| THC MONITOR |
A National Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of Colored Americans
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
51.50 a Year. 5c a Copy OMAHA, NEBRASKA, JANUARY 26. 1918 Vol. III. No. 30 (Whole No. 133)
Noted Jew Gives
Another $25,000
Members of Race Are Paying Their
Subscriptions Promptly for St. Louis
$180,000 Y. M. C. A. Building.
St. Louis.—Mr. Julius Rosenwald,th«*
Chicago philanthropist and president
of the Sears-Roebuck company, played
Santa Claus to the St. lx>uis citizens
by sending his check for $25,000 to
help out in the erection of the new
Pine street department, Y. M. C. A.
Mr. Rosenwald’s offer of $25,000
was conditioned upon St. Louis raising
$75,000 for a Young Men’s Christian
association for Colored men. St. Louis
went beyond the condition and is erect
ing a building costing $180,000 for
M. C. A. purposes.
Twenty-six thousand dollars of this
amount has already been paid in by
Colored people on their pledge of $50,
000. This includes a $5,000 subscrip
■ -.tion by Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Malone anil
a $1,000 subscription by F. L. Wil
liams, principal of the Summer High
school, both of which have been paid in
full. Two other subscriptions of $1,000
were marie by W. C. Gordon, the un
dertaker and laundryman, and Dr. W.
L. Perry, pastor of Antioch Baptist
church, both of whom have made sub
stantial payments on their subscrip
tions. Over 1,400 persons have paid in
full their pledges to this fund for the
new' Y. M. C. A. since the new move
ment began in 1916.
FIRST COLORED
ASSEMBLYMAN IN
NEW YORK SEATED
Albany, N. Y’.—Edward A. Johnson,
republican assemblyman from the
Nineteenth district, New' York, was
seated in the 1978 legislature, the first
J Colored man to sit in any lawmaking
body in the state. Assemblyman John
son w-as delighted at the cordiality of
other law'rnakers. “Why, Speaker
Sweet even paid me the honor of ask
ing me to be seated with him, ’ said
Mr. Johnson.
NEWS yROM CAM I* FI NSTON
Co. 3, Officers’ Training Camp,
Camp Funston, Kan., Jan. 20.
Editor The Monitor:
I suppose you think me a fine one,
not to keep my word and send you the
camp news each week, but the fact is
study has kept me hard at it. Sergeant
Earl Wheeler, Sergeant Elmer Morris,
First Class Private Thos. E. (Tommy)
Mason and myself are trying for a
commission in the Third Officers’
Training Camp and you know what
that means. We have been at it two
week now, with ten more ahead of us,
and I mean ten hard weeks. There is
no need to explain about the routine,
as it is practically the same as at Des
Moines. The Third company is in
structed entirely by Colored officers,
who are efficiency itself. The instruc
tors are Captain Milton T. Dean, com
manding; Captain Barbour and First
Lieutenant Richardson. There are at
present about sixty members of the
Colored companies. Two white com
panies are also in camp. Eighteen of
the candidates are recent graduates of
Wilberforce university, which school
was the only school (Colored) allowed
a quota to this training camp. They
are a fine bunch of fellows.
Activities in camp are about the
same, only progressing more rapidly
and with more precision. I tell you
the Ninety-second Division (Colored)
‘ is there. General Ballou is still in
command of the camp during the ab
sence of General Wood. A censorship
is on news which is sent to the news
papers, so therefore I cannot give you
as many details as I would like.
The weather here is very cold, but
the boys go at everything with a snap.
Major York, formerly commanding
the Liberian frontier force, is attend
ing the school. I make mention of this
fact, as he knew Mr. Guy Robbins and
it might be of interest to others, who,
perhaps, remember his appointment to
Liberia by Secretary of State Bryan.
It looks like “over the top” for the
boys soon and the fire of adventure
seems to be burning in the breasts
of all.
The Omaha boys join in regards
to all and those of us who have not
thanked the “Crispus Attucks Chap
ter” for the useful Xmas presents
wish to do so nowr, (better late than
never). Success and enthusiasm are
the bywords of all. We wish your
prayers and hope that the time may
soon come when all will be together in
“the old home town.”
