The Monitor I —-- -- M ■ ■ ■■ ■ ■ ------ 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 2, 1916, at the Post Office at Omaha, Neb., under the act of March 3. 1878 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. OUR ANSWER From Audrey Bowser's Poem, “The Brown and The Bine" l Old Glory’s stripes are shining red With our good soldiers’ gore, Since Attucks fell and Salem bled, Black fighters ’neath its folds have led The fight in every war. At Pillow and Wagner’s hellish fray On San -Juan’s blazing hill; And the blood that flowed at El Caney Has drenched it deeper still. What though an envious hate and pride Upon us fix their bans? What though our birthright be de nied? One glory they can never hide— We are Americans! And when the dangers darkly reach Across the nation’s sky, We hurl our lives into the breach To suffer, bleed and die. ARREST .SOMEBODY ELSE. The Monitor respectfully suggests to the authorities that if they will ar rest the man who is reported as being very friendly with the daughter of the aged Mrs. Anderson, who was mur dered on Saturday night, August 25, 1917, the night preceding the murder of Mrs. Netheway, it i3 very probable that they will be able to unravel those two atrocious murder mysteries. For some reason the Anderson mur der ease has been dropped or lost sight of while there seems to have been an effort to fix the Netheway crime on Smith. Every clue -UawUi be followed to bring those guilty of these two crimes to Justice. The Monitor believes that these two crimes are related and that if due dil igence is exercised the motive for them may be discovered and the per petrators and accessories brought to justice. It is a rather striking coincidence that the wounds and marks of vio lence on these two unfortunate vic tims of a brutal assassin or assassins were almost identical. The Monitor suggest that someone else besides Smith be arrested and in vestigated. Arrest somebody else. The sher iff’s office and the county attorney’s office have other clues that ought to be followed up. THE SMITH DEFENSE FUND. Charles Smith has been remanded for a new trial, although as The Mon itor pointed out at the beginning, the state has not one scintilla of evidence against the accused. The lack of evi dence upon which the prosecution has based its case is almost farcial. At the same time The Monitor is glad the case was brought to trial because it has helped to clarify the public mnid. Because of the failure of the jury to agree, nine voting for acquit tal on the first ballot, and three for | conviction, and this deadlock continu ing for forty-five hours. Smith has been remanded for a new trial. The trial showed the necessity of taking j steps to safeguard the rights of the accused. His attorneys put up a good defense. The new trial will call for addi-1 tional funds and The Monitor calls upon its readers to subscribe for The Smith Defense Fund. About $200 was the sum raised and paid the attorneys for Smith’s defense in the first trial. | We hold the receipts of the attorneys ! for the money raised and paid for the first trial and have a list of subscrib ers. The only authorized lists circu lated for subscriptions for this fund bear the signature of the Editor of The Monitor. “SIMPLY FOB ' AMERICAN SOLDIERS** A short time ago it was announced that presents had been sent to the American army in France marked “For White Soldiers.” Gen. Pershing promptly said that such limitations would be disregarded and stated that packages and parcels sent for general distribution should be marked “Simply ‘For American Soldiers.’ * This attitude is most commendable and manifests the right spirit. It also emphasizes a matter to which we de sire to call attention. It is this: Many of our women are naturally in terested in seeing that our Omaha boys at Camp Funston are remembered by the folks at home. But may we not In our zeal to provide for those whom [ we know overlook the fact that our | duty as American citizens is chiefly I and primarily to do what we can | “simply for American soldiers” and not only for Colored Soldiers? : While it is perfectly right for us to send Individual gifts to certain sot ■ diers whom we may know, when it comes to any concerted action for ' providing gifts for the army let us be j broad-minded and patriotic enough to 1 send them to the authorities simply j for American soldiers, trusting to the j authorities to see that whatever may ] be sent is wisely and justly distrib uted. NEBRASKA SHOULD HELP. We publish elsewhere in this issue a. communication from Mrs. Mary B. | Talbert, president of the National As sociation of Colored Women, in which ' she incidentally calls attention to the I fact that the indebtedness on the Frederick Douglass Home at Anaros tia, Md., has all been paid with the exception of $100, and that up to the j present time nothing has been re ceived from Nebraska. Surely Nebraska wants a share in this important work. Why is it that; | our progret e women in this com munity have overlooked this import ant matter? Are we willing that Ne braska shall have no place on the honor roll at “Cedar Hill?” Surely; not. Nebraska should help. NK1TS OF HOI.OMON. