manor born.” I also had
the pleasure of meeting three young
men who, out of thirty-five thousand
at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana,
were the only three Colored there.
They were in the medical department
of that camp. They graduated there
and are now telling the boys how to
do it here. They are from the 15th
N. Y. regiment. Their names are
Sergeant F. L. Slade, Sergeant E. O.
Jones and Sergeant J. H. Walker.
Well, this is all for this time. I
will remit tomorrow before I leave. I
hope to be in Newton tomorrow night
and Grinnell Saturday. I hope to pro
ceed right along after leaving here,
but I had to wait for cards to work
with.
Sincerely yours,
R. J. LEMME, Enroute,
Walking to New York.
Give Us a Colored Commander for
Colored Troops
PRESIDENT WILSON, COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE
ARMY, TWELVE MILLION COLORED AMERICANS RE
SPECTFULLY PETITION YOU, SIR, TO GIVE OUR RACE A
GENERAL IN THE PERSON OF CHARLES YOUNG, DAVIS,
GREEN OR ANY OTHER COMPETENT MAN NOW SERVING
IN THE ARMY, AND TO GIVE HIM COMMAND OF COLORED
TROOPS; AND WE PLEDGE YOU OUR HONOR THAT OUR
COUNTRY WILL THRILL WITH PRIDE AT THE VALOR OF
THE TROOPS UNDER HIS COMMAND.
GIVE US A COLORED COMMANDER FOR COLORED
TROOPS. OUR LOYALTY AND SERVICE MERIT THIS REC
OGNITION.
Curly Hair Made Straight
Trade Slogan Which Has Put a Progressive and Resourceful
Colored Woman in the Rockefellow Class—Interesting
Story*by Frances L. Garside in Kansas City Star.
I have a friend who, in a private |
secretarial position, gets one of those I
fancy salaries that make other wo- i
men wonder why she doesn’t dress
better, or give a fortune to a foreign
missionary society, or scn<j rescue ex
peditions to her less fortunate kin,
the criticism depending on the kind of
glasses through which the critic looks
on life. That she gives away more
than she keeps her friends know, and
it was something of a surprise to
learn recently that she had spent $50
in a most extraordinary fashion on
herself.
She had had a permanent crimp put
in her hair! Those of us, whose hair
is so straight that if we curl it and
then shed a tear the dampness takes
out the curl, were filled with envy. It
was beautiful, with the ripples all
over it, but the process, she said, was
excruciating. The victim (or hero
ine, as you choose) is seated and aa
fan-shaped arrangement filled with
innumerable electric globes is fitted
over her head, a strand of hair being
rolled in each globe. Then the current
is applied, and she is forced to sit
absolutely still for several hours. As
these are the days when we peel our
potatoes in fear that a secret service
man will arrest us because they are
not peeled thinner, we could not agree
on the wisdom of her expenditure,
but we did agree that never had w’e
seen a more beautiful effect. Then,
in a few weeks, the ripples began to
recede, and in three weeks not a
ripple was left, proving that nothing
in this life is permanent, not even a
crimp.
The Colored folks are also dissatis
fied with the way God made them,
and pay so much to have their curly
hair made straight that in a certain
section given over to their race in
Newr York City there are numerous
beauty parlors, and in the windows
of all of them there are little notices
to the effect that Mme. Walker’s
methods are employed. Mme. Walkei
i i the wealthiest Negro woman in the
United States. Having learned how
a passing crimp is put in hair it would
be interesting to learn how a perma
nent crimp is taken out. I called
on her.
Her home in New York City is in i
$50,000 house she recently presented
her daughter. The facing is of red
btick, with marble trimmings, there
are French windows on the four floors,
and two entrances, business and res
idential. The business entrance was
easily gained. I found myself in a
very large beauty parlor with parquet
floors, w ith the ceiling, side walls and
decorations of a delicate gray. A
clerk told me I could not see madam,
she was asleep, but she kindly made an
appointment for me, and on the sec
ond call I was taken upstairs and
seated in the drawing room to await
madam’s eonvenienee. I am not a
Southerner; I W'aited.
When she came into the room a few
minutes later I realized how adapt
able my sex is to change from pov
erty to wealth, for Mrs. Walker,
washerwoman fourteen years ago,
carried her generous weight grace
fully on high French heels and wore
an expensive pink-flowered lavender
silk dressing gown on a week-day
morning, with a lack of self-conscious
ness few of us know when we get on
our Sunday clothes. She has an in
come of one-quarter million dollars
a year. She made every cent of her
money without aid or encouragement
from any living soul. Pause while
you take off your hat to her.
Mrs. Walker was bom in Delta, La.,
of ex-slave parents. Left an orphan at
seven, she was treated with such cru-1
elty by those with whom she lived
that she married at fourteen to get
a home. She had known only three
months’ schooling in her life, but
her husband seems to have been above
the ordinary, for he induced her to
go to night school after she was mar- j
ried. She was left a widow at twenty
with one child, and her only means of
support was the washtub.