Until you hear from me again,
ANDREW T. REED.
MET4 ' i BRICK FULLER,
\ .ADING SCULPTOR
s OF COLORED RACE
£ -
The fi c gt sculptor of the race in
America < ta Vaux Warrick Fuller.
She was i :n Philadelphia June 9,
1877, and o ved her first recogni
tion as a st r by her work in the
Pennsylvanii ool of Industrial Art,
for which sh. nad won a scholarship
and where she attended for four years.
She won a prize in her graduating
year in 1898 and also won the famous
George K. Crozier prize for the best
general work in modeling in a post
graduate year. In 1899 she went to
Paris and there worked and studied
for three years. Here her work at
tracted the great Rodin himself and he
declared, “Mademoiselle, you are a
sculptor; it is in your fingers," Later
years have added many laurels to her
crown and though the happy mother
of three boys and residing peacefully
at Framingham, Mass., she still finds
time for the practice of her art.
Benjamin Brawley, in an ar.icle in
the Southern Workman, has this to
say of Mrs. Fuller’s work:
"Her work may be said to fall into
two divisions—the romantic and the
social. The first is represented by such
things as ‘The W’retched’ and ‘Secret
Sorrow’; the second by ‘Immigrant in
America’ and ‘The Silent Appeal.’ The
transition may be seen in ‘Watching
for Dawn,’ a group that shows seven
figures, in various attitudes of prayer,
watchfulness and resignation, watch
ing for the coming of daylight, or
peace. In technique this is like ‘The
Wretched’; in spirit it is like the later
work. It is as if the sculptor’s own
seer, John the Baptist, had summoned
her away from the romantic and eso
teric to the every-day problems of
needy humanity. There are many, how
ever, who hope that she will not utter
ly forsake the field in which she first
became famous. Her early work is
not delicate or pretty; it is grewsome
and terrible; but it is also intense and
vital, and from it speaks the very
tragedy of the Negro race.”
A Remarkable
Coincidence
How Two Virginians, One Black anti
the Other White, Land Alabama's
Best Educational Plums.
In the Birmingham (Ala.) Age-Her
! aid Dr. Frank Willis Barnett tells the
i following story of Dr. R. R. Moton,
principal of Tuskegee Institute, and
Dr. George Denney, president of the
University of Alabama, both Virgin
! ians, who, as children, just after the
I civil war, played together:
t Dr. Denney’s father was a Presby
terian minister and used to visit the
family in which young Moton’s father
served, and that he himself waited on
the table. After dinner was over, he
and “George” (they were boys then)
used to go fishing together. In con
cluding Dr. Barnett says:
“I know of no stranger thing in the
history of education than that story of
! the white boy and the ‘pickaninny’ who
roamed the fields and fished the
streams of old Virginia together just
at the close of the war. The Colored
boy freed, but handicapped, started an
uphill fight to learn how to read and
write and made good, and is today the
president of the greatest Negro school
in the world; while the white lad,
though shackled by the awful days of
reconstruction, yet made his way
; through college, and is now the head
of the University of Alabama. Can
i you beat this story of two boys reared
in Virginia; the one white, the other
black, but fast friends, who, in the
! whirling of time, landed the best edu
cational plums in Alabama? It is
stranger than fiction, because truth is
stranger than fiction. I, for one, take
pride that we have them both in my
i home state.”—Tuskegee Student.
EAST ST. LOUIS
FACING BANKRUPTCY
St. Louis, Mo.—Suits aggregating
more than $700,000 have been filed
against the city of East St. Louis, 111.,
for damages caused by the recent race
riots. The treasury of the city is now
empty and it is facing bankruptcy.
GENERAL CHAPLAIN
OF CANTONMENTS
Columbus, O., Jan. 15.—Rev. Dr. E.
W. Moore, pastor of the Second Bap
tist church, has accepted an appoint
ment from the National Baptist Con
vention as general chaplain of army
cantonments.
OUR GRUESOME CUSTOMS
[At the request of numerous readers, ministers, doctors and laymen we
are reproducing this very timely and logical article from the pen of one of the
race’s greatest and most courageous writers and thinkers, and hope it will
take root and develop into a reality.—Editor Kansas City Sun.]
