The Monitor
A 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 i. 1916, at the Post Office at
Omaha. Neb., under the act of March S, 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.
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.
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.
GOODBYE, BOYS; GOD BLESS YOU
Today, boys, nearly one hundred of
you are leaving us for Camp Funston
where you are to be trained for serv
ice in the national army. You form
the first quota of our race called from
Nebraska by selective draft to en
gage with others in the great inter
national conflict out of which true
democracy is to emerge.
The issues of the war are clearly
defined. You go not for conquest or
for spoils, but for the safeguarding
of manhood rights throughout the
world. You are fighting for principles
of liberty and equality in which we
all must be sharers. Democracy can
not be advanced in the world unless
it is advanced in the United States.
And so you will fight to make America
more truly democratic -where every
man irrespective of his race will be
given a man’s opportunity to develop
all his God-given powers.
Many of you are Nebraskans by
birth, some of you known to us from
your earliest childhood. Others of you
are Nebraska’s sons by adoption; but
you are all our boys and we all have
special pride and interest in you.
We believe that every one of you,
realizing the acid test to which our
race is now being submitted, will
strenuously strive to do his full duty
and will do nothing to bring reproach
upon your family, race or state. We
send you forth with our best wishes
and our prayers. We are most solicit
ous that every one of you will make
good. You have splendid traditions to
maintain and we know that you will
maintain them.
Be careful and watchful of your
conduct, boys. You will have many
temptations to overcome. “Quit you
like men, be strong."
Omaha has shown you how proud
wre are of you and what confidence we
have in you. You are not going to
disappoint us, are you, boys? We ex
pect you to show yourselves Christian
gentlemen and Christian soldiers i
wherever you may be called to serve.
You are all going to be in our hearts |
and in our thoughts and in our pray- j
ers. We at home are going to do all -
we can to supply your needs. Tokens |
of our love will reach you from par
ents, loved ones and friends, from time
to time to let you know how much we
are thinking of you.
Good-bye, boys. God bless you,
every one, and keep you always in His
loving care.
This is the heartfelt prayer with
which Nebraska sends you forth, as
she places her safety, her honor and
her reputation in your hands.
Good-bye, Boys; our own dear boys;
God bless you, every one.
ALL HONOR TO THE
COMMERCIAL CLUB
The name of the Omaha Commer
cial Club is respected far and near for
its thoroughness of method in what
ever it undertakes, for its originality,
its broad-mindedness, its liberality
and progressiveness. These charac
teristics have made it a tremendous
force in winning for our city and
state the proud and enviable position
they now occupy.
Presidents of the United States,
representatives from foreign govern
ments and the most distinguished men
in the world have been guests of the
Omaha Commercial Club and all, with
out exception, have been outspoken in
their praise of its generous open
hearted hospitality, the excellence of
its unsurpassed cuisine, and the class
icality of the entertainment fur
nished.
Honoring and being honored as the
career of this great commercial or
gai 'ration of wide-awake business
men has been, in nothing has it ren
dered more appreciated honor or more
highly honored itself than in its gra
cious act of extending as it has done
the same generous, open-hearted hos
pitality to its Colored men of Douglas
county conscripted for the national
army, as that extended to other cit
izens called to the colors, by the
splendid banquet and entertainment
provided for them.
Of course, it was the right thing
to do; but how seldom is it that either
individuals or organizations have the
courage to do the right when doing
so runs counter to blind prejudice and
established customs and usages. The
Commercial Club has had the courage
to do the right thing in this unpre
cedented and unparalleled but prece
dent-making and epoch-marking event.
In so doing it has manifested both
the highest patriotism and the truest
democracy. Its action reflects credit
upon the city and state. It will en
hearten our men who fare forth to
war in a righteous cause and so ad
vance the democracy for which Amer
ica stands ideally and will ultimately
attain.
It will be difficult for the members
of the Commercial Club to realize how
much this event means to the men
whom they have thus honored as their
guests. It will be difficult for our
citizens to realize what an inspiration
and uplift this will be for our race
throughout the country.
The Monitor desires to publicly
thank the Commercial Club for its
generous and patriotic action in tak- 1
ing the stand that the Colored men
who go forth from this community to
serve the colors shall receive at the
hands of this gerat commercial body
the same courtesy, encouragement and
treatment as other citizens receive.
Such sentiment as this, carried out
in the spirit manifested last night,
means winning the world for dem
ocracy.
All honor to the Omaha Commercial
club.
DO YOUR PART
The calling of so many of our own
sons to war must bring home the con
viction of the reality and seriousness
of the conflict in which we are en
gaged. The work of the Red Cross,
the need for conservation of food, and
purchasing of Liberty Bonds must now
come home to us all with more appeal
ing force. We aie engaged in war.
Everyone must do his part to help win
this war as speedily as may be. Let
us all do our part.