Fourteen years ago her hair began
coming out, and she prayed the Lord
to save it.
“He answered my prayer,” she told .
me, “for one night I had a dream, !
and in that dream a big black man
appeared to me and told me what to ;
mix up for my hair. Some of the '
remedy was grown in Africa, but 1
sent for it, mixed it, put it on my
scalp and in a few weeks my hair was j
coming in faster than it had ever j
fallen out. I tried it on my friends; ;
i*. helped them. 1 made up my mind i
1 would begin to sell it.”
She was living in St. Louis then, !
and as Colorado was a more promis- j
ing field than Missouri for bald heads,,
.-he moved to Denver. This was just
fourteen years ago, and when she ar- )
lived there she had a dollar and a
half in her pocket. She got a place
as a cook. Then, with a little money
ahead, she bought her ingredients,
rented an attic, working two days in
the week to pay her rent, and began
to brew her herbs, making up the
“grower” by the tubful. She has al-.
ways had a respect for printers’ ink
that places her ahead of many white
folks, for as fast as she earned a
little money she spent it in adver
tising, and at one time owned a news
paper of her own called the Afro
American in which she exploited edi
torially, telegraphically and locally the
wonders of her wares.
She went on the road; she estab
lished agents in various towns; she
moved to Indianapolis, where her fac
tory is now located, and opened head
quarters in Pittsburgh and New York,
and always she advertised, spending
more on printer’s Ink in the beginning
than she spent on bread and butter.
Mine. Walker has made her fortune)
by exploiting her hair tonic as a grow- |
er, but an application or two, and
presto, the hair is straight. But if
the hair is wet the curl comes back
so that the grower must be reapplied
every two weeks, at least. She does
not cater to the white folks’ trade
with this wonderful mixture that
makes two hairs grow where one grew
before. Some day she will, and then
and then an addition will have to be
built to the adding machine to esti
mate her income.
She conducts a number of beauty
course schools, turning out twenty
graduates at the school in New York
every six weeks. She recently held a
meeting of her agents in Philadelphia,
and they came from far and near,
four hundred strong. She employs
five domestics in her New York home,
six girls work in her office; she has
a force much larger in Indianapolis,
and has her own lawyer. It is her in
tention in the coming year to enlarge
her factory, putting in machinery that
will make the output of the “grower”
twenty tubs a day. When you think
what these twenty tuba represent in
a renewal of woman’s crowning glory,
you grow breathless.
Mme. Walker favors her own sex.
She helps women to increase their
wage earning abilities as no other Ne
gro woman has ever done. Her agent
in Philadelphia was earning $5 a week
as a servant when madame found her;
her income is $250 a week now.
Madame is the only Negro woman on
earth who ever gave $1,000 to the
Y. M. C. A., and she maintains, year
after year, six students at Tuskegee,
Ala., paying all their expenses. She
lives in luxury, but is not a profligate,
giving to the poor what many white
folks of her income devote to riotous
living. It is her greatest regret that
she did not have an education when
young, but she is making up for it
with a private tutor, and you must
take offyour hat to her again.
She is shrewd and has courage and
ability or she could not have made the
climb. She has a memory of the
struggle that will keep her from ever
making any reckless plunges that will
jeopardize her interests.
Her secretary, a young man of
pleasing address, took me through the
house, and this was not the least in
teresting part of my visit. Every
thing was bought without regard to
cost, tut with considerable regard to
good taste. The daughter’s bedroom
is furnished with ivory tinted furni
ture of Louis XVI style and the bed
room set cost $4,500.
“There is nothing more expensive to
be had or I’d have bought it,” said
the madame, humbly. The hangings
are in old rose, and the pictures and
statuary in the room are as costly as
the furniture. Her own room is fur
nished in mahogany.
There was one of those big $200
Victrolas in the bedroom hall, and the
bathrooms are of the kind >ou read
about in connection with the Astors.
I thought one Victrola would surely
satisfy, but saw another in the draw
ing room covered with gold leaf to
match a gold leaf grand piano, and an
immense gold leaf harp. That isn’t
all, oh, you who are buying a $25
graphaphone on the installment plan
and satisfying the cravings of your
soul for music at the Ten Cent store!
In the main hall there is a player or
gan that reaches to the ceiling, and is
fine enough for any church, but it no
longer pleases, and there is to be a
pipe organ built in the house in its
place.
The dining room has the one in
Wanamaker’s show place—the House
Palatial—beaten by a great many feet
of walnut and cut glass, and the
kitchen dazzled with white tile walls
and floor, and from its windows I
caught a glimpse of a garden with
one of those things in it which we
who never sat under one called a
“markee.”
Ssh! It’s a secret; Madame Walker
is building a home to cost one-quarter
million dollars in the most exclusive
residential spot on the Hudson, but
the white folks living up there don’t
know the color of the future neighbor.
That is, they don't know it yet.—Kan
sas City Star.