By JOE E. HERRIFORD, in the Kansas City Sun.
11,1'OST people agree that the customs which we continue at fu
1 A nerals are little shot! of ghoulish and that certain reforms in
these ceremonies are long past due. Yet it seems that no great
number of our people have had the courage to take a stand strong
enough to accomplish any tangible changes.
Other races, except those uncivilized, have long ago abandoned
the gruesome burial rites which we still cling to even in the face of
our better intelligence.
In the first place, we refuse to give up the notion that all fu
nerals should be held on Sunday, even if the body of the dead must
be kept unburied several days for this purpose. This is only the
catering to a vain desire for show and for the attendance of as
many curious, disinterested persons as ix>ssible. Our funerals are
all too long, especially in the cases of persons in any way prominent
in social or professional life. Bereaved relatives of the dead are
put through the terrible ordeal of sitting sometimes for nearly a
whole day in uncomfortable, illy-ventilated churches while count
less eulogies of doubtful sincerity are being poured out by appar
ently every one whom the deceased ever met. Common sense
strongly appeals against this sort of indulgence, but it is kept up
just the same, supposedly with the idea that it measures the pop
ularity of the dead.
No one can explain just why our people believe that the spirit
of the dead cannot repose in peace if the body is honored in a place
open to the outdoor air. Suffice it that from the time breath leaves
the tortured clay it is kept either closely shut up in a small room
of a home or in the sacred precincts of a church into which no
fresh air is allowed to enter. The embalmed body is kept in an
embalmed atmosphere filled with embalmed germs of all sorts of
diseases ostensibly to hurry up other funerals.
The practice of opening the casket at the close of the services
in order that the morbidly inclined may pass in review over the
pallid features of the dead has long fallen into disuse by every
body except the Colored people. No one will dispute that it is un
sanitary and unholy. It serves no aim whatever that has the slight
est claim upon a reverent treatment of the dead. Those who have
any distinct reason for desiring to view the face of the dead could
much better indicate the element of respect by calling at the resi
dence of the family prior to the hour of the public funeral.
There ought to be a law carrying the death penalty for those
who insist upon lifting the suffering mourners up to take what
they call “a last view” of the deceased and to display their soul’s
deepest anguish in the presence of many who happen to be present
out of a curious desire for this very heartrending climax. Nothing
could be more inhuman and more lacking in good, common sense.
There is no more reason why the family should be the last to view
the body than that they should be the first to meet the departed
spirit in the other world.
If certain secret societies insist upon holding ritualistic cere
monies over the dead at the unholy hour of midnight the attend
ance of the family should by no means be allowed and no place
should be arranged for this display of physical endurance and de
spair from those already bowed down in nerve-breaking grief. This
all looks like barbarism, at least like mediaevalism.
The long string of resolutions and condolences, all of which
sound alike and are usually poorly read, should not be imposed
upon the ceremonies at all. but might be sent to the mourning
family to be read, if desired, at some future time and preserved for
what they are intended to be worth. I have been asked many times
to write such condolences for persons whom I never knew in life
and concerning whom I could have no intelligent knowledge. All
this is supreme vanity and all of it should have been discontinued
long ago.
AMHERST COLLEGE
HONORS STUDENT
For the first time in the history of
Amherst college John B. Garret, a Col
ored boy, has been elected vice presi
dent of the senior cJass. Garret is from
South Carolina and prepared for Am
herst at a state college in Orangeburg,
S. C. Amherst is the alma mater of
several famous Colored men and also
that of Secretary Lansing, Governor
Whitman of New York and many
other famous men of the present day
Garret is a member of the Gamma
chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
ASK PRESIDENT FOR CL EM E NO
Washington.—The A. M. E. minis
ters of this city have sent a petition to
President Wilson asking clemency for
the five other Colored soldiers of the
Twenty-fourth infantry recently sen
tenced to death for alleged participa
tion in the Houston, Tex., mutiny. In
their petition they say there are ex
tenuating circumstances which merit
executive clemency.
CHICAGO INCREASES
POLICE FORCE
Chicago.—Chief of Police Herman
F. Schuettler has appointed one cap
tain, one lieutenant, six sergeants and
fifty-five patrolmen (all Colored) to
duty on the police force (as reserves)
to help clean out crime in this city.