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is an annual day set ' aside many moons ago for the purpose of rendering up thanks for things to : be thankful for, but the general Amer ican idea is of a day when people try to see how much they can store in ! their bread baskets and still live. At ;' the first Thanksgiving the Puritans offered up thanks to God for being j able to kill plenty of Indians without ^ the Indians killing plenty of them, but since there aren’t many Indians to ^ kill folks or be killed theBe days, the average citizen thinks he hasn’t much to be thankful for. According to sun dry mesages and state papers this year, we should be thankful that we are trying to whip the Kaiser, thank ful for the high cost of living and the low scale of wages, thankful for censorship, draft, and many other little things like that. Every pinkus that struts should be glad also that he Ib breathing on terra flrma instead of snoozing in a cemetery, but he or she never thinks of that. The only ; think disturbing the thought is the price of turkey, goose, mince pie and , cider. To the small boy Thanksgiving has it over Christmas on a ten to one bet. Christmas he receives some candy, a suit and some kind of toy, but on Thanksgiving he EATS and eating is a small boy’s idea of heaven Everybody can find something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving if he tries, even it Is only the fact that the earth is still rolling around on Its axis. The day comes around only once a year and none should kick on being handed out a little bit of thankful air. PURCHASE HOME Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Saffold have purchased a very attractive home through the Western Real Estate com pany, of which Mr. Eugene Thomas is manager. --—- I Get ready for the Takey Ball.—Adv. i H || " i] Our Women and Children Coniuctti frji Lucille Skaggs Edwards THE GENTLEWOMAN. Looking through some old maga zines, we found an article—“The True Gentlewoman,” written by Maude Warren. We wish we had space to quote it in full and we wish we had power to force every woman and girl to read it. She begins by speak ing of unselfishness as a requisite of the gentlewoman. She says: "The complement of unselfishness and consideration for others is tol erance. When other people are grasping or unfair, the gentlewoman tries to excuse them, on the grounds that they are doubtless doing the best they can. She is not smug about it, does not thank God that she is not as other people: she simply believes that people probably think they are justified in whatever line of conduct they take. This breadth of view, this generosity, is a grace quite as admirable as unselfishness; in its way it is a kind of unselfishness.” Many of our women and girls are unselfish, tolerant, and sweet, but conspicuous clothes, loud voices, lack of poise and quiet in manners and casual slangy word often sets them down as noisy, cheap, and even vul- | gar. ’Tis true, a charming manner i will not atone for utter selfishness, nor will an abrupt manner conceal a beautiful spirit; yet ideally, there should be a correspondence between inner and outer qualities. Now we must admit that we, as a race, to gentleness, refinement of 1 manners, and dress, are not of a | “manor born.” The few years of j our advantages of training and cul- | ture aB a people makes us imitators j We often mistake a class, who are only imitators themselves for the j really refined and smart people. Let j us compare the real gentlewoman J with the imitation, to quote the writ- j er: “Look first in the limousines and then on the street.” “You can tell the well-bred girls, because they look without seeming to see. However pretty they are, however aware of the men who stare at them, they nev- [ er meet the eyes of a man, never J seem to realize that they themselves are there. In other words, they are ; utterly unselfconscious. A lack of j selfconsciousness is the hall-mark of ! the thoroughly well-bred girl. The girl who has not been so carefully bred shows that she knows she is attracting attention. The trouble with j these girls is that their thoughts are centered on themselves. They can not help thinking of the people on the street in relation to themselves; they feel as if they were each the center. But the well-bred girl knows she is only a unit of the crowd. She thinks of herself in relation to the street. She has an objective point of view. She has been trained as far as possible to get away from what is personal, and this training is most strongly in evidence when she is in a crowd of strangers. She is going in a certain direction to a certain place; she is not Interested in strang ers, and she assumes that they are not interested in her. What she. wishes is to pursue her affairs in the crowd as inconspicuously as possi ble. "Note how beautifully the well bred girl walks,” the mentor goes on to say. “She does not swing her