FOOD CONSERVATION
We wonder if there is any reader
of The Monitor who has failed to re
ceive and sign a food conservation
pledge card. This is a most import
ant matter. We must save food if
we are to supply not only our own
needs, but those of our allies. Save
food.
LIBERTY BONDS
The Monitor desires to call atten
tion to the fact that the various banks
and building and loan associations
have provided easy payment plans by
which one may purchase Liberty
Bonds. It is a good way to begin to
save as well as helping the govern
ment. Buy bonds.
When you purchase Liberty Loan
Bonds you do your country good, you
do the cause of liberty and justice
over the whole world good, you do
yourself good, you do harm to the
enemies of liberty and justice and
civilization, and harm to the enemies
of your country.
Three things, please remember:
Pay your subscription promptly. Get
your friends to subscribe. Send us
your job printing.
Obvious Observations
Have you seen our Cullud osifers ?
No flies on them, are there, Mabel ?
They are just as handsome as a warm
cream browned pie and, believe muh,
that’s some handsome.
Mr. Bill Kaiser is helping himself
to all he wants of Russia. He is
simply increasing his future pain by
having to get rid of useless luggage.
Most of us wish this weather would
get settled and let us know whether
it is to be warm or cold. This flighty
thermometer gets on a man’s nerves.
Blessed is the man who has his
storm doors and windows up, his pota
: toes and cabbage and onions in the
bin, his shelves lined with preserves,
his shed shiny with coal, and a few
beans in the bank. Verily he has a
good wife.
What’s a good dope to take when
you feel rotten ? Before you answer,
remember this is a dry town.
One sorry thing about time is that
if you get behind it you can never
catch up.
Wasn’t the food show some pun
kins? But after all, it only thought
! it was showing us how to cut the
high cost of living. Somehow the
high cost sticks from center to cir
cumference.
Did you gather unto yourself a Lib
erty Loan ? If not, why notest ?
Apologizing for the above rank lit
erary offering, ye editor will now take
a snooze and try to recuperate his
good nature.
SKITS OF SOLOMON
Beauty Parlors.
A beauty parlor is a neat looking
little shop where one enters with the
expectation of coming out looking
good. Beauty shops appeal stronger
to the female sex than to the foolish
sex. The average man, no matter if
he has a mug that would scare Vesu
vius into an eruption, imagines that
he can always go big with the dainty
fluffs. He may be wall-eyed, blub
ber-nosed, valise-cheeked, flap-eared,
and greasy-haired, but in his inmost
dreams he thinks he has it all over
Mr. Beau Brummel. If anybody would
suggest a beauty shop to him, he
would consider it an affair of honor.
Little bunchlets, however, believes in
the beauty shop more than she does in
the Bible. When she enters the dainty
front she will get cold feet if she
doesn't see curling irons, steel combs,
flat irons, a healthy looking vibrator
for wrinkles and sag spots, a whole
some bust producer, a cargo of grease
and a mountain of powder. The odor
of sweet perfumes, also, must float
about, or else she will right about
face and beat it. That she does come
out looking handsomer than Venus
de Milo the night she went to Cleo
patra’s ball, seems to give a great
boost to the beauty culture game. She
doesn’t care how long it lasts, be
cause she can always get fixed up
again. The only trouble with most of
the little bunchlets, however, is that
they play the beauty game strong un
til they hook a sucker and then they
forget the shop address. That is just
where they should begin to put beauty
culture on strong, but no one ever ac
cused a woman of reasoning. She
doesn’t reason; she talks.
JINGLES BY THE EDITOR
A PRUSSIAN’S PLAINT
Shust how der Amerikaners
Got onto vot ve do,
Mit plotting mit Mexicaners
Und mit der Sweeders, too;
Und likevise so mit efery plot
By vich ve hope to vin,
Is known only by Herr Gott
Whom der kaiser let get in.
Herr Wilhelm is der kaiser,
As all der vorld does know;
No man on earth is viser
In himmel or below;
But somehow, somevhere vas a leak,
Shust how Ich nicht can say,
By vhich, ach, so sad I speak,
Our vise plans got avay.
Der Amerikaner secret men
Must instand too mit Gott,
Vhich if dis also be, vhy den
Der kaiser vill be hot;
“Und ME und Gott vill too fall oud,"
Dot’s vhat der kaiser’ll say,
For he’ll allow no von aboud,
Who vunst stands in his vay.
Der vay der Amerikaners
Got onto vat ve do,
Mit plotting mit Mexicaners
Und mit der Sweeders, too;
Und likevise so mit efery plot
Ve had veil under vay,
No vunder dot der kaiser’s hot,
Und care not vot he say.