PASS EXAMINATION
FOR RED CROSS NERSES
Washington, I). C.—Six young nurses
who graduated from Freedmen’s hos
pital recently have succeeded in pass
ing the examination for Red Cross
nurse and have been put on the re
serve corps, an honor never before
given in American history. The names
are: Misses S. M. Building, A. B.
Cole, K. E. Edwards, L. J. Gillard, S.
A. Hill and G. M. Recount. They
fought hard and won.
DUNBAR “HIGH” HAS
200 STARS IN SERVICE FLAG
Washington, D. C.—Floating to the
breezes at Dunbar High school, the
Colored high school here, is a service
flag with more than 200 stars, proving
that more than 200 young Colored
men, formerly Dunbar, or old M street
(as it was formerly called), pupils
have answered the government’s call
for fighting men.
SANITARY INSPECTOR IN
AVIATION CANTONMENT
Philadelphia.—Captain Samuel B.
Hart, for ten years sanitary inspector
for the city government, has been ap
pointee! as chief sanitary inspector,
with the rank of first lieutenant, at
tie aviation cantonment at Camp
Beauregard, Alexandria, La.
DESCENDANTS WAR OF 1812
ASSIST AT FLAG RAISING
New Orleans.—Descendants of the
Colored soldiers who helped General
Jackson defeat the British at Chal
mete, 102 years ago, participated in
the ceremonies attending the raising
of a flag at St. Louis’ Roman Catholic
church in commemoration of the bat
tle of New Orleans. The banner was
presented by Drs. P. M. Lavinge and
J. M. Surlo, prominent Colored den
tists.
THREE STATES VOTE FOR
PROHIBITION AMENDMENT
Washington, D. C., Jan. 16.—Ihe |
legislatures of three states, Missis
sippi, Virginia and Kentucky, have
voted in favor of the prohibition
amendment to the federal constitution.
Second Smith
Murder Trial
—
Only .Sensational Feature Netheway’s
Refusal to Re Cross-Questioned by
Attorney Scruggs Until Commanded
to Do So by Judge Sears.
The second trial of Charles Smith,
charged with the murder of Mrs. C. L. j
Netheway at Florence, Neb., August j
26, is being held before Judge Sears !
this week and will hardly reach the
jury before Saturday.
No new evidence has been intro
duced. Every witness has testified in
the main to the same facts as in the
first trial. Netheway has had a re
markable lapse of memory' as to time
since the first trial. Then he could ac
count for every minute with wonderful
particularity. This time he doesn’t
know the exact time that he was at his
office and other places.
The fact was again established by
Dr. McCleneghan that Mrs. Netheway
had not been ravished by her assailant
or assailants.
Up to the present the only special
sensation of the trial occurred Tuesday
afternoon, when, after Netheway’s di
rect examination by the state, he was
turned over to the attorneys for the
defense for cross-examination. Attor
ney Timlin quietly exchanged seats
with Attorney Scruggs, who began to
cross-question the witness. At Attor
ney Scruggs’ first question Netheway
half turned in his chair, and instead of
replying made a negative gesture with
his hand. State’s counsel warned him
to answer, but he refused until ordered
to do so by Judge Sears. He asked the
judge to have a white lawyer question
him. Judge Sears ordered him to an
swer Mr. Scruggs, who subjected him
in a gentlemanly way to a grilling
cross - examination. The defense
brought out the fact that Netheway
had told the engine crew that “he be
lieved a murder had been committed in
the cut” and “for God’s sake to look
out for a nigger” and have him arrest
ed. This was according to Netheway'’s
own testimony before his wife’s body
was found. They also brought out the
fact from Netheway’s testimony that
Colored men as well as white men had
frequently gone up and down the
right-of-way and that he had no ap
prehension until that day.
Neitheway said when his wife failed
to meet him and he was told that a
“nigger” had been seen around he was
“sure that something funny” had hap
pened.
Attorney Scruggs asked him if he
thought murder was something funny.
Herdman, the operator, also testi
fied that when Netheway asked him to
go with him in search of his wife he
told him that he feared she had been
“murdered, assaulted or carried off in
in an automobile.”