DEMOCRACY AND LIBERTY
ONE THEME OF AK-SAR-BEN
If the heart of every Nebraskan is
not thrilled, and if his patriotism is
not at boiling point, it will be no fault
of King Ak-Sar-Ben, whose benign
reign has begun.
For everything Ak-Sar-Ben is pat
riotic. The two big parades, the elec
trical and the daylight, are built upon
the ont thought of Democracy and
Liberty. The grand display of fire
works will be a reproduction of the
great Battle of Verdun. The decora
tions will be in the national colors.
Even the carnival shows will breathe
the thoughts of Democracy and Lib
erty.
The great coronation ball will be
entirely military in character. In
short, Ak-Sar-Ben will be a grand
patriotic celebration in which every
subject of Quivera can take paid.
RIOT VICTIMS GET DAMAGES
East St. Louis.—Suits for $2,400
as a result of the recent riots in this
city resulted in $204 being awarded
Colored persons in Judge Clark’s
court Friday of last week.
The East St. Louis decision is the
first that has been made concerning
the liability of the city of East St.
Louis for damages sustained during
the riots. If the many cases of a sim
ilar nature pending against the 5:ity
in the Circuit Court here are decided
against the city, a possibility of bank
ruptcy will exist.
FEDERAL INVESTIGATION
ILLINOIS MASSACRE
Washington, D. C.—Investigation of
the East St. Louis riots will begin
October 1, it was announced here Sep
tember 11, by the newly appointed
Congressional Investigating Commit
tee.
Peerless In His
Precarious Profession
Colored Man, According to Postal Of
ficials, Has Stolen $90,000 From
Government.
Best Informed Man in Country on
Post Office System.
Wichita, Kans., Sept. 24.—Charles
A. Stevens, known to postal inspec
tors as the most notorious mail thief
in the United States, was placed on
trial here today for the fifth time in
the federal court. Stevens is a Col
ored man and has served six years in
United States prisons for stealing
mail. He is now charged with steal
ing seven registered mail pouches
from a Santa Fe train between Dodge
City and Syracuse, Kans.
Inspectors say thefts for which he
already has served in prison hava
netted him more than $90,000.
Stevens was sentenced to fifteen
years in the federal prison from Kan
sas City, December, 1908, upon con
viction of stealing registered mail
pouches which contained $76,000 in
currency and $20,000 worth of dia
monds. After serving five years of
this sentence he obtained release on a
habeas corpus proceeding.
Authorities in postoffice matters
declare that Stevens is the best in
formed man in the country on the op
eration of the American postoffice
system. Fred Robertson, United
States attorney, has subpoenaed wit
nesses from all pafts of the United
States to testify against him.
“NEBRASKANS KNOW NOT
WHAT FAILURE MEANS"
Organizing for the great Liberty
Loan Drive, Nebraskans have one
thought in view,—that the state will
respond to its quota in as decisive a
manner as it did in the former drive
when the quota was well oversub
scribed.
The Liberty Loan drive will be made
during the month of October, with
October 24 designated as Liberty Day.
Nebraska’s quota will be about $27,
000,000, or about fifty per cent more
than its previous allotment.
“Nebraska’s reputation is at stake
as is the Nation’s in this campaign.
Failure would mean saying to the
German Alliance, ‘we’re not in this
war to win.’ But there will be no
failure. America and Nebraska will
respond in a most decisive manner.”
Such is the terse and emphatic state
ment of T. C. Byrne, chairman of the
state organization for the sale of
these bonds.
—
ONE CERTIFIED FROM
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Portsmouth, N. H.—Portsmouth, aa
in the Civil War, may furnish the
only Colored man from the State of
New Hampshire for service in the na
tional army. Edward Chambers
Hicks, 25 years old, a machinist, liv
ing at 46 Bow street, passed the
physical examination of the Ports
mouth draft board and has been cer
tified for service.
In the Civil War but one Colored
man from New Hampshire was draft
ed and lie came from Portsmouth.
Hicks told the exemption board he
would not claim exemption and was
glad that he would be called upon to
serve the nation.
TO CHOOSE COLORED
NURSES FOR WAR SERVICE
Colored registered nurses through
out the country are in receipt of in
formation from the Red Cross head
! quarters at Washington that a Gov
| ernment Base Hospital will be estab
j lished at Des Moines, Iowa, in con
nection with the training camp for
] Colored troops. About 150 nurses
will be selected for service, fifty be
ing assigned to immediate duty and
100 held in reserve.
While the Red Cross states that
there will not be any probability of
foreign duty for the Colored nurses
just yet, it promises that the Colored
nurses wi'l be accepted under pre
cisely the same status as the white
nurses.
STORM DOES DAMAGE
IN NORTH CAROLINA
Raleigh, N. C.—Property damage
reaching several hundred thousand
dollars, heavy damage to crops and
drowning of three Colored men re
sulted from the heavy rains of the
last few days in eastern North Car
olina.