“WHEATLESS, MEATLESS,
DEFEATLESS”
“One wheatless day a week.” That
will be Tuesday. One meatless day
a week, that will be Friday. That will
mean a defeatless army across the
water. Keep this in mind, wheatless,
meatless, defeatless.
the home: training
OF CHILDREN
By Rabbi Wise.
I have found parents fearful of the
influence which non-parental environ
ment might exert upon a son and
eager to shield him from its contam- (
mating touch, and I have wished that
it might be possible to rescue the child
from the environment of the over
solicitous home.
Parents sometimes dread the en
vironment of the street for a boy,
who is never in greater peril than
when he is exposed to the environment
of his own home. That quickening of
responsibility ought to arise from the
consciousness of the ineviableness of
ceaselessly molding the life of a child.
Precedent to the possibility of train
ing children must come the training
of parents, a training which, it may
be said in passing, mtist be achieved
chiefly though self-discipline. The
father is not to be solely the bread
winner, nor the mother the home
keeper, but both together are above
all to be the guardians and educators
of their children.
Before all eugenics, for without it
eugenics cannot be, must come the
training of men and women for par
enthood. The measure of preparations
for parenthood in our day seems in
inverse proportion to its paramount
cy. One reads of preparations for
tennis tournaments and golf matches
and base ball games and foot ball con
tests and rowing regattas, which are
speedily becoming alike the classic
and the humanities of American col
leges, but what college or university
even hints at the need of the con
scious shaping of one’s whole life for
fatherhood and motherhood ?
FALLING LEAVES
(From the Ohio State Journal.)
And now the leaves are beginning
to fall. There is nothing in the world
that so reminds us that time is fleet
ing and ourselves going with it, as
the falling leaves. It is really a sol
emn time for one to see a leaf flut
tering down to the ground. It is a
reminder that is the way we are go
ing—falling to the ground and soon
forgotten. But the thought should be
one of hope rather than of despair,
for the circumstance should inspire
everyone to live a better and truer
life, and make the world brighter be
cause the leaves fall. The leaves have
done their share in the world’s work.
They have brought beauty to the
woods and fed the fruits and flowers
through the summer. They have
earned their rest, but they have some
thing else to do, and that is to make
music for the footsteps that pass
'.'-ir'Eiias.:!::...i....=
through them. The music of the deep, j
leaves of the forest is imitated no
where else. It finds expression in no I
instrument, unless it be in the heart- ;
strings, where no sound is heard.
NEGROES PROVE
THEIR LOYALTY
(From the Lake Charles (La.) Anier
ican-Press.)
*
—
Not a single pro-German Negro has I
up to this writing, been found in the
United States. To a man they are
for Uncle Sam and the United States
first, last and all the time. It is not
saying too much, perhaps, to state
that every Negro in Calcasieu and
other parishes in this section between
the ages of 21 and 31 years wanted
to go to war. With them, the claims
for exemptions were few and far be
tween. Five times more than the
quota required reported and crowded
the places for enlistment until they
had to be turned away. It is a record
that will go down in history—one of
which any nation might well be proud.
CALIFORNIA DONATES TO
SMITH DEFENSE FUND
Oroville, Cal., Oct. 11, 1917.
The Monitor,
Gentlemen: Enclosed please find
two dollars ($2.00) for the Smith De
fense fund, and you will oblige me
by sending me a receipt for the same.
Truly yours,
A. CANNON,
711 Bridge St.
Thompson, Belden & Co.
i i
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The Fashion Center for
Women
j
Established 1886
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A Church Where
All Are Welcome
Services
Sunday School, 10 a. m.
Preaching, 11 a. m., 8 p. m.
League, 6:30 p. m.
Florence P. Leavitt Club, Mon
day afternoon.
Prayer Meeting, Wednesday
Evening.
W. H. M. S. Thursday Afternoon
GROVE METHODIST CHURCH Laf,ie8' Ajri- Fri,lay Afternoon.
22nd and Seward Sts., Omaha, Neb. Ret) ^nd.^W^b.’ 5003
==========^^
THIS IS A PICTURE OF
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church (
ON TWENTY-FIRST ST., BETWEEN NICHOLAS AND PAUL STS.
Easily Reached From All Parts of City By Street Cara.
Within Walking Distance of a Large Number of Colored People.
If You Are a Member of the Episcopal Church this Will Let You
Know Where It Is.
If You Are Not a Member of the Church, You Ought to Be.
Come to the Services Anyway and Get Acquainted.
SUNDAY SERVICES
Holy Communion, 7:30 u. m.
Church School (Sunday School) 10 a. m.
Holy Communion and Sermon, 11 a. m.
Evening Prayer and Sermon, 8 p. m.
Please accept this as a personal invitation to attend services. All
seats are free. Everybody is welcome. It’s your
. Heavenly Father's House—Come.
JNO. ALBERT WILLIAMS, Pastor.
I ~