The defense grilled Nethaway as to
why he had searched only in the sec
tion of the cut where his wife’s body
was found. It brought out the fact
that while he said he thought his wife
might have gone on to her sister
Ada’s, who was sick, he never attempt
ed to communicate with her there. He
didn’t call up her sister Ada’s nor go
there, although it was as near to his
office as his own home.
The trial is attracting large crowds.
At the first trial the verdict stood nine
for acquittal and three for conviction.
General Blanding
Proud of Troops
The Famous Eighth Illinois Regiment,
Commanded by Colored Officers,
Finishes Course of Training With
Signal Success.
Camp Logan, Houston, Tex., Jan. 4.
—Soldiers of the 370th Infantry (for
merly the Eighth Illinois regiment
from Chicago) have a good reason for
feeling proud. They have just finished
two weeks of strenuous training under
the critical eyes of Brigadier General
A. H. Blanding, commander of the unit
of which they are part, and have come
through with colors flying.
"They are as fine a set of soldiers as
I ever hope to command,” said Gen
eral Blanding, v'ho is regarded as one
of the army’s strictest disciplinarians.
“Their work £iong military lines, as
well as their personal conduct, has
been beyor reproach and I am ex
tremely proud of them.”
Forty-nine privates and non-coms of
the regiment have been selected for
promotion to commissions. The Col
ored fighters were submitted to the
hardest of tests before qualifying for
a command.
Colonel Franklin A. Denison sub
mitted eighty namse for the considera
tion of General Blanding. After "siz
ing up” each, General Blanding order
ed the most promising among the can
didates to take a squad or company on
the drill field and put them through
the paces. Few failed to come up to
the expectations.
Every man selected has either a high
school or college education. They were
judged as to personality, learning,
business experience, handling of men
and military training.
The regiment, which is “attached”
to the Thirty-third Division, though
brigaded with the 369th Infantry (for
merly the Fifteenth) of New York,
has a quota of 2,500 men at the pres
ent time. Most of the soldiers served
on the border last year, and it is esti
mated there are more veterans of the
Spanish-American war in the Colored
organization than any other single
guard unit in the country.
The equipment of the regiment is
complete and the men are eager for
the word when they will board trans
ports for the French front.
COMPETENT COLORED WOMAN
GETS APPOINTMENT
Had Been Refused Position by the Na
tional Council of Defense Because
of Her Color.
Washington, Jan. 16.—Mrs. Carrie
Burton Overton of Wyoming, who a
few weks ago, although well qualified
and ordered to report for duty, when
her racial identity was disclosed was
refused a position in the office of the
Council of National Defense here, has
been appointed to a position as stenog
rapher in the Agricultural Depart
ment, paying $1,000 a year.
When she was refused a position in
the Council of Defense, Mrs. Overton
took up her case with the N. A. A. C.
P., and later with the congressman
from her home, with the result that
she received her present appointment.
Dr. Joseph I. France, senator from
Maryland, is also said to have been in
terested in Mrs. Overton’s case.
OPEN ELEGANT CAFE
FOR COLORED PATRONS
Messrs. James Silk and Peter Rooney
have purchased the elegantly appoint
ed Top Notch Cafe, 1322 North Twen
ty-fourth street, near Hamilton street.
It is to be run as a first-class chop
suey and short order house for Color
ed patrons who appreciate good serv
ice. All the delicacies of the season
will be served. All patrons are as
sured of courteous and satisfactory
treatment and elegant service.
A first-class place of this character
for our people is needed and Messrs.
Silk and Rooney are to be compliment
ed upon meeting this need. We feel
sure that they will receive the liberal
patronage deserved.
SHERWOOD ON WAR
SAVINGS STAMPS
St. Paul, Minn.—Jose A. Sherwood
of the postoffice department has been
assigned by Postmaster Otto Raths to
deliver a series of educational ad
dresses to various Colored organiza
tions on the war savings certificates
and thrift stamp plans and has com
municated with several secretaries of
lodges requesting that Mr. Sherwood,
“one of the trusted employes of this
office, be given an opportunity to ad
dress your meeting and explain these
plans.”