hips; her arms move only as much as Is necessary for ease and balance. She does not turn her head abruptly, or make striking gestures, or stop too suddenly to look into a shop win dow. All her movements are quiet, designed to draw as little attention j as possible to herself.” Now to the subject of dress, there 1 are the “smart” and the "imitation smart.” The imitation smart wear all their jewels, even if shopping, their hats are a little too gay, tbeir blouses are a little too sheer and cut a little too low, underwaisls rather too deep a pink and skirts too short, showing an exaggeration I of the prevailing style. Of the smart ones, Bhe says: “The smart ones who wear tailor suits have them of perfect cut, but simple cut. The striking or freak ish modes are only used by the 'im itation smart’ women. The smart ones do not wear suits of bright col ors. If you could see these best dressed ones in their evening gowns you would see bright colors enough, but not on the street. There the only chance for color, for 'fancy' touches of any sort would be In thi blouses which must, however, har monize with the suits. "Simplicity and harmony—those are, so to speak, the central themes in the dressing of the well-bred girl.” Smartness In dress is not a matter of money for It may be achieved for the same cost of fussy clothes if one only buys carefully and follows the rules of good taste. Of gracious manners, she says: "Come with me into the hone of a fortunate girl who has had the ad vantages which have been denied you, who has had given her the things that you must earn, who, in childhood, has drawn in, as instinc tively as she breathed, all the points of breeding which you, as an adult, must learn with difficulty, and for which, by-the-way, you will deserve I far greater credit than she can ever win. This rich young girl is giving a party. Here there are gowns of vivid colors, but they are all made with simple lines. Here there Is gayety, but it never becomes uproar ious. The laughter is subdued; the talk is never loud or shrill. There are young men and women here who have been friends from childhood, but they do not show free-and-easy manners, would not dream of any fa miliarities. When the fortunate girl wishes to make two of her friends | know each other, she does not say, 'Miss Smith, meet Mr. Jones;’ or j'Mfss Smith, shake hands with Mr. Jones.' What she says is, ‘Miss ! Smith, may I introduce Mr. Jones?’ or, 'Miss Smith, let me present Mr. Jones.' If there is dancing, a man does not dance very often with the same girl unless be is engaged to her, for fear of making her too con spicuous. Everywhere you see a careful observance of the rules of good form—and everywhere you see young people having exactly as good a time as if they were chewing gum, or making personal jokes at one an other's expense. Some of these rich girls are not sweet, or good, or un selfish, like you, but they have all the social graces which almost seem like i qualities of character.” Now, we may have clothes in per fect taste, we may possess all the points of good breeding, we may mod ulate our voices, and enunciate more clearly thus, if we persist we shall become true gentlewomen. L. S. E. DONATION DAY FOR THE OLD FOLKS HOME Barrels will be placed in all of our churches Sunday, November 25, to re ceive donations of fruit, vegetables, canned goods or provisions of any kind, for the benefit of the N. W. C. A. Home. This is an annual event and ill view of the high cost of foodstuffs it is hoped that every one will donate something to this worthy cause. Some time ago the housew ives were asked to save a jar of fruit or vegetables for this day. If those so giving will paste their names upon their jars they will be returned wThen emptied. The following persons will have charge of donations at the various churches: St. John’s A. M. FI. Church—Mrs. H. Moore, Mrs. J. S. Turner, Mrs. M. F. Singleton. Zion Baptist Church—Mrs. James G. Jewell, Mrs. H. R. Roberts, Mrs. It. K. Lawrie. : : : " ..' Mount Moriah Baptist Church—Mrs. M. H. Wilkinson, Mrs. J. H. Smith, Mrs. C. H. Hicks. Grove M. E. Church—Mrs. A. L. Bowler, Mrs. E. Benson, Mrs. Nate Hunter. Bethel Baptist Church, South Omaha —Mrs. John McCorkle. South Omaha A. M. E. Church Mrs. John Perry, Mr.s B. Thomas. Persons having small banks belong ing to the association are requested to see that liberal donations are made in them on Thanksgiving Day. Thompson, Belden & Co. The Fashion Center fo*r Women v Established 1886 jiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiimiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiimimiiiiimiiininu I Grand Charity Ball! | | FOR BENEFIT OF f I The Old Folks’ Home | | AT | | Beautiful New Dreamland Hallj (Formerly Washington Hall) EIGHTEENTH AND HARNEY STREETS | Monday Evening, Nov. 26th 1 = Desdunes’ Jazz Orchestra. Admission 50c = Fi 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 m 111111111111111111111 iT _ .. . .. A Church Where j All Are Welcome j 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 CHI